Book L__tH_ 



/ 



Ttfi'tf 




^OTTJfllW H[I(K1W§ §(U)[M!M[lift AY ©MISTHK, 

Where the greater part of the Commentary is said to have "been written; 
From a drawing on the spot taken "by Miss A. H. Williams. 



AST 



EXPOSITION 



OF 



THE BOOK OF PSALM 8, 



WITH 



{rsdicsl Remits stir 

BY MATTHEW HENRY, 

LATE MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 



UNABRIDGED ^1) , ILLUSTRATED. 

It*. UtXj 11 189:; 



LONDON: 

BELL & DALDY, 6 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, 
AND 186 FLEET STREET. 
1866. 



m 



LONDON .' PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, 
AND CHARING CROSS. 



tr 




AN 



r 



EXf OSI1I0N 



on 



THE BOOK OE PSALMS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



We have now before us one of the choicest and most excellent parts of all the Old Testa- 
ment ; nay, so much is there in it of Christ and his Gospel, as well as of God and his law, 
that it has been called the abstract or summary of both Testaments. The history of 
Israel, which we were long upon, led us to camps and council-boards, and there enter- 
tained and instructed us in the knowledge of God ; the book of Job brought us into the 
schools, and treated us with profitable disputations concerning God and his providence; 
but this book brings us into the sanctuary, draws us off from converse with men, with the 
politicians, philosophers, or disputers of this world, and directs us into communion with 
God, by solacing and reposing our souls in him, lifting up and letting out our hearts 
towards him. Thus may we be in the mount with God ; and we understand not ourselves 
if we say not, " It is good to be here." Let us consider, 

I. The title of this book. It is called, 1. The Psalms; under that title it is referred to, 
Lu. xxiv. 44. The Hebrew calls it TehilUm, which properly signifies ' psalms of praise,' 
because many of them are such ; but Psalms is a more general word, meaning all metrical 
compositions fitted to be sung ; which may as well be historical, doctrinal, or supplicatory, 
as laudatory. Though singing be properly the voice of joy, yet the intention of songs is of 
a much greater latitude— to assist the memory, and both to express and to excite all the 
other affections, as well as this of joy. The priests had a mournful muse as well as joyful 
ones. And the Divine institution of singing psalms is thus largely intended ; for we are 
directed not only to praise God, but to teach and admonish ourselves and one another in 
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, Col. hi. 16. 2. It is called the Book of Psalms ; so it 
is quoted by St. Peter, Acts i. 20. It is a collection of psalms, of all the psalms that were 
Divinely inspired; which, though composed at several times, and upon several occasions, 
are here put together, without any reference to or dependence upon one another. Thus 
they were preserved from being scattered and lost, and laid in so much greater readiness 
*or the service of the church. See what a good Master we serve, and what pleasantness 
there is in wisdom's ways, when we are not only commanded to sing at our work, and 
have cause enough given us to do so, but have words also put into our mouths, and songs 
prepared to our hands. 

II. The author of thisyfeeok. It is, no doubt, derived originally from the blessed Spirit. 
They are spiritual songs, words which the Holy Ghost teacheth. The penman of most of 
them was David, the son of Jesse, who is therefore called the sweet Psalmist of Israel, 2 
Sam. xxiii. 1. Some that have not his name in their titles, yet are expressly ascribed to 
him elsewhere, as the second Psalm, Acts iv. 25, and Psalms xcvi. and cv., 1 Chr. xvi. One 
psalm is expressly said to be the prayer of Moses, Ps. xc. ; and that some of the psalms 
were penned by Asaph is intimated 2 Chr. xxix. 30, where they are said to praise the Lord 
in the words of David and Asaph, who is there called a seer or prophet. Some of the 
psalms seem to have been penned long after, as Ps. cxxxvii., at the time of the captivity in 
Babylon ; but for certain the far greater part of them were penned by David himself, 
whose genius lay towards poetry and music, and who was raised up, qualified, and spirited 
for the establishing of the ordinance of singing psalms in the church of God, as Moses and 
Aaron were in their day for the settling of the ordinances of sacrifice : theirs is superseded, 
but this remains and will to the end of time, when it shall be swallowed up in the songs of 
eternity. Herein David was a type of Christ, who descended from him ; not from Moses, 
because he came to take away sacrifice, (the family of Moses was soon lost and extinct,) 
but to establish and perpetuate joy and praise ; for of the family of David, in Christ, there 
shall be no end. 

III. The scope of it. It is manifestly intended, 1. To assist the exercises of natural 
religion, and to kindle in the souls of men those devout affections which we owe to God as 
our Creator, Owner, Ruler, and Benefactor. The book of Job helps to prove our first 
principles of the Divine perfections and providence ; but this helps to improve them in 
prayers and praises, and professions of desire towards him, dependence on him , and an 
entire devotedness and resignation to him. Other parts of Scripture show that God is 
infinitely above man, and his Sovereign Lord ; but this shows us that, notwithstanding 
that, he may be conversed with by us sinful worms of the earth, and there are ways in 
which, if it be not our own faults, we may keep up communion with him in all the 
various conditions of human life. 2. To advance the excellences of revealed religion, and, 
in the most pleasing, powerful manner, to recommend it to the world. There is indeed 
little or nothing in all the book of Psalms of the ceremonial law ; though sacrifice and 
offering were yet to continue many ages, yet are here represented as things which 
God did not desire, Ps. xl. 6 ; li. 16 ; as things comparatively little, and which in time were 
to vanish away. But the word and law of God, those parts of it which are moral and of 
perpetual obligation, are here all along magnified and made honourable : nowhere more. 
And Christ, the crown and centre of revealed religion, the foundation, corner, and top- 
stone of that blessed building, is here clearly spoken of in type and prophecy; both his 
sufferings and the glory that should follow and the kingdom he should set up in the 



vi INTRODUCTION. 

world, which God's covenant with David concerning his kingdom was to have its accom- 
plishment in. What a high value doth this book put upon the Word of God, his statutes 
and judgments, his covenant, and the great and precious promises of it; and how doth it 
recommend them to us as our guide and stay, and our heritage for ever ! 

IV. The use of it. All Scripture, being given by inspiration of God, is profitable to con- 
vey Divine light into our understanding ; but this book is of singular use with that to 
convey Divine life and power, and a holy heat, into our affections. There is no one book 
of Scripture that is more helpful to the devotions of the saints than this, and it has been 
so in all ages of the church ever since it was written, and the several parts of it delivered 
to the chief musician, for the service of the church. 1. It is of use to be sung. Farther 
than David's psalms we may go, but we need not go, for hymns and spiritual songs. What 
the rules of the Hebrew metre were, even the learned are not certain. But these psalms 
ought to be rendered according to the metre of every language, at least, so as that they 
may be sung for the edification of the church ; and, methinks, it is a great comfort to us, 
when we are singing David's psalms, that we are offering the very same praises to God 
that were offered him in the days of David, and other the godly kings of Judah. So rich, 
so well made, are these Divine poems, that they can never be exhausted, can never be 
worn threadbare. 2. It is of use to be read and opened by the ministers of Christ, as con- 
taining great and excellent truths, and rules concerning good and evil. Our Lord Jesus 
expounded the psalms to his disciples, the gospel psalms, and opened their understandings 
(for he had the key of David) to understand them, Lu. xxiv. 44. 3. It is of use to be read 
and meditated upon by all good people. It is a full fountain out of which we may all be 
drawing water with j oy. 1st. The Psalmist's experiences are of great use for our direction, 
caution, and encouragement ; in telling us, as he often doth, what passed between God 
and his soul, he lets us know what we may expect from God, and what he will expect and 
require, and graciously accept, from us. David was a man after God's own heart, and. 
therefore, those who find themselves in some measure according to his heart, have reason 
to hope that they are renewed by the grace of God, after the image of God, and may have 
much comfort in the testimony of their consciences for them, that they can heartily say 
Amen to David's prayers and praises. 2nd. Even the Psalmist's expressions, too, are of 
great use ; and by them the Spirit helps our praying infirmities, because we know not 
what to pray for as we ought. In all our approaches to God, as well as in our first returns 
to God, we are directed to take with us words, Hos. xiv. 2; these words, words which the 
Holy Ghost teacheth. If we make David's psalms familiar to us, as we ought to do, what- 
ever errand we have at the throne of grace, by way of confession, petition, or thanks- 
giving, we may from thence be assisted in the delivery of it ; whatever devout affection is 
working in us, holy desire or hope, sorrow or joy, we may there find apt words wherewith 
to clothe them : sound speech which cannot be condemned. It will be good to collect the 
most proper and lively expressions of devotion which we find here, and to methodize 
them, and reduce them to the several heads of prayer, that they may be the more ready 
to us ; or we may take sometimes one choice psalm, and sometimes another, and pray it 
over, that is, enlarge upon each verse in our own thoughts, and offer up our meditations 
to God. as they arise from the expressions we find there. The learned Dr. Hammond, in 
his preface to his Paraphrase on the Psalms, sect. 29, saith, 'That going over a few psalms 
with these interpunctions of mental devotion, suggested, animated, and maintained by 
the native life and vigour which is in the Psalms, is much to be preferred before the 
saying over of the whole Psalter ; since nothing is more fit to be averted in religious 
offices than their degenerating into heartless, dispirited recitations.' If, as St. Austin 
adviseth, we form our spirit by the affection of the psalm, we may then be sure of accep- 
tance with God in using the language of it. Nor is it only our devotion and the affections 
of our mind that the book of Psalms assists, teaching us how to offer praise so as to 
glorify God ; but it is also a directory to the actions of our lives, and teacheth us how to 
order our conversation aright, so as that, in the end, we may see the salvation of God, Ps. 
1. G. These psalms were thus serviceable to the Old Testament church, but to us Chris- 
tians they may be of more use than they could be to them who lived before the coming of 
Christ ; for, as Moses' sacrifices, so David's songs, are expounded and made more intelli- 
gible by the Gospel of Christ, which lets us within the veil; so that if, to David's prayers 
and praises, we add St. Paul's prayers in his Epistles, and the new songs in the Revelation, 
we shall be thoroughly furnished for this good work, for the Scripture perfected makes 
the man of God perfect. 

As to the division of this book we need not be solicitous ; there is no connexion (or very 
seldom) between one psalm and another, nor any reason discernible for the placing of 
them in the order wherein we here find them ; but it seems to be ancient, for that which 
is now the 2nd Psalm was so in the apostles' time, Acts xiii. 33. The vulgar Latin joins the 
9th and 10th together; all Popish authors quote by that; so that from thenceforward, 
throughout the book, their number is one short of ours : our 11th is their 10th, our 119th 
their 118th. But then they divide the 147th into two, and so make up the number of 150. 
Some have endeavoured to reduce the Psalms to proper heads, according to the matter of 
them : but there is many times such a variety of matter in one and the same psalm, that 
it cannot be done with any certainty ; but the seven penitential psalms have been in a 
particular manner singled out by the devotions of many. They are reckoned to be the 
6th, 32nd, 38th, 51st, 102nd, 130th, and 143rd. The Psalms have anciently been divided into 
five books, each concluding with "Amen, amen," or "Hallelujah;" the first ending with Pa. 
xli the second with Ps. lxxii., the third with Ps. lxxxix., the fourth with Ps. cvi., the fifth 
with Ps. cl. Others divide them into three fifties, others into sixty parts, two for every 
day of the month,— one for the morning, the other for the evening. Let good Christians 
divide them for themselves, so as may best increase their acquaintance with them, that 
they may have them at hand upon all occasions, and may sing them in the spirit and with 
the understanding. 



PSALM I. 



7 



This is a psalm of instruction concerning good and evil, setting before us life and death, 
the blessing and the curse, that we may take the right way which leads to happiness, 
and avoid that which will certainly end in our misery and ruin. The different 
character and condition of godly people and wicked people, those that serve God, and 
those that serve him not, is here plainly stated in a few words ; so that every man, if he 
will be faithful to himself, may here see his own face, and then read his own doom. 
That division of the children of men into saints and sinners, righteous and unrighteous, 
the children of God, and the children of the wicked one, as it is ancient, ever since the 
struggle began between sin and grace, the seed of the woman and the seed of the 
serpent, so it is lasting, and will survive all other divisions and subdivisions of men 
into high and low, rich and poor, bond and free ; for by this men's everlasting state 
will be determined, and the distinction will last as long as heaven and hell. This 
psalm shews us, I. The holiness and happiness of a godly man, ver. 1 — 3. II. The 
sinfulness and misery of a wicked man, ver. 4, 5. III. The ground and reason of both, 
ver. 6. Whosoever collected the psalms of David, (probably it was Ezra,) with good 
reason put this psalm first, as a preface to the rest, because it is absolutely necessary 
to the acceptance of our devotions that we be righteous before God ; for it is only the 
prayer of the upright that is his delight, and therefore that we be right in our notions 
of blessedness, and in our choice of tne way that leads to it. Those are not fit to put 
up good prayers that do not walk in good ways. 

BLESSED is the man that walketh not in the counsel 
Nor standeth in the way of sinners, [of the ungodly, 
Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; 
And in his law doth he meditate day and night. 

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, 
That bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; 

His leaf also shall not wither ; 

And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 

The psalmist begins with the character and condition of a godly man, that 
those may first take the comfort of that to whom it belongs. Here is, 

First. A description given of the godly man's spirit and way, by which we are 
to try ourselves. The Lord knows them that are his by name, but we must 
know them by their character, for that is agreeable to a state of probation, 
that we may study to answer tne character ; which is indeed both the command 
of the law, that we are bound in duty to obey, and the condition of the promise, 
that we are bound in interest to fulfil. The character of a good man is here 
given by the rules he chooseth to walk by, and to take his measures from. It 
is of great consequence to us what we take at our setting out, and at every 
turn, for the guide of our conversation, whether the course of this world or 
the word of God. An error in the choice of our standard and leader is original 
and fatal, but if we be right here we are in a fair way to do well. 

1. A godly man, that he may avoid the evil, utterly renounces the conduct 
of evil-doers, and will not be led by them ; ver. l,he " walketh not in the counsel 
of the ungodly," &c. This part of his character is put first, because those that 
will keep the commandments of their God must say to evil- doers, "Depart from 
us," Ps. cxix. 115. And departing from evil is that in which wisdom begins. 
1st. He sees evil-doers round about him. The world is full of them, they walk 
on every side. They are here described by three characters, — ungodly, sinners, 
and scornful. See^ by what steps men arrive to the height of impiety ; nemo 
repente sit turpissimus, — 'none reach the height of vice at once.' They are 
ungodly first, casting off the fear of God, and living in the neglect of their duty 
to him. But they rest not there ; when the services of religion are laid aside, 
they come to be sinners, that is, they break out into open rebellion against God, 
and engage in the service of sin and Satan. Omissions make way for com- 
missions ; and by these the heart is so hardened that at length they come to be 
scorners : they openly defy all that is sacred, scoff at religion, and make a jest 
of sin. Thus is the way of iniquity down-hill ; the bad grow worse, sinners 
themselves become tempters to others, and advocates for Baal. The word 
which we translate ungodly, signifies such as are unsettled, aim at no certain 
end, and walk by no certain rule, but are at the command of every lust, and 
at the beck of every temptation ; the word for sinners, such as are determined 
for the practice of sin, and set it up as their trade ; and then the scornful are 
those that set up their mouths against the heavens. These the good man sees 
with a sad heart ; they are a constant vexation to his righteous soul. But. 
2nd. He shuns them wherever he sees them. He doth not do as they do ; ana 
that he may not he doth not converse familiarly with them. First. He doth not 



8 PSALM I. 

walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He is not present at their counsels, nor 
doth he advise with them ; though they are never so witty, and subtle, and 
learned, if they are ungodly they shall not be the men of his counsel ; he doth 
not consent to them, nor say as they say, Lu. xxiii. 51 ; doth not take his measures 
from their principles, nor act according to the advice which they use to give 
and take. The ungodly are forward to give their advice against religion ; and 
it is managed so artfully, that we have reason to bless ourselves from it, and 
to think ourselves happy if we escape being tainted and ensnared by it. 
Secondly. He stands not in the way of sinners ; that is, he avoids doing as they 
do. Their way shall not be his way ; he w ill not come into it, much less will 
he continue in it, as the sinner doth, who " sets himself in a way that is not 
good," Ps. xxxvi. 4. He avoids, as much as may be, being where they are ; that 
he may not imitate them he will not associate witn them, nor choose them foi 
his companions. He doth not stand in their way to be picked up by them, 
Pr. vii. 8, but keeps as far from them as from a place or person infected with 
the plague, for fear of the contagion, Pr. iv. 14, 15. He that would be kept 
from harm must keep out of harm's way. Thirdly. He sits not in the seat 
of the scornful. He doth not repose himself with those that sit down secure in 
their wickedness, and please themselves with the searedness of their own con- 
sciences. He doth not associate with those that sit in close cabal to find out 
ways and means for the support nd advancement of the devil's kingdom ; or 
that sit in open judgment magisterially to condemn the generation of the right- 
eous. The seat of the drunkards is the seat of the scornful, Ps. lxix. 12; happy 
is the man that never sits in it, Hos. vii. 5. < 

2. A godly man, that he may do that which is good, and cleave to it, submits 
to the conduct of the word of God, and makes that familiar to him, ver. 2. This 
is that which keeps him out of the way of the ungodly, and fortifies him against 
their temptations, " By the words of thy lips 1 have kept me from the path 
of the destroyer," Ps. xvii. 4. We need not court the fellowship of sinners 
either for pleasure or improvement, while we have fellowship with the word of 
God, and with God himself, in and by his word ; "When thou wakest, it shall 
talk with thee." Pr. vi. 22. We may judge of our spiritual state by this, What 
is the law of God to us? what account do we make of it? what place has it 
in us? See here, 1st, The entire affection which a good man has for the law 
of God. His delight is in it. He delights in it, though it be a law, a yoke, 
because it is the law of God, which is holy, just, and good, which ne freely 
consents to, and so delights in it after the inner man, Rom. vii. 16, 22. All that 
are well pleased there is a God. cannot but be well pleased there is a Bible, 
a revelation of God, of his will, and of the only way to happiness in him. 
2nd. The intimate acquaintance which a good man keeps up with the word of 
God. In that law doth he meditate day and night ; and by this it appears his 
delight is in it ; for what we love we love to think of, Ps. cxix. 97. To meditate 
in God's word is to discourse with ourselves concerning the great things con- 
tained in it, with a close application of mind, a fixedness of thought, till we 
be suitably affected with those things, and experience the savour and power 
of them in our hearts. This we must do day and night, that is, we must have 
a constant habitual regard to the word of God as the rule of our actions, and 
the spring of our comforts, and we must have it in our thoughts accordingly 
upon every occasion that occurs, whether night or day. No time amiss for the 
meditating on the word of God, nor any time unseasonable for those visits. We 
must not only set ourselves to meditate on God's word morning and evening, 
at the entrance of the day and the night, but these thoughts should be inter- 
woven with the business and converse of every day, and with the repose and 
slumbers of every night ; " When 1 am awake, I am still with thee." 

Secondly. An assurance given of the godly man's happiness, with which we 
should encourage ourselves to answer the character of such. 

1. In general, he is blessed, ver. 1. God blesseth him, and that blessing will 
make him happy. ' Blessednesses are to him,' blessings of all kinds, of the upper 
and nether springs, enough to make him completely happy : none of the ingre- 
dients of happiness shall be wanting to him. When he undertakes to describe 
a blessed man, he describes a good man ; for, after all, those only are happy, 
truly happy, that are holy, truly holy ; and we are more concerned to know 
the way to blessedness than to know wherein the blessedness will consist. 
Nay, goodness and holiness is not only the way to happiness, {Rev. xxii. 14,) 
but happiness itself. Supposing there were not another life after this, yet that 
man is a happy man that keeps in the way of his duty. 

2. His blessedness is here illustrated by a similitude; ver. 3, " He shall be like 
a tree," fruitful and flourishing. This is the effect, 1st. Of his pious practice ; he 
meditated in the law of God, turns that in sucum et sanguinem, — 'into juice and 
blood,' and that makes him like a tree. The more we converse with the word 
of God the better furnished we are for every good word and work. Or, 2nd. Of 
the promised blessing. He is blessed of the Lord, and therefore "he shall be 
like a tree." The Divine blessing produceth real effects. It is the happiness 



PSALM IV 



9 



of a godly man, First. That he is planted by the grace of God. These trees 
were by nature wild olives, and will continue so till they are grafted anew, and 
so planted by a power from above. Never any good tree grew of itself; it is 
the planting of the Lord; and therefore he must in it be glorified, Isa. lxi. 3; 
" The trees of the Lord are full of sap." Secondly. That he is placed by the 
means of grace, here called the rivers of water, those rivers which make glad 
the city of our God, Ps. xlvi. 4 ; from these a good man receives supplies of 
strength and vigour, but in secret undiscerned ways. Thirdly. That his prac- 
tices shall be fruit abounding to a good account, Phil. iv. 17. -To those whom 
God first blessed he said, Bejcruitful", Gen.i. 22, and still the comfort and honour 
of fruitf illness is a recompense for the labour of it. It is expected from those 
who enjoy the mercies of grace, that, both in the temper of their minds and 
in the tenor of their lives, they comply with the intentions of that grace, and 
then they bring forth fruit. And be it observed, to the praise of the Great 
Dresser of the vineyard, they bring forth their fruit (that which is required of 
them) in due season, when it is most beautiful and most useful ; improving 
every opportunity of doing good, and doing it in its proper time. Fourthly. 
That his profession shall be preserved from blemish and decay ; "his leaf also 
shall not wither." Those who bring forth only the leaves of profession, without 
any good fruit, even their leaf will wither, and they shall be as much ashamed 
of their profession as ever they were proud of it ; but if the word of God rule 
in the heart, that will keep the profession green, both to our comfort and to our 
credit. The laurels he has won shall never wither. Fifthly. That prosperity 
shall attend him wherever he goes,— soul prosperity. Whatever he doth, in 
conformity to the law, it shall prosper and succeed to his mind, or above 
his hope. 

In singing these verses, being duly affected with the malignant and dangerous 
nature of sin, the transcendent excellences of the Divine law, and the power 
and efficacy of God's grace, from which our fruit is found, we must teach and 
admonish ourselves and one another to watch against sin, and all approaches 
towards it, — to converse much with the word of God, and abound in the fruits 
of righteousness. And in praying over them we must seek to God for his grace, 
both to fortify us against every evil word and work, and to furnish us for every 
good word and work. 

4 The ungodly are not so : 

But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, 
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 

6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous : 
But the way of the ungodly shall perish. 

Here is, First. The description of the ungodly given, ver. 4. 1. In general; 
they are the reverse of the righteous, both in character and condition. They 
"are not so." The Seventy emphatically repeat this, 4 Not so the ungodly, they 
are not so;' they are led by the counsel of the wicked, in the way of sinners, 
to the seat of the scornful. They have no delight in the law of God, nor ever 
think of it; they bring forth no fruit, but grapes of Sodom ; they cumber the 
ground. 2. In particular; whereas the righteous are like valuable, useful, 
fruitful trees, they " are like the chaff which the wind driveth away ;" the very 
lightest of the chaff, the dust which the owner of the flour desires to have 
driven away, as not capable of being put to any use. Would you value them ? 
Would you weigh them? They are like chaff, of no worth at all in God's 
account, how highly soever they may value themselves. Would you know the 
temper of their minds ? They are light and vain ; they have no substance in 
them, no solidity ; they are easily driven to and fro by every wind and tempta- 
tion, and have no stedfastness. Would you know their end? The wrath of 
God will drive them away in their wickedness, as the wind doth the chaff, 
which is never gathered or looked after more. The chaff may be for a while 
among the wheat, but He is coming whose fan is in his hand, and who will 
thoroughly purge his floor. They that by their own sin and folly make them- 
selves as chaff will be found so before the whirlwind and fire of Divine wrath, 
(Ps. xxxv. 5,) so unable to stand before it or to escape it, Isa. xvii. 13. 

Secondly. The doom of the ungodly read, ver. 5. 1. They will be cast, upon 
their trial, as traitors convict. They " shall not stand in the judgment," that is, 
they shall be found guilty, shall hang down the head with shame and confusion, 
and all their pleas and excuses will be overruled as frivolous. There is a judg- 
ment to come, in which every man's present character and work, though never 
so artfully concealed and disguised, shall be truly and perfectly discovered, 
and appear in its own colours; so every man's future state w r ill be by an irre- 



10 



PSALM II. 



versible sentence determined for eternity. The ungodly must appear in that 
judgment, to receive according to the things done in the body. They may hope to 
come off, nay, to come off with honour, but their hope will deceive them ; they 
" shall not stand in the judgment ;" so plain will the evidence be against them, 
and so just and impartial will the judgment be upon it. 2. They will be for 
ever shut out from the society of the blessed. They shall not stand "in the 
congregation of the righteous," that is, in the judgment, so some, in that court 
wherein the saints, as assessors with Christ, shall judge the world, — those holy 
myriads with which he shall come to execute judgment upon all, Jude 14; 
1 Cor. vi. 2. Or, in heaven there will shortly be a general assembly of the 
church of the firstborn, a congregation of the righteous, of all the saints, and 
none but saints, and saints made perfect; such a congregation of them as never 
was in this world, 2 Thes. ii. 1. The wicked shall not have a place in that con- 
gregation. Into the New Jerusalem none unclean, or unsanctihed, shall enter; 
they shall see the righteous enter into the kingdom, and themselves to their 
everlasting vexation thrust out, Lu. xiii. 27. The wicked and profane in this 
world ridiculed the righteous, and their congregation despised them, and cared 
not for their company; justly, therefore, will they be for ever separated from 
them. Hypocrites in this world, under the disguise of a plausible profession, 
may thrust themselves into the congregation of the righteous, and remain un- 
disturbed and undiscoveredthere,but Christ cannot be imposed upon, though 
his ministers may ; the day is coming when he will separate between the sheep 
and the goats, the tares and the wheat : see Mat. xiii. 41, 49. That great day, 
so the Chaldee here calls it, will be a day of discovery, a day of distinction, 
and a day of final division ; then you shall return and discern between the 
righteous and the wicked, which here it is sometimes hard to do, Mai. hi. 18. 

Thirdly. The reason rendered of this different state of the godly and wicked, 
ver. 6. i. God must have all the glory of the prosperity and happiness of the 
righteous. They are blessed because the Lord knows their way ; he chose them 
into it, inclined them to choose it, leads and guides them in it, and orders all 
their steps. 2. Sinners must bear all the blame of their own destruction. There- 
fore the ungodly perish because the very way in which they have chosen and 
resolved to walk leads directly to destruction ; it naturally tends towards 
ruin, and therefore must necessarily end in it. Or we may take it thus : " The 
Lord knows," that is, he approves of, and is well pleased with, "the way of 
the righteous," and therefore under the influence of his gracious smiles it shall 
prosper and end well. But he is angry at the way of the wicked; all they do 
is offensive to him, and therefore it shall perish, and they in it. It is certain 
every man's judgment proceedeth from the Lord, and it is well or ill with us, 
and is likely to be so to all eternity, according as we are or are not accepted 
of God. Let this support the drooping spirits of the righteous, that the Lord 
knows their way, knows their hearts, Jer. xii. 3; knows their secret devotions. 
Mat. vi. 6 ; knows their character, how much soever it is blackened ana 
blemished by the reproaches of men; and will shortly make them and their 
way manifest before the world, to their immortal joy and honour. Let this 
cast a damp upon the security and jollity of sinners, that their way, though 
pleasant now, will perish at last. 

In singing these verses, and praying over them, let us possess ourselves with 
a holy dread of the wicked man's portion, and deprecate it, with a firm and 
lively expectation of the judgment to come, and stir up ourselvesto prepare for 
it ; and with a holy care to approve ourselves to God in every thing, entreating 
his favour with our whole hearts. 

PSALM n. 

As the foregoing psalm was moral, and shewed us our dutv, so this is evangelical, and 
shews us our Saviour. Under the type of David's kingdom, which was of Divine 
appointment, met with much opposition, but prevailed at last, the kingdom of the 
Messiah, the son of David, is prophesied of, which is the primary intention and scope 
of the psalm ; and I think there is less in it of the type, and more of the antitype, than 
in any of the gospel psalms, for there is nothing in it but what is applicable to Christ, 
but some things that are not at all applicable to David ; ver. 6, 7, " Thou art my Son ; " 
ver. 8, ,4 I will give thee the uttermost parts of the earth;" and, ver. 12, "Kiss the 
Son." It is interpreted of Christ, Acts iv. 25 ; xiii. 33 ; Heb. i. 5. The Holy Ghost here 
foretells, I. The opposition that should be given to the kingdom of the Messiah, 
ver. 1—3. II. The baffling and chastising of that opposition, ver. 4, 5. III. The 
setting up of the kingdom of Christ notwithstanding that opposition, ver. 6. IV. The 
confirmation and establishment of it, ver. 7. V. A promise of the enlargement and 
success of it, ver. 8, 9. VI. A call and exhortation to kings and princes to yield them 
selves the willing subjects of this kingdom, ver. 10 — 12. Or thus: we have here, 

I. Threatenings denounced against the adversaries of Christ's kingdom, ver. 1 6*. 

II. Promises made to Christ himself, the head of this kingdom, ver. 7 — 9. Ill, Counsei 
given to all to espouse the interests of this kingdom, ver. 10 — 12. This psalm, as the 
former, is very fitly prefixed to this book of devotions, because, as it is necessary to our 



PSALM II. 



11 



acceptance with God that we should be subject to the precepts of his law, so it is 
likewise that we should be subject to the grace of his Gospel, and come to him in the 
name of a Mediator. 



And the people imagine a vain thing ? 

2 The kings of the earth set themselves, 
And the rulers take counsel together, 

Against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, 

3 Let us break their bands asunder, 
And cast away their cords from us. 

4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : 
The Lord shall have them in derision. 

5 Then shall he speak unto them in his math 
And vex them in his sore displeasure. 

6 Yet have I set my king 
Upon my holy hill of Zion. 

We have here a very great struggle about the kingdom of Christ ; hell and 
heaven contesting it; and the seat of the war is this earth, where Satan has 
long had a usurped kingdom, and exercised dominion to that degree, that he 
lias been called the prince of the power of the very air we breathe in, and the 
god of the world we live in. He knows very well that as the Messiah's king- 
dom riseth and gets ground his falls and loseth ground ; and, therefore, though 
it will be set up certainly, it shall not be set up tamely. Observe here, 

First. The mighty opposition that would be given to the Messiah and his 
kingdom, to his holy religion, and ail the interests of it, ver. 1 — 3. One would 
have expected that so great a blessing to this world should have been univer- 
sally welcomed and embraced, and that every sheaf should immediately have 
bowed to that of the Messiah, and all the crowns and sceptres on earth should 
have been laid at his feet; but it proves quite contrary. Never were the 
notions of any sect of philosophers, though never so absurd, nor the powers 
of any prince or state though never so tyrannical, opposed with so much 
violence as the doctrine and government of Christ. A sign it was from heaven, 
for the opposition was plainly from hell originally. 

1. We are here told who would appear as adversaries to Christ, and the 
devil's instruments in this opposition to his kingdom. Princes and people, 
court and country, have sometimes separate interests, but here they are united 
against Christ; not the mighty only, but the mob, the heathen, the people, — num- 
bers of them, communities of them, though usually fond of liberty, yet averse 
to that liberty Christ came to procure and proclaim. Not the mob only, but the 
mighty, among whom one might have expected more sense and consideration, 
appear violent against Christ ; though his kingdom is not of this world, nor 
in any danger of weakening their interests, but very likely, if they please, to 
strengthen them, yet the kings of the earth and rulers are up in arms presently. 
See the effects of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the seed of 
the woman, and how general and malignant the corruption of mankind is: see 
how formidable the > enemies of the church are; they are numerous, they are 
potent. The unbelieving Jews are here called heathen, so wretchedly were 
they degenerated from the faith and holiness of their ancestors ; they stirred 
up the heathen, the Gentiles_, to prosecute the Christians. As the Philistines 
and their lords, Saul and his courtiers, the disaffected party and their ring- 
leaders, opposed David's coming to the crown, so Herod and Pilate, the 
Gentiles and the Jews, did their utmost against Christ, and his interest in 
men, Acts iv. 27. 

2. Who it is that they quarrel with, and muster up all their forces against. 
It is " against the Lord, and against his anointed/' that is, against all religion 
in general, and the Christian religion in particular ; and it is certain, all that 
are enemies to Christ, whatever they pretend, are enemies to God himself; 
they " have hated both me and my Father," Jno. xv. 24. The Great Author 
of our holy religion is here called the Lord's Anointed, or Messiah, or Christ, 
in allusion to the anointing of David to be king. He is both authorized ana 
qualified to be the church's head and king, is duly invested in the office, and 
every way fitted for it, and yet there are those that are against him ; nay, 
therefore they are against him, because they are impatient of God's authority, 
envious at his advancement, and have a rooted enmity to the Spirit of holiness. 




12 PSALM IX 

3. The opposition they give is here described. 1st. It is a most spiteful and 
malicious opposition. # They rage and fret, gnash their teeth for vexation, at 
the setting up of Christ's kingdom ; it creates in them the greatest uneasiness 
that can be, and fills them with indignation, so that they have no enjoyment 
of themselves: see Lu. xiii. 14; Jno. xi. 47; Acts v. 17, 33; xix. 28. Idolaters 
raged at the discovery of their folly, the chief priests and Pharisees at the 
eclipsing of their glory, and the shaking of their usurped dominion. They 
that did evil raged at the light 2nd. It is a deliberate, politic opposition. 
They imagine, or meditate, that is, they contrive means to suppress the rising 
interests of Christ's kingdom, and are very confident of the success of their 
contrivances ; they promise themselves that they shall run down religion, and 
carry the day. 3rd. It is a resolute, obstinate opposition. They set themselves, 
set their faces as a flint, and their hearts as an adamant, in defiance of reason 
and conscience, and all the terrors of the Lord ; they are proud and daring, 
like the Babel-builders, and will persist in their resolution, come what will. 
4th. It is a combined, confederate opposition. They "take counsel together," 
to assist and animate one another in this opposition; they are ' unanimous ' 
in their resolutions, and carry*them ntmine contradicente, that they will push 
on the unholy war against the Messiah with the utmost vigour. And there- 
upon councils are called, cabals are formed, and all their wits are at work to 
find out ways and means for the preventing of the establishment of Christ's 
kingdom, Ps. lxxxiii. 5, 

4. We are here told what it is they are exasperated at, and what they aim 
at in this opposition; ver. 3, "Let us break their bands asunder." They will 
not be under any government, — they are children of Belial, that cannot endure 
the yoke,— however, not under the government of the Lord and his Anointed; 
they will be content to entertain the notions of the kingdom of God and the 
Messiah, which will serve them to dispute of, and to support their own 
dominion with. If the Lord and his Anointed will make them rich and great 
in the world, they will bid them welcome; but if they will restrain their cor- 
rupt appetites and passions, regulate and reform their hearts and lives, and 
bring them under the government of a pare and heavenly religion, truly, then, 
they will not have this man to reign over them, Lu. xix. 14. Christ has bands 
and cords for us ; they that will be saved by him must be ruled by him : but 
they are cords of a man, agreeable to right reason, and bands of love, conducive 
to our true interest. And yet against those the quarrel is. Why do men oppose 
religion, but because they are impatient of the restraints and obligations of it ? 
They would break asunder the bands of conscience they are under ; and the 
cords of God's commandments, by which they are called to tie themselves out 
from all sin, and to tie themselves up to all duty, they will not receive, but cast 
them away as far from them as they can. 

5. They are here reasoned with concerning it ; ver. 1, Why do they do this? 
1st. They can shew no good cause for opposing so just, and holy, and gracious 
a government, which will not interfere with the secular powers, nor introduce 
any dangerous principles hurtful to kings oi provinces ; but, on the contrary, 
if universally received, would bring a heaven upon earth. 2nd. They can hope 
for no good success in opposing so powerful a kingdom, with which they are 
utterly unable to contend. It is a vain thing ; when they have done their worst 
Christ will have a church in the world, and that church shall be glorious and 
triumphant. It is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it. The moon walks in brightness, though the dogs bark at it. 

Secondly. The mighty conquest gained over all this threatening opposition. 
If heaven and earth be the combatants, it is easy to foretell which will be the 
conqueror. They that make this mighty struggle are the people of the earth, 
and the kings of the earth, who, being of the earth, are earthy ; but he whom 
they contest with is one that sits in the heavens, ver. 4. He is in the heaven, 
a place of such a vast prospect that he can oversee them all, and all their pro- 
jects ; and such a vast power that he can overcome them all, and all their 
attempts. He sits there as one easy and at rest, out of the reach of all their 
impotent menaces and attempts. There he sits as judge in all the affairs of the 
children of men, perfectly secure of the full accomplishment of all his own 
purposes and designs, in spite of all opposition, Ps. xxix. 10. The perfect 
repose of the Eternal Mind maybe our comfort under all the disquietments 
of our mind. We are tossed on earth, and in the sea, but he sits in the heavens, 
where he has prepared his throne for judgment. And therefore, 

1. The attempts of Christ's enemies are easily ridiculed. God laughs at them 
for a company of fools ; he hath them and all their attempts in derision^ and 
therefore the virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised them, Isa. xxxvii. 22. 
Sinners' follies are the just sport of God's infinite wisdom and power ; and those 
attempts of the kingdom of Satan which in our eyes are formidable in his are 
despicable. Sometimes God is said to awake, and arise, and stir up himself for 
the vanquishing of his enemies, here he is said to sit still and do it ; for the 



PSALM II. 13 

utmost operations of God's omnipotence create no difficulty at all, nor the least 
disturbance to his eternal rest. 

2. They are justly punished, ver. 5. Though God despiseth them as impotent, 
yet he doth not therefore wink_ at them, but is justly displeased with them, 
as impudent and impious, and will make the most daring sinners to know that 
he is so, and to tremble before him. 1st. Their sin is a provocation to him. 
He is wroth, he is sorely displeased. We cannot expect that God should be 
reconciled to us, or well pleased in us, but in and through the Anointed ; and 
therefore, if we affront and reject him, we sin against the remedy, and forfeit 
the benefit of his interposal between us and God. < 2nd. His anger will be 
a vexation to them. If he but speak to them in his wrath, even the breath 
of his mouth will be their confusion,— slaughter and consumption, Isa. x. 23; 
2 Thes. ii. 8. He speaks, and it is done ; he speaks in wrath, and sinners are 
undone. As a word made us, so a word can unmake us again ; " Who knows 
the power of his anger?" The enemies rage, but cannot vex God. God sits 
still, and yet vexeth them ; puts them into a consternation, so the word is, and 
brings thern to their wit's end. His setting up this kingdom of his Son in 
spite of them ; is the greatest vexation to them that can be. They were vexa- 
tious to Christ's good subjects; but the day is coming when vexation shall 
be recompensed to them. 

3. They are certainly defeated, and all their counsels turned headlong ; ver. 6, 
"Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." David was advanced 
to the throne, and became master of the stronghold of Zion notwithstanding 
the disturbance given him by the malcontents in his kingdom, and particularly 
the affronts he received from the garrison of Zion, who taunted him with their 
blind and their lame,— their maimed soldiers, 2 Sam. v. 6. And the Lord Jesus 
is exalted to the right hand of the Father, has all power both in heaven and 
in earth, and is head over all things to the church, notwithstanding the restless 
endeavours of his enemies to hinder his advancement. 1st. Jesus Christ is 
a king, and is invested by him who is the fountain of power with the dignity 
and authority of a sovereign prince in the kingdom both of providence and 

grace. 2nd. God is pleased to call him his King, because he is appointed by 
im, and intrusted for him, with the sole administration of government ana 
judgment. He is his King, for he is dear to the Father, and one in whom he 
is well pleased. 3rd. Christ took not this honour to himself, but was called 
to it; and he that called him owns him : I have set him. His commandment, 
his commission, he received from the Father. 4th. Being called to this honour, 
he was confirmed m it. High places, we say, are slippery places, but Christ 
being raised is fixed : I have set him, I have settled him. 5th. He is set upon 
Zion, the hill of God's holiness, a type of the gospel church, for on that the 
temple was built, for the sake of which the whole mount was called holy. 
Christ's throne is set up in his church, that is, in the hearts of all believers, and 
in the societies of them. The evangelical law of Christ is said to go forth from 
Zion, Isa. ii. 3 ; Mic. iv. 2 ; and therefore that is spoken of as the head-quarters 
of this general, the royal seat of this prince, in whom the children of men shall 
be joyful. 

We are to sing these verses with a holy exultation, triumphing over all the 
enemies of Christ's kingdom, not doubting but they will all of them be quickly 
made his footstool, and triumphing in .Jesus Christ as the great trustee of 
power. And we are to pray in firm belief of the assurance here given, ' Father 
in heaven, thy kingdom come ; let thy Son's kingdom come.' 

7 I will declare the decree : 

The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ; 
This day have I begotten thee. 

8 Ask of me, 

And I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, 
And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 

9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; 

Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter s vessel. 

We have heard what the kings of the earth have to say against Christ's 
kingdom, and have heard it gainsaid by him that sits in heaven. Let us now 
hear what the Messiah himself has to say for his kingdom, to make good his 
claims, and it is what all the powers on earth cannot gainsay. 1. The kingdom 
of the Messiah is founded upon a decree, an eternal decree of God the Father. 
It was not a sudden resolve, it was not the trial of an experiment, but the 
result of the counsels of the Divine wisdom, and the determinations of the 
Divine will before all worlds, neither of which can be altered. The precept 



14 PSALM II. 

or statute, so some read it; the covenant or compact, so others; the federal 
transactions between the Father and the Son concerning man's redemption, 
represented by the covenant of royalty made with David, and his seed. 
Ps. lxxxix. 3. This our Lord Jesus often referred himself to, as that which all 
along in his undertaking he governed himself by, " This is the will of him that 
sent me," Jno. vi. 40 ; This commandment have I received of my Father," 
Jno. x. 18 ; xiv. 31. 2. There is a declaration of that decree, as far as is necessary 
for the satisfaction of all those who are called and commanded to yield them- 
selves subjects to this king, and to leave them inexcusable who will not have 
him to reign over them. The decree was secret ; it was what the Father said 
to the Son, when he possessed him in the beginning of his way before his works 1 
of old ; but it is declared by a faithful witness, who had lain in the bosom of the 
Father from eternity, and came into the world as the prophet of the church 
to declare him, Jno. i. 18. The fountain of all being is, without doubt, the 
fountain of all power; and it is by, from, and under him, that the Messiah 
claims : he has his right to rule from what Jehovah said to him, by whose word 
all things were made, and are governed. Christ here makes out a twofold title 
to his kingdom : 

First. A title by inheritance ; ver. 7, " Thou art my Son ; this day have 1 
begotten thee." This scripture the apostle quotes, Heb. i. 5, to prove not only 
that Christ has a more excellent name than the angels, but that he obtained 
it by inheritance, ver. 4. He is the Son of God, not by adoption, but his 
begotten Son, the only begotten of the Father, Jno. i. 14. And the Father 
owns him, and will have this declared to the world as the reason why he is 
constituted King upon the holy hill of Zion ; he is therefore unquestionably 
entitled to, and perfectly qualified for, that great trust. He is the Son of God, 
and therefore of the same nature with the Father ; has in him all the fulness 
of the Godhead, infinite wisdom, power, and holiness. The supreme govern- 
ment of the church is too high an honour, and too hard an undertaking, for any 
mere creature; none can be fit for it but he who is one with the Father, and 
was from eternity by him, as one brought up with him, thoroughly apprised of 
all his counsels, Pr. viii. 30. He is the Son of God, and therefore dear to him ; 
his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased, and upon this account we are to 
receive him as a King ; for, because " the Father loveth the Son, he hath given 
all things into his hand," Jno. hi. 35 ; v. 20. Being a Son, he is heir of all things; 
and, the Father having made the worlds by him, it is easy to infer from thence, 
that by him also he governs them ; for he is the Eternal Wisdom, and the 
Eternal Word. If God hath said unto him, " Thou art my Son," it becomes 
each of us to say to him, Thou art my Lord, my Sovereign. Farther to satisfy 
us that his kingdom is well grounded upon his sonship, we are here told what 
his sonship is grounded on ; " This day have I begotten thee," which refers both 
to his eternal generation itself, for it is quoted, Heb. i. 5, to prove that he is 
" the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person," 
ver. 3, and to the evidence and demonstration which was given of it by his 
resurrection from the dead, for to that also it is expressly applied by the apostle, 
Acts xiii. 33, " He hath raised up Jesus again, as it is written, Thou art my Son, 
this day have I begotten thee." It was by the resurrection from the dead, that 
sign of the prophet Jonas, which was to be the most convincing of all, that he 
was " declared to be the Son of God with power," Rom. i. 4. Christ is said 
to. be the first begotten, and firstborn from the dead, Rev. i. 5, Col. i. 18; and 
immediately after his resurrection it was that he entered upon the administra- 
tion of his mediatorial kingdom. It was then that he said, " All power is given 
unto me," and to that especially he had an eye when he taught his disciples to 
pray, " Thy kingdom come." 

Secondly. A title by agreement, ver. 8, 9. The agreement is in short this, 
the Son must undertake the office of an intercessor, and upon that condition 
he shall have the honour and power of a universal monarch: see Isa. liii. 12, 
" Therefore will 1 divide him a portion with the great, because he made inter- 
cession for the transgressors." " He shall be a priest upon his throne, and the 
counsel of peace shall be between them both," Zee. vi. 13. 

1. The Son must ask. This supposeth^ his putting himself voluntarily into 
a state of inferiority to the Father by taking upon him the human nature ; for, 
as God, he was equal in power and glory_ with the Father, and had nothing 
to ask. It supposeth the making of a satisfaction, in the virtue of which the 
intercession must be made, and the paying of a price on which this large demand 
was to be grounded : see Jno. xvii. 4, 5. The Son, in asking the heathen for his 
inheritance, aims not only at his own honour, but at their happiness in him; 
so that he intercedes for them, ever lives to do so, and is therefore able to save 
to the uttermost. 

2. The Father will grant, more than to the half of the kingdom, even to the 
kingdom itself, it is here promised him, 1st. That his government shall be 
universal. He shall have the heathen for his inheritance; not the Jews only, 
to whose nation the church had been long confined, but the Gentiles also, those 



PSALM II 15 

in the uttermost parts of the earth (as this nation of ours) shall be his possession, 
and he shall have multitudes of willing, loyal subjects among them. Baptized 
Christians are the possession of the Lord Jesus, they are to him for a name 
and a praise; God the Father gives them to him, when by his Spirit and grace 
he works upon them to submit their necks to the yoke of the Lord Jesus. This 
is in part fulfilled ; a great part of the Gentile world received the Gospel when it 
was first preached, and Christ's throne was set up there where Satan's seat had 
long been ; but it is to be yet farther accomplished, when "the kingdoms of this 
world shall become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ," Rev. xi. 15; 
" Who shall live when God doth this ?" 2nd. That it shall be victorious ; "thou 
shalt break them." that is, those of them that oppose thy kingdom, "with a rod 
of iron," ver. 9. This was in part fulfilled when the nation of the Jews, Those 
that persisted in unbelief and enmity to Christ's Gospel, were destroyed by the 
Roman power, which was represented Dan. ii. 40, by feet of iron, as here by 
a rod of iron. It had a farther accomplishment in the destruction of the pagan 
powers, when the Christian religion came to be established ; but it will not be 
completely fulfilled till all opposing rule, principality and power shall be finally 
put down, 1 Cor. xv. 24 : see Ps. ex. 5, 6. Observe, How powerful Christ is, 
and how weak the enemies of his kingdom are before him ; he hath a rod of 
iron wherewith to crush them that will not submit to his golden sceptre ; they 
are but like a potter's vessel before him, suddenly, easily ; and irreparably dashed 
in pieces by him ; see Rev. ii. 27. Thou shalt do it, that is, thou shalt have leave 
to do it ; nations shall be ruined, rather than the gospel church shall not be 
built and established : " I have loved thee, therefore will I give men for thee," 
Jsa. xliii. 4. Thou shalt have power to do it, and none shall be able to stand 
before thee, and thou shalt do it effectually. They that will not bow shall 
break. 

In singing this, and praying it over, we must give glory to Christ as the eter- 
nal Son of God, and our rightful Lord ; and must take comfort from this 
promise, and plead it with God, that the kingdom of Christ shall be enlarged 
and established, and shall triumph over all opposition. 

10 Be wise now therefore, 0 ye kings: 

Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 
21 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, 

And ye perish from the way, 

When his wrath is kindled but a little. 

Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. 

We have here the practical application of this gospel doctrine concerning 
the kingdom of the Messiah, by way of exhortation to the kings and judges 
of the earth. They hear that it is in vain to oppose Christ's government ; let 
them therefore be so wise for themselves as to submit to it. He that has power 
to destroy them shews that he has no pleasure in their destruction ; for he puts 
them into a way to make themselves happy, ver. 10. Those that would be wise 
must be instructed ; and those are truly wise that receive instruction from the 
Word of God. Kings and judges stand upon a level with common persons 
before God ; and it is as necessary for them to be religious as for any others. 
They that give law and judgment to others must receive it from Christ, and it 
will be their wisdom. What is said to them is said to all, and is required of 
every one of us, only it is directed to kings and judges, because of the influence 
which their example will have upon their inferiors, and because they were 
men of rank and power that opposed the setting up of Christ's kingdom, ver. 2. 
We are exhorted, 

First. To reverence God, and to stand in awe of him, ver. 11. This is the 
great duty of natural religion. God is great and infinitely above us, just and 
holy, and provoked against us, and therefore we ought to fear him and tremble 
before him; yet he is our Lord and Master, and we are bound to serve him; 
our Friend and Benefactor, and we have reason to rejoice in hmi. And these 
are very well consistent with each other, for, 1. We must serve God in all 
ordinances of worship, and all instances of a godly conversation, but with a holy 
fear, a jealousy over ourselves, and a reverence of him. Even kings themselves, 
whom others serve and fear, must serve and fear God; there is the same infinite 
distance between them and God that there is between the meanest of their 
subjects and him. 2. We must rejoice in God; and, in subordination to him, we 
may rejoice in other things, but still with a holy trembling, as those that know 
what a glorious and jealous God he is, whose eye is always upon us. Our sal- 



16 PSALM II. 

vation must be wrought out with fear and trembling, Phil. ii. 12. We ought to 
rejoice in the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, but rejoice with trembling' 
with a holy awe of him, a holy fear for ourselves lest we come short, and a 
tender concern for the many precious souls to whom his Gospel and kingdom 
are a savour of death unto death. Whatever we rejoice in in this world, it must 
always be with trembling, lest we grow vain in our joy, and be puffed up with 
the things we rejoice in ; and because of the uncertainty of them, and the 
damp which by a thousand accidents may soon be cast upon our joy. To rejoice 
with trembling is to rejoice as though we rejoiced not, 1 Cor. vii. 29. 

Secondly. To welcome Jesus Christ, and to submit to him, ver. 12. This is 
the great duty of the Christian religion; it is that which is required of all, even 
kings and judges, and it is our wisdom and interest to do it. Observe here, 

1. The command given to this purpose ; " Kiss the Son." Christ is called the 
Son, because so he was declared ver. 7, " Thou art my Son." He is the Son 
of God by eternal generation, and upon that account he is to be adored by us; 
he is the Son of man, that is, the Mediator, Jno. v. 27, and upon that account 
to be received and submitted to. He is called the Son to include both, as God 
is often called emphatically the Father, because he is the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and in him our Father; and we must have an eye to him under 
both considerations. Our duty to Christ is here expressed figuratively, "Kiss 
the Son." Not with a betraying kiss, as Judas kissed him, and as all hypocrites 
who pretend to honour him, but really affront him, but with a believing kiss. 
1st. With a kiss of agreement and reconciliation ; Kiss and be friends, as Jacob 
and Esau ; let the quarrel between us and God be taken up, let the acts of 
hostility cease ? and let us be at peace with God in Christ, who is our peace. 
2nd. With a kiss of adoration and religious worship ; they that worshipped idols 
kissed them, 1 Kin. xix. 18 ; Hos. xiii. 2. Let us study how to do honour to the 
Lord Jesus, and to give unto him the glory due unto his name; "He is thy Lord, 
and worship thou him," Ps. xlv. 11 ; with him that " sits on the throne, we must 
worship the Lamb," Rev. v. 9 — 13. 3rd. With a kiss of affection and sincere love ; 
"Kiss the Son," that is, enter into a covenant of friendship with him, and let him 
be very dear and precious to you, love him above all, love him in sincerity, love 
him much, as she did to whom much was forgiven, and in token of it kissed his 
feet, Lu. vii. 38. 4th. With a kiss of allegiance and loyalty, as Samuel kissed 
Saul, 1 Sam. x. 1 ; Swear fealty and homage to him, submit to his government, 
take his yoke upon you, and give up yourselves to be governed by his laws, 
disposed of by his providence, and entirely devoted to his interest. 

2. The reasons to enforce this command; and they are taken from our own 
interest, which God in his Gospel shews a concern for. Consider, 

1st. The certain ruin we run upon if we refuse and reject Christ; "Kiss the 
Son," for it is at your peril if you do not. First. It will be a great provocation 
to him ; Do it " lest he be angry." The Father is angry already, the Son is the 
Mediator that undertakes to make peace; if we slight him, the Father's wrath 
abides upon us, Jno. iii. 36 ; and not only so. but there is an addition of the Son's 
wrath too, to whom nothing is more displeasing than to have the offers of his 
grace slighted, and the designs of it frustrated. The Son can be angry, though 
a Lamb, he is the lion of the tribe of Judah ; and the wrath of this King, this 
King of kings, will be as the roaring of a lion, and will drive even mighty men, 
and chief captains, to seek in vain for shelter in rocks and mountains, Rev. vi. 16. 
If the Son be angry, who shall intercede for us ? There remains no more 
sacrifice, no other name by which we can be saved. Unbelief is a sin against 
the remedy. Secondly. It will be utter destruction to yourselves; "lest ye 
perish from the way," or ' in the way,' so some. In the way of your sins, and 
from the way of your vain hopes ; lest your way perish, as Ps. cxvi. ; lest you 
prove to have missed the way to happiness. Christ is the way ; take heed lest 
ye be cut off from him as your way to God. It intimates that they were, or at 
least thought themselves, in the way, but by neglecting Christ they perished 
from it, which aggravates their ruin, that they go to hell from the way to 
heaven, are not far from the kingdom of God, and yet never come thither. 

2nd. The happiness we are sure of if we yield ourselves to Christ. " When 
his wrath is kindled," though " but a little," the least spark of that fire is enough 
to make the proudest sinner miserable, if it fasten upon his conscience ; for it 
will burn to the lowest hell. One would think it should therefore follow, "when 
his wrath is kindled," woe be to those that despise him. But the psalmist 
startles at the thought, blesseth himself from that dreadful doom, and blesseth 
those that do escape it. They that trust in him, and so kiss him, are truly happy ; 
but they will especially appear to be so when the wrath of Christ is kindled 
against others. Blessed will they be in the day of wrath that by trusting in 
Christ have made him their refuge and patron ; when the hearts of others fail 
them for fear, they shall lift up their heads with joy; and then those who now 
despise Christ and his followers will be forced to say it to their own greater 
confusion, Now we see that blessed are all they, and they only, that trust in 



PSALM III. 



17 



In singing this, and praying it over, we should have our hearts filled with 
a holy awe of God, but borne up with a cheerful confidence on Christ, in whose 
mediation we may comfort and encourage ourselves and one another: " We are 
the circumcision that rejoice in Christ Jesus." 



PSALM III. 

As the foregoing psalm, in the type of David in preferment, shewed us the royal dignity of 
the Redeemer, so this, by the example of David in distress, shews us the peace and 
holy security of the redeemed ; how safe they really are, and think themselves to he, 
under the Divine protection. David being now driven out from his palace, from the 
royal city, from the holy city, by his rebellious son Absalom, I. Complains to God of 
his enemies, ver. 1, 2. II. Confides in God, and encourageth himself in him as his 
God notwithstanding, ver. 3. III. Recollects the satisfaction he had in the gracious 
answers God gave to his prayers, and his experience of his goodness to him, ver. 4, 5. 
IV. Triumphs over his fears, ver. 6 ; and over his enemies, whom he prays against, 
ver. 7. V. Gives God the glory, and takes to himself the comfort of that Divine 
blessing and salvation which are sure to all the people of God, ver. 8. Those speak 
best of the truths of God that speak experimentally ; so David here speaks of the power 
and goodness of God> and of the safety and tranquillity of the godly. 

A Psaim of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. 




OED, how are they increased that trouble me ! 
' Many are they that rise up against me. 



2 Many there be which say of my soul, 
There is no help for him in God. Selah 

3 But thou, 0 Lord, art a shield for me ; 
My glory, and the lifter up of mine head 

The title of this psalm, and many others, is as a key hnng ready at the door 
to open it, and let us into the entertainments of it. When we know upon what 
occasion a psalm was penned, we know the better how to expound it. This was 
composed, or at least the substance of it was meditated and digested in David's 
thoughts, and offered up to God, then when he fled from Absalom his son, who 
formed a conspiracy against him to take away not his crown only but his life ; 
we have the story, 2 Sam. xv., &c. 1. David was now in great grief. When in 
his flight he went up the mount of Olives he wept greatly, with his head 
covered, and marching barefoot ; yet then he composed this comfortable psalm. 
He wept and prayed, wept and sung, wept and believed; this was sowing in 
tears. " Is any afflicted '? let him pray ; " nay, let him sing psalms, let him sing 
this psalm. Is any afflicted with undutiful disobedient children? So was 
David, and yet that did not hinder his joy in God, nor put him out of tune for 
holy songs. 2. He was now in great danger. The plot against him was laid 
deep, and the party that sought his ruin was very formidable, and his own son 
at the head of them, so that his affairs seemed to be at the last extremity ; yet 
then he kept hold of his interest in God, and improved that. Perils and frights 
should drive us to God, not drive us from him. 3. He had now a great deal of 
provocation given him by those from whom he had reason to expect better 
things ; from his son, whom he had been indulgent of, from his subjects, whom he 
had been so great a blessing to, which he could not but resent, and was enough 
to break in upon any man's temper ; and yet he was so far from any indecent 
expressions of passion and indignation, that he had calmness enough for those 
acts of devotion which require the greatest fixedness and freedom of thought. 
It was a sign his mind was very sedate, that the Spirit came upon him, who 
chooseth to move upon the still waters. Let no unkindness, no, not of a child, 
or a friend, ever be laid so much to heart as to disfit us for communion with 
God. 4. He was now suffering for his sin in the matter of Uriah; this was the 
evil which for that sin God threatened to raise up against him out of his own 
house, 2 Sam. xii. 11, which no doubt he observed, and took occasion from 
thence to renew his repentance for it ; and yet he did not therefore cast away 
his confidence in the Divine power and goodness, nor despair of succour. Even 
our sorrow for sin must not hinder either our joy in God or our nope in God. 
5. He seemed cowardly in fleeing from Absalom, and quitting his royal city. 
• f»fore he had had one push for it ; and yet by this psalm it appears he was full 
ot true courage arising from his faith in God. True Christian fortitude con- 
sists more in a gracious security and serenity of mind, in patient bearing, and 
patient waiting, than in daring enterprises with sword in hand. In these three 
verses he applies himself to God. Whither else should we go but to him, when 

B 



18 



PSALM III. 



any thing grieves us or frightens us ? David was now at a distance from his 
own closet, and from the courts of God's house, where he used to pray, and yet 
he could find a way open heavenward. Wherever we are we may have access 
to God, and may draw nigh to him whithersoever we are driven. David in his 
flight attends his God, 

First. With a remonstrance of his distress, ver. 1, 2. He looks round, and 
doth as it were take a view of his enemies' camp, or receive informations of 
their designs against him, which he brings to God, not to his council-board. 
Two things he complains of concerning his enemies : 

1. That they were very many. " Lord, how are they increased ! " beyond what 
they were at first, and beyond whatever he thought they would have been. 
Absalom's faction, like a snowball, strangely gathered in its motion. He speaks 
of it as one amazed, and well he might, that a people he had so many ways 
obliged should almost generallv revolt from him, and rebel against him, and 
choose for their head such a silly, giddy, young fellow as Absalom was. How 
slippery and deceitful are the many ! and how little fidelity and constancy is to 
be found among men ! David had had the hearts of his subjects as much a3 
ever any king had. and yet now of a sudden he had lost them. As people must 
not trust too much to princes, Ps. cxlvi. 3, so princes must not build too much 
upon their interest in the people. Christ, the son of David, had many enemies ; 
when a great multitude came to seize him, when the crowd cried, Crucify 
him, crucify him, how were they then increased that troubled him! Even 
good people must not think it strange if the stream be against them, and the 
pow r ers that threaten them grow more and more formidable. 

2. That they were very malicious. They rose up against him, they aimed to 
trouble him; but that was not all, "they said of his soul, There is no help for 
him in God." That is, First. They put a spiteful invidious construction upon 
his troubles, as Job's friends did "upon his, concluding that, because his ser- 
vants and subjects forsook him thus, and did not help him, God had deserted 
him, and abandoned his cause ; and he was therefore to be looked on, or rather 
to be looked off, as a hypocrite^ and a wicked man. Secondly. They blas- 
phemously reflected upon God as unable to relieve him; his danger is so 
great that God himself cannot help him. It is strange, that so great un- 
belief should be found in any, especially in many, in Israel, as to think any 
party of men too strong for Omnipotence to deal with. Thirdly. They endea- 
voured to shake his confidence in God, and drive him to despair of relief from 
him. 'They have said it to my soul,' so it may be read: compare Ps. xi. 1; 
xlii. 10. This grieved him worst of all, that they have so ill an opinion of him 
as to think it possible to take him off from that bottom. Even the temptation 
was a buffeting to him, a thorn in his flesh ; nay, a sw r ord in his bones. Note, 
A child of God startles at the very thought of despairing of help in God ; you 
cannot vex him with any thing so much as if you offer to persuade him, " there 
is no help for him in God." David comes to God, and tells him what his ene- 
mies said of him, as Hezekiah spread Eabshakeh's blasphemous letter before 
the Lord ; they say, There is no help for me in thee ; but Lord, if it be so, I am 
undone. They say to my soul, ' There is no salvation ' (for so the word is) 'for 
him in God;' but Lord, do thou "say unto my soul, I am thy salvation," 
Ps. xxxv. 3 ; and that shall satisfy me, and in due time silence them. To this 
complaint he adds " Selah," which occurs about seventy times in the book of 
Psalms. Some refer it to the music with which in David's time the psalms 
were sung ; others to the sense, and that it is a note commanding a solemn 
pause : Selah, Mark that, or stop there, and consider a little. As here, they 
say, There is no help for me in God, Selah; take time for such a thought as 
this. " Get thee behind me, Satan ; the Lord rebuke thee !" away with such a 
vile suggestion! 

Secondly. With a profession of his dependence upon God, ver. 3. An active 
believer, the more he is beaten off from God, either by the rebukes of providence 
or the reproaches of enemies, the faster hold he will take of him, and the closer 
will he cleave to him ; so David here, when his enemies said, " There is no help 
for him in God," cries out with so much the more assurance, " But thou, O 
Lord, art a shield for me;" let them say what they will, I am sure thou wilt 
never desert me, and I am resolved, I will never distrust thee. See what God 
is to his people, what he will be, what they have found him, what David found 
in him. L. Safety; "Thou art a shield for me," a shield about me, so some, to 
secure me on all sides since my enemies surrounded me. Not only my shield, 
Gen. xv. 1, which notes an interest in the Divine protection; but a shield 
for me, which notes the present benefit and advantage of that protection. 2. 
Honour, " Thou art my glory." Those whom God owns for his are not only 
safe and easy, but really look great, and have true honour put upon them, far 
above that which the great ones of the earth are proud of. David was now in 
disgrace, the crown was fallen from his head; but he will not think the worse 
of himself, while he has God for his glory ; Isa. lx. 19, " Thou art my glory," that 



PSALM III. 



19 



is, thy glory 1 reckon mine, so some ; that is it I aim at, and am ambitious of, 
whatever my lot is, and whatever becomes of my honour, that 1 may be to my 
G od for a name and a praise. 3. J oy and deliverance ; " Thou art the lifter up of 
my head," that is, thou wilt lift up my head out of my troubles, and restore me 
to my dignity again in due time ; however, thou wilt lift up my head under my 
troubles, so that I shall not droop nor be discouraged, nor shall my spirits fail. 
If in the worst of times God's people can lift up their heads with joy, knowing 
that all shall work for good to them, they will own it is God that is the lifter 
up of their head, that gives them both cause to rejoice and hearts to rejoice. 

In singing this, and praying it over, we should possess ourselves with an 
apprehension of the danger we are in from the multitude and malice of our 
spiritual enemies, that seek the ruin of our souls by driving us from our God ; 
and concern ourselves in the distresses and dangers of the church of God, 
which is everywhere spoken against, every where fought against ; but in refer- 
ence to both we should encourage ourselves in our God, who doth own and 
protect, and will in due time crown, his own interest, both in the world and in 
the hearts of his people. 

4 I cried unto the Lord with my voice, 

And he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. 

5 I laid me down and slept ; 

I awaked ; for the Lord sustained me. 

6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, 
That have set themselves against me round about. 

7 Arise, 0 Lord ; save me, O my God : [bone ; 
For thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek 
Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. 

8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord : 
Thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah. 

David having stirred up himself, by the irritations of his enemies, to take hold 
on God, as his God, and so gained comfort enough in looking upward, when if 
he looked round about him nothing appeared but what was discouraging ? here 
looks back with pleasing reflections upon the benefit he had found by trusting in 
God, and looks forward with pleasing expectations of a very bright and happy 
issue which would shortly be put to the dark dispensation he was now under. 

First. See with what comfort he looks back upon the communion he had had 
with God, and the communications of his favour to him, either in some former 
troubles he had been in, and through God's goodness got through, or in this 
hitherto. David had been in his time exercised with many difficulties, often 
oppressed and brought very low ; but still he had found God all-sufficient. He 
now remembered with pleasure, 

1. That his troubles had always brought him to his knees, and in all his diffi- 
culties and dangers he had been enabled to acknowledge God, and to lift up 
his heart to him, and his voice too ; and this will be a comfortable reflection : 
"I cried unto God with my voice." That care and grief doth us good and 
no hurt, which sets us praying, and engageth us, not only to speak to God, but 
to cry to him as those that are in earnest ; and though God understands the 
language of the heart, when the voice is not heard, 1 Sam. i. 13, and values not 
the hypocritical prayers of those who cause their voice to be heard on high, 
Isa. lviii. 4, — vox et preterea nihil, — ' voice, and that is all," — yet, when the 
earnestness of the voice comes from the fervency of the heart, notice shall be 
taken of it in the- account, that we cried unto God with our voice. 

2. That he had always found God ready to answer his prayers; Still "he 
heard me out of his holy hill," from heaven, the high and holy place, from the 
ark on mount Zion, whence he used to give answers to those that sought to 
him. David had ordered Zadok to carry back the ark into the city, when he 
was upon his flight from Absalom, 2 Sam. xv. 25 ; knowing that God was not 
tied, no, not to the ark of his presence, and that, notwithstanding the distance of 
place, he could by faith receive answ ers of peace from the holy hill. No such 
thing can fix a gulf between the communications of God's grace towards us 
and the operations of his grace in us. between his favour and our faith. The 
ark of the covenant was in mount Zion, and all the answers to our prayers 
come from the promises of that covenant. Christ was set king upon the 
holy hill of Zion, Ps. ii. 6 ; and it is through him, whom the Father hears 
always, that our prayers are heard 



2< PSALM III. 

3. That he had always been very safe and very easy under the Divine protection-; 
ver. 5, "1 laid me down and slept," composed and quiet, and awaked refreshed, 
" for the Lord sustained me." 1st. This is applicable to the common mercies 
of every night, which we ought to give thanks for alone and with our families 
every morning. Many have not where to lay their head, but wander in deserts, 
or, if they have, dare not lie down for fear of the enemy; but we have laid us 
down in peace. Many lay them down and cannot sleep, but are full of tossings 
to and fro till the dawning of the day, through pain of body, or anguish of 
mind, or the continual alarms of fear in the night; but we lie down and sleep 
in safety, though incapable of doing any thing then for our own preservation. 
Many lie down and sleep, and never wake again, — they sleep the sleep of death, 
as the firstborn of the Egyptians, — but we lie down, and sleep, and awake 
again to the light and comfort of another day ; and whence is it, but because 
the Lord hath sustained us with sleep as vyith food? we have been safe under 
his protection, and easy in the arms of his good providence. 2nd. It seems 
here to be meant of the wonderful quietness and calmness of David's spirit 
in the midst of his dangers. Having by prayer committed himself and his 
cause to God. and being sure of his protection^ his heart was fixed, and he 
was easy. The undutifulness of his son, the disloyalty of his subjects, the 
treachery of many of his friends, the hazard of his person, the fatigues of his 
march, and uncertainty of the event, never lost him an hours sleep, nor gave 
any disturbanceto his repose, for the Lord, by his grace and the consolations of 
his Spirit, powerfully sustained him, and made him easy. It is a great mercy, 
when we are in trouble, to have our minds stayed upon God, so as never either 
to eat or sleep with trembling and astonishment. 3rd. Some of the ancients 
apply it to the resurrection of Christ. In his sufferings he offered up strong 
cries, and was heard ; and therefore, though he laid him down and slept the 
sleep of death, yet he awaked the third day, for the Lord sustained him that he 
should not see corruption. 

4. That God had many a time broken the power, and restrained the malice of 
his enemies; had smitten them upon the cheek bone, ver. 7 ; had silenced them 
and spoiled their speaking, blemished them and put them to shame, smitten 
them on the cheek reproachfully; had disabled them to do the mischief they 
intended, for he had broken their teeth. Saul and the Philistines, that were 
sometimes ready to swallow him up, could not effect what they designed. The 
teeth that are gnashed or sharpened against God's people shall be broken ; and, 
when at any tune the power of trie church's enemies seems threatening, it is 
good to remember how often God has broken it, and we are sure that his arm 
is not shortened. He can stop their mouths, and tie their hands. 

Secondly. See with what confidence he looks forward upon the dangers he 
had yet in prospect. Having put himself under God's protection, and often 
found the benefit of it, 

1. His fears were all stilled and silenced, ver. 6. With what a holy bravery doth 
he bid defiance to the impotent menaces and attempts of his enemies: " I will 
not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that" either in a foreign invasion or an 
intestine rebellion "set themselves" as it were encamped " against me round 
about." No man less safe ; his enemies are numerous, ten thousands. They are 
spiteful and resolute, they have set themselves against me ; nay, they have pre- 
vailed far, and seemed to have gained their point, for they are against me round 
about on every side, thousands against one; and yet no man more secure. I will 
not be afraid for all this ; they cannot hurt me, and therefore they shall not 
frighten me; whatever prudent methods I take for my own perservation, I will 
not disquiet myself, distrust my God. nor doubt of a good issue at last. AVhen 
David, in his night from Absalom, Dade Zadok carry back the ark, he spoke 
doubtfully of the issue of his present troubles, and concluded like an humble 
penitent, " Here I am, let him do to me what seemeth him good," 2 Sam. xv. 26 ; 
but now, like a strong believer, he speaks confidently, and lias no fear concern- 
ing the event. Note, A cheerful resignation to God is the way to obtain a 
cheerful satisfaction and confidence in God. 

2. His prayers were quickened and encouraged, ver. 7. He believed God 
was his Saviour , and yet prays; nay, he therefore prays: "Arise, O Lord; save 
me, # O my God," Promises of salvation do not supersede, but engage, our 
petitions for it. He will for this be enquired of. 

3. His faith became triumphant. He began the psalm with complaints of the 
strength and malice of his enemies, but concludes it with exultation in the 
power and grace of his God, and now sees more with him than against him, 
ver. 8. Two great truths he here builds his confidence upon, and fetcheth com- 
fort from: 1st. That "salvation belongeth unto the Lord," that is, he has 
power to save, be the danger never so great ; it is his prerogative to save, when 
all other helps and succours fail. It is his pleasure, it is his property, it is 
his promise to those that are his, whose salvation is not of themselves, but of 
the Lord; therefore all that have the Lord for their God, according to the 
tenor of the new covenant, are sure of salvation, for he that is their God 



PSALM IV. 



21 



js the God of salvation. 2nd. That his blessing is upon his people. He not 
only has power to save them, but he assurres them of his kind and gracious 
intentions towards them. He has in his word pronounced a blessing upon his 
people, and we are bound to believe that that blessing doth accordingly rest 
upon tnem, though there be not the visible effects of it. Hence we may conclude, 
that God's people, though they may lie under the reproaches and censures or 
men, yet are surely blessed of him, who blesseth indeed, and therefore can 
command a blessing. 

In singing this, and praying it over, we must own the satisfaction we have 
had in depending upon God, and committing ourselves to him ; and encourage 
ourselves and one another to continue still hoping and quietly waiting for the 
salvation of the Lord. 



PSALM IV. 

I>avid was a preacher, a royal preacher, as well as Solomon. Many of his psalms are 
doctrinal and practical as well as devotional ; the greatest part of this psalm is so, in 
which wisdom cries to men, to the sons of men, (as Pr. viii. 4, 5,) to receive instruc- 
tion. The title doth not tell us, as that of the former did, that it was penned on any 
particular occasion, nor are we to think that all the psalms were occasional, though, 
some were ; but that many of them were designed in general for the instruction of the 
people of God that attended in the courts of his house, the assisting of their devotions, 
. and the directing of their conversations ; such a one I take this psalm to be. Let us 
not make the prophecy of Scripture to be of more private interpretation than needs 
must, 2 Pet. i. 20. Here, I. David begins with a short prayer, ver. 1, and that prayer 
preacheth. II. He directs his speech to the children of men, and, 1. In God's name 
reproves them for the dishonour they do to God, and the damage they do to their own 
souls, ver. 2; 2. He sets before them the happiness of godly people, for their encourage- 
ment to be religious ; 3. He calls upon them to consider their ways, ver. 4. III. He 
exhorts them to serve God and trust in him, ver. 5. IV. He gives an account of his 
own experiences of the grace of God working in him : 1. Enabling him to choose God's 
favour for his felicity, ver. 6 ; 2. Filling his heart with joy therein, ver. 7 ; 3. Quieting 
his spirit in the assurance of the Divine protection he was under night and day, ver. 8. 

To the chief Musician on Neginoth. A Psalm of David. 

IjTEAR me when I call, O God of ray righteousness : 
.1 Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress ; 
Have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. [shame ? 

2 0 ye sons of men, how long ivill ye turn my glory into 
How loiig will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing ? 

Selah. [for himself : 

3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly 
The Lord will hear when I call unto him. 

4 Stand in awe, and sin not : 
Commune with your own heart 
Upon your bed, and be still. Selah. 

5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, 
And put your trust in the Lord. 

The title of the psalm acquaints us that David, having penned it by Divine 
inspiration, for the use of the church, delivered it to the chief musician, or 
master of the song, who (according to the Divine appointment of psalmody 
made in his time, which he was chiefly instrumental in the establishment of) 
presided in that service. We have a particular account of the constitution, the 
modelling the several classes of singers, each with a chief, and the share each 
bore in the work, 1 Chr. xxv. Some prophesied according to the order of the 
king," ver. 2 ; others " prophesied with a harp, to give thanks and to praise the 
Lord," ver. 3 ; of others it is said, " they were to lift up the horn," ver. 5 ; but of 
them all that they were "for song in the house of the Lord," ver. 6, and were 
" instructed in the songs of the Lord," ver. 7. To one of the chiefs was this 
psalm committed to be sung on iSeginoth, that is, on stringed instruments, 
Hub. iii. 19, which were played on with the hand; with music of that kind the 
choristers were to sing this psalm : and it should seem that then they only 



22 PSALM IV. 

sung, not the people. But the New Testament appoints all Christians to sing ; 
Eph. v. 19 ; Col. iii. 16; from whom it is expected that they do it decently, not 
artfully, and therefore there is not now so much occasion for musical instru- 
ments as there was then : the melody is to be made in the heart. In these 
verses, 

First. David addresseth himself to God, ver. 1. Whether the sons of men, to 
whom he is about to speak, will hear, or whether they will forbear, he hopes 
and prays that God will give him a gracious audience, and an answer of peace : 
" Hear me when I call," and accept my adorations ; grant my petitions, and 
judge upon my appeals ; "have mercy upon me, and hear me." All the notice 
God is pleased to take of our prayers, and all the returns he is pleased to make 
to them, must be ascribed not to our merit, but purely to his mercy. Hear me 
for thy mercy sake, is our best plea. Two things David here pleads farther : 
1. Thou art the God of my righteousness ; not only a righteous God thyself, but 
the author of my righteous dispositions, who hast by thy grace wrought that 
good that is in me, hast made me a righetous man ; therefore hear me, and so 
own thine own work in me : thou art also the patron of my righteous cause, the 
protector of my wronged innocency, to whom I commit my way, and whom I trust 
to bring forth my righteousness as the light. When men condemn us unjustly this 
is our comfort, it is God that justifies. He is the God of a believer's righteous- 
ness. 2. " Thou hast" formerly " enlarged me when I was in distress," enlarged 
my heart in holy joy and comfort under my distresses, enlarged my condition 
by bringing me out of my distresses ; therefore now, Lord, have mercy upon me, 
and hear me. The experience we have had of God's goodness to us in enlarging 
us when we have been in distress is not only a great encouragement to our 
faith and hope for the future, but a good plea with God in prayer : Thou hast ; 
wilt thou not? for thou art God, and changest not; thy work is perfect. 

Secondly. He addresseth himself to the children of men, for the conviction 
and conversion of those that are yet strangers to God, and that will not have 
the Messiah, the son of David, to reign over them. 

1. He endeavours to convince them of the folly of their impiety ; ver. 2, " O ye 
sons of men," (of great men, so some, men of high degree, understanding it of 
the partizans of Saul, or Absalom,) how long will ye oppose me and my govern- 
ment, and continue disaffected to it, under the influence of the false and ground- 
less suggestions of those that*. wish evil to me? Or it may be taken more gene- 
rally. God by the psalmist here reasons with sinners to bring them to repentance, 
You that go on in the neglect of God and his worship, and in contempt of the 
kingdom of Christ and his government, consider what you do. 1st. You debase 
yourselves, for you are sons of men, (the word signifies man as a noble creature;) 
consider the dignity of your nature, and the excellency of those powers of 
reason with which you are endued, and do not act thus irrationally, and unbe- 
coming yourselves. Let the sons of men consider, and shew themselves men. 
2nd. You dishonour your Maker, and turn his glory into shame. They may 
well be taken as God's own words, charging sinners with the wrong they do 
him in his honour. Or, if David's words, it may be understood of God, whom 
he called his glory, Ps. iii. 3. Idolaters are charged with changing the glory of 
God into shame, Rom. i. 23. All wilful sinners do so, by disobeying the com- 
mands of his law, despising the offers of his grace, and. giving that affection and 
service to the creature which is due to God only. Those that profane God's 
holy name, that ridicule his word and ordinances, and, while they profess to 
know him, in works deny him, do what in them lies to turn his glory into shame. 
3rd. You put a cheat upon yourselves ; " you love vanity, and seek after leasing," 
or lying, or that which is a lie. You are yourselves vain and lying, and you love 
to be so. Or, you set your hearts upon that which will prove at last but vanity 
and a lie. They that love the world, and seek the things that are beneath, love 
vanity, and seek lies; that please themselves with the delights of sense, and 
portion themselves with the wealth of this world, for these will deceive them, 
and so ruin them. How long will ye do this? Will you never be wise for 
yourselves, never consider your duty and interest? " When shall it once be?" 
Jer. xiii. 27. The God of heaven thinks the time long that sinners persist in 
dishonouring him, and in deceiving and ruining themselves. 

2. He shews them the peculiar favour which God has for good people, the 
special protection they are under, and the singular privileges to which they are 
entitled, ver. 3. This comes in here, 1st. As a reason why they should not 
oppose or persecute him that is godly, or think to run him down. It is at their 
peril if they offend one of these little ones, whom God has set apart for himself, 
Mat. xviii. 6. God reckons that those who touch them touch the apple of his 
eye, and he will make their persecutors to know it sooner or later. They have 
an interest in heaven ; God will hear them, and therefore let none dare to do 
them any injury, for God will hear their cry and plead their cause, Ex. xxii. 23. 
It is generally supposed that David speaks of his own designation to the throne; 
he is the godly man whom God hath set apart for that honour, and who doth 
not usurp it or assume it to himself; and therefore the opposition you give to 



PSALM IV, 23 

him, and to his advancement, is very criminal, for therein you fight against God. 
and it will be vain and ineffectual. God has in like manner set apart the Lord 
Jesus for himself, that merciful one; and those that attempt to hinder his 
advancement will certainly be baffled, for the Father heareth him always. Or, 
2nd. As a reason why they should themselves be good, and walk no longer in 
the counsel of the ungodly ; You have hitherto sought vanity, be truly religious, 
and you will be truly happy here and for ever. For, First. God will secure to 
himself his interest in vou. x " The Lord hath set apart him that is godly," every 
particular godly man, B for himself,"' in his eternal choice, in his effectual calling", 
in the special disposals of his providence and operations of his grace; they are 
purified unto him a peculiar people. Godly men are God's separated, sealed 
ones ; he knows them that are his, hath set his image and superscription upon 
them ; distinguished! them with uncommon favours, " and they shall be mine, 
saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels." Know this; let godly 
people know it, and let them never alienate themselves from him to whom they 
are thus appropriated ; let wicked people know it, and take heed how they hurt 
those whom God protects. Secondly. God will secure to you an interest in 
himself. This David speaks with application, " The Lord will hear when I call 
unto him," We should think ourselves happy if we had the ear of an earthly 
prince ; and is it not worth while upon any terms, especially such easy ones, to 
gain the ear of the King of kings? Let us know this, and forsake lying vanities 
for our own mercies. 

3. He warns them against sin, and exhorts them both to frighten themselves 
and to reason themselves from it; ver. 4, " Stand in awe, and sin not:" ('be 
angry and sin not ; ' so the Seventy, and some think the apostle takes that 
exhortation from him, Eph. iv. 26;) commune with your own hearts." Be con- 
verted ; and, in order thereunto, consider and fear. Note, 1st. We must not sin, 
not miss our way and so miss our aim. _ 2nd. One good remedy against sin is to 
stand in awe. Be moved,' so some, in opposition to carelessness and carnal 
security; always keep up a holy reverence of the glory and majesty of God, and 
a holy dread of his wrath and curse, and dare not to provoke him. 3rd. One 
good means of preventing sin, and preserving a holy awe, is to be frequent and 
serious in communing with our own hearts. Talk with your hearts ; you have a 
great deal to say to them, they may be spoken with at any time, let it not be 
unsaid. A thinking man is in a fair way to be a wise and a good man. " Com- 
mune with your hearts;" that is, examine them by serious self-reflection, that 
you may acquaint yourselves with them, and amend what is amiss in them ; 
employ them by solemn pious meditations ; let your thoughts fasten upon that 
which is good, and keep close to it. Consider your ways: and observe the 
directions here given us, in order to the doing of this work well, and to good 
purpose. First. Choose a solitary time : do it when you lie awake upon your 
beds. Before you turn you to go to sleep at night, (as some of the heathen 
moralists have directed,) examine your consciences what you have done that 
day, particularly what you have done amiss, that you may repent of it. When 
you awake in the night meditate upon God, and the things that belong to your 
peace. David did himself practise what he here counsels others to ; Ps. Ixiii. 6, 

I remember thee on my bed." Upon a sick bed particularly we should consider 
our w r ays, and commune with our own hearts about them. Secondly. Compose 
yourselves into a serious frame ; "be still." When you have asked conscience 
a question, be silent, and wait for an answer ; even in unquiet times keep your 
spirits calm and quiet. 

4. He counsels them to make conscience of their duty : ver. 5, " Offer to God 
the sacrifice of righteousness." We must not only cease to do evil, but learn to 
do well. They that were disaffected to David and his government would soon 
come to a better temper, and return to their allegiance, if they would but wor- 
ship God aright. And those that know r the concerns that lie between them and 
God will be glad of the Mediator the Son of David. It is required here from 
every one of us, 1st. That we serve him, offer sacrifices to him ; your own selves 
first, and your best sacrifices. But they must be sacrifices of righteousness, 
that is, good w r orks ; all the fruits^ of the reigning love of God and our neigh- 
bour, and all the instances of a religious conversation, which are better than all 
burnt offerings and sacrifices. Let all your devotions come from an upright 
heart; let all your alms be sacrifices of "righteousness. The sacrifices of the 
unrighteous God will not accept, they are an abomination, Isa. i. 11, &c. 
2nd. That we confide in him. First make conscience of offering the sacrifices 
of righteousness, and then yon are w elcome to " put your trust in the Lord." 
Serve God without any diffiaence of him, or any fear ol losing by him. Honour 
him by trusting in him only, and not in your wealth, or in an arm of flesh; in 
his providence, and lean not to your own understanding ; in his grace, and go 
not about to establish your own righteousness or sufficiency. 

In singing these verses we must preach to ourselves the doctrine of the pro- 
voking nature of sin, the lying vanity of the world, and the unspeakable hap- 
piness of God's people, and press upon ourselves the duties of fearing God, 



24 ps ALM IV. 

conversing with our own hearts, and offering spiritual sacrifices ; and, in praying 
over them, beg of God grace thus to think and thus to do. 

6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good ? 
Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us, 

7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, [increased. 
More than in the time that their corn and their wine 

8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep : 
For thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. 

We have here, 

First. The foolish wish of worldly people ; " There be many that say, Who 
will shew us any good?" 4 Who will make us to see good?' What good they 
meant is intimated ver. 7 ; it was the increase of their corn and wine. All they 
desired was plenty of the wealth of this world, that they might enjoy abundance 
of the delights of sense. Thus far they are right, that they are desirous of good, 
and solicitous about it; but there are these things amiss in this wish: 1. They 
inquire in general who will make them happy, but do not apply themselves to 
God, who alone can ; and so expose themselves to be ill advised, and shew they 
would rather be beholden to any than to God ; for they would willingly live 
without him. 2. They inquire for good that may be seen, seeming good, sensible 
good, and were not for the good things that were out of sight, and are the 
objects of faith only. The source of idolatry was a desire of gods that they 
might see, therefore they worshipped the sun ; but as we must be taught to 
worship an unseen God, so to seek an unseen good, 2 Cor. iv. 18. We look with 
an eye of faith farther than we can see with an eye of sense. 3. They inquire 
for any good, not for the chief good ; if it be outward good, present good, partial 
good, good meat, good drink, a good trade, a good estate ; and what are all these 
worth without a good God, and a good heart ? Any good will serve the turn of 
the most of men, but a gracious soul will not be put off so. This way, this wish, 
of carnal worldlings is their folly, and yet many there be that join in it; and so 
will their doom be; "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy 
good things ;" the penny thou didst agree for. 

Secondly. The wise choice which godly people make. David and the pious 
few that adhered to him dissented from that wish, and joined in this prayer, 
"Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." 1. He disagrees 
from the vote of the many ; God had set him apart for himself by distinguishing 
favours, and therefore he sets himself apart by a distinguishing character. They 
are for any good, for worldly good, but so am not I ; I will not say as they say. 
Any good will not serve my turn ; the wealth of tne world will never make a 
portion for my soul, and therefore I cannot take up with it. 3. He and his 
friends agree in their choice of God's favour as their felicity ; that is it which in 
their account is better than life, and all the comforts of life. 

1st. That is it which they most earnestly desire and seek after. This is the 
breathing of their souls, " Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon 
us.;" most are for other things, but we are for this. Good people, as they are 
distinguished by their practices, so they are by their prayers, not the length and 
language of them, but the faith and fervency of them. They whom God hath 
set apart have a prayer by themselves, which, though others may speak the 
words of, they only offer up in sincerity ; and this is a prayer which they all say 
amen to, Lord, let us have thy favour, and let us know that we have it, and 
we desire no more ; that is enough to make us happy. Lord, be at peace with us, 
accept of us, manifest thyself to us ; let us be satisfied of thy lovingkindness, 
and we will be satisfied with it. Observe, though David speaks, ver. 7, 8, of 
himself only, here in the prayer he speaks for others also, "upon us," as Christ 
taught us to pray, " Our Father." All the saints come to the throne of grace 
on the same errand ; and in this they are one, they all desire God's favour as 
their chief good. We should beg it for others, as well as for ourselves ; for 
in God's favour there is enough for us all, and we shall have never the less 
for others sharing. 

2nd. That is it in which above any thing they rejoice, ver. 7. Thou hast 
hereby many a time put gladness into my heart, not only supported and 
refreshed me, but filled me with joy unspeakable; and, therefore, that is it 
which I will still pursue, v/hich I will seek after all the days of my life. When 
God puts grace in the heart, he puts gladness in the heart ; nor is any 
joy comparable to that which gracious souls have in the communications of 
the Divine favour, no, not the joy of harvest, of a plentiful harvest, when 
the corn and wine increaseth. This is gladness in the heart, inward, solid, 
substantial joy. The mirth of worldly people is but a flash, a shadow; even 



PSALM V. 25 

in laughter their heart is sorrowful, Pr. xiv. 13. 'Thou hast given glad- 
ness in my heart,' so the word is. True joy is God's gift, not as the world 
giveth, Jno. xiv. 27. The saints have no reason to envy carnal worldlings 
their mirth and joy, but should pity them rather; for they may know better, 
and will not. 

3rd. That is it which they entirely confide in, and in that confidence are 
always easy, ver. 8. He had laid him down and slept, Ps. iii. 5 ; and so he will 
still, "I will lay me down," having the assurance of thy favour, "in peace-" 
and with as much pleasure as they " whose corn and wine increaseth," and wlio 
lie down as Boaz did in his threshing-floor, at the end of the heap of corn, to 
sleep there, when his heart was merry, Ru. iii. 7. "For thou only makest me 
to dwell in safety." Though I am alone, yet I am not alone, for God is with 
me ; though I have no guards to attend me, the Lord alone is sufficient to protect 
me ; he can do it himself when all other defences fail. If he have the light of 
God's countenance, First. He can enjoy himself. His soul returns to God 
and reposeth itself in him as its rest, and so he lays him down and sleeps in 
peace. He has what he would have, and is sure that nothing can come amiss 
to him. Secondly. He fears no disturbance from his enemies, sleeps quiet, and 
is very secure, because God himself has undertaken to keep him safe. When 
he comes to sleep the sleep of death, and to lie down in the grave, to make 
his bed in the darkness, he will then, with good old Simeon, depart in peace, 
Lu. ii. 29 ; being assured that God will receive his soul to be safe with himself, 
and that his body also shall be made to dwell in safety in the grave. Thirdly. 
He commits all his affairs to God, and contentedly leaves the issue of theni 
with him. It is said of the husbandman that, having cast his seed into the 
ground, he sleeps and riseth night and day, and the seed springs and grows up 
he knoweth not how, Mar. iv. 26, 27. So a good man, having by faith and 
prayer cast his care upon God, he sleeps and resteth night and day, and is very 
easy, leaving it to his God to perform all things for him : welcome his holy will. 

In singing these verses, and praying over them, let us, with a holy contempt 
of the wealth and pleasure of this world as insufficient to make us happy, 
earnestly seek the favour of God, and pleasingly solace ourselves in that favour, 
and with a holy indifferency about the issue of all our worldly concerns ; let us 
commit ourselves and all our affairs to the conduct and custody of the Divine 
providence, and be satisfied that all shall be made to work for good to us, if we 
keep ourselves in the love of God. 



PSALM V. 

This psalm is a prayer, a solemn address to God, at a time when the psalmist was brought 
into distress by the malice of his enemies. Many such times passed over David ; nay, 
there was scarce any time of his life to which this psalm may not be accommodated ; 
for in this he was a type of Christ, that he was continually beset with enemies; and 
his powerful and prevalent appeals to God when he was so beset, pointed at Christ's 
dependence on his Father, and triumphs over the powers of darkness in the midst of 
his sufferings. In this psalm, I. David settles a correspondence between his soul and 
God, promising to pray, and promising himself that God would certainly hear him, 
ver. 1 — 3. II. He gives to God the glory, and takes to himself the comfort of God's 
holiness, ver. 4 — 6. III. He declares his resolution to keep close to the public worship 
of God, ver. 7. IV. He prayed, 1. For himself, that God would guide him, ver. 8 ; 
2. Against his enemies, that God would destroy them, ver. 9, 10 ; 3. For all the people 
of God, that God would give them joy, and keep them safe, ver. 11, 12. And this is 
all of great use to direct us in prayer. 

To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth. A Psalm of David. 

GIVE ear to my words, 0 Lord, consider my meditation. 
2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my 
For unto thee will I pray. [God : 

3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, 0 Lord ; 

In the morning will I direct my grayer unto thee, and 
will look up. 

4 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness : 
Neither shall evil dwell with thee. 

5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight : 
Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. 



26 PSALM Y. 

6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: 

The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. 

The title of this psalm has nothing in it peculiar, but that it is said to be upon 
Nehiloth, a word nowhere else used. It is conjectured (and it is but a con- 
jecture) that it signifies wind-instruments^ with which this psalm was sung, 
as Neginoth was supposed to signify the stringed instruments. In these verses 
David had an eye to God, 

First. As a prayer -hearing God ; and so he has always been, ever since men 
began to call upon the name of the Lord, and yet is still as ready to hear prayer 
as ever. Observe how David here styles him, " O Lord," ver. 1, 3; Jehovah, a 
self- existent, self-sufficient being, whom we are bound to adore ; and "my King 
and my God," ver. 2, whom I have avouched for my God, and to whom I have 
sworn allegiance, and under whose protection I have put myself as my King. 
We believe that the God we pray to is a King and a God, King of kings, and 
God of gods ; but that is not enough. The most commanding, encouraging prin- 
ciple of prayer, and the most powerful prevailing plea in prayer, is to look 
upon him as our King and our God, whom we lie under peculiar obligations to» 
and whom we have peculiar expectations from. Now observe, 

1. What David here prays for, which may encourage our faith and hopes 
in all our addresses to God. If we pray fervently and m faith, we have reason 
to hope, 1st. That God will take cognizance of our case, the remonstrance we 
make of it, and the requests we make upon it; for so he prays here, " Give ear 
to my words, O Lord." Though God is in heaven, he has an ear open to his 
people's prayers ; and it is not heavy, that he cannot hear. Men perhaps will not 
or cannot hear us, our enemies so haughty that they will not, our friends at such 
a distance that they cannot ; but God, though high, though in heaven, can and 
will. 2nd. That he will take it into his wise and compassionate consideration, 
and will not slight it, or turn it off with a cursory answer; for so he prays, 
" Consider my meditation." David's prayers were not his words only, but his 
meditations. As meditation is the best preparative for prayer, so prayer is the 
best issue of meditation. Meditation and prayer should go together, Ps. xix. 14. 
And when we thus consider our prayers, then and then only we may expect 
that God will consider them, and take that to his heart which comes from ours. 
3rd. That he will in due time return a gracious answer of peace ; for so he prays 
ver. 2, " Hearken to the voice of my cry." His prayer was a cry, it was the 
voice of his cry, which notes fervency of affection, and importunity of expres- 
sion ; and such effectual fervent prayers of a righteous man avail much, and do 
wonders. 

2. What David here promiseth, as the condition on his part to be pertormed, 
fulfilled and kept, that he might obtain this gracious acceptance ; and this may 
guide and govern us in our addresses to God, that we may present them aright; 
tor we ask and have not, if we ask amiss. Four things David here promiseth, 
and so must we : 

1st. That he will pray, that he will make conscience of it, and make a business 
of it ; " Unto thee will I pray." Others live without prayer, but I will pray. 
Kings on their own thrones (so David w r as) must be beggars at God's throne. 
Others pray to strange gods and expect relief from them : but to thee, to thee 
only will I pray. The assurances God has given us of his readiness to hear 
prayer should confirm our resolution to live and die praying. 

2nd. That he will pray in the morning. His praying voice shall be heard then, 
and then shall his prayer be directed, that shall be the date of his letters to 
heaven: not that only, "morning and evening, and at noon will I pray," nay, 
seven times a day will I praise thee, but that certainly. Morning prayer is our 
duty ; we are the fittest for prayer when we are in the most fresh, and lively, 
and composed frame, got clear of the slumbers of the night, revived by them, 
and not yet filled with the business of the day. We have then most need of 
prayer, considering the dangers and temptations of the day, to which we are 
exposed, and against which we are concerned, by faith and prayer, to fetch in 
fresh supplies of grace. 

3rd. That he will have his eye single, and his heart intent in the duty ; " I will 
direct my prayer," as a marksman directs his arrow to the white; with such a 
fixedness and steadiness of mind should we address ourseives to God. Or, as w e 
direct a letter to a friend at such a place, so must we direct our prayers to God 
as our Father in heaven ; and let us always direct them to be left with the Lord 
Jesus, the great Mediator, and then they will be sure not to miscarry. All our 
prayers must be directed to God, that is, his honour and glory must be aimed 
at as our highest end in all our prayers; let our first petition be ; Hallowed, 
glorified be thy name, and then we may be sure of the same gracious answer 
to it that was given to Christ himself, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify 
it yet again." 

4th. That he will patiently wait for an answer of peace. "I will look up;" 
will look after my prayers, and "hear what God the Lord will speak," 



PSALM V. 27 

Ps. LiJ,xv. 8 ; tiab. u. 1 : that if he grant what 1 asked I may be thankful ; u 
he deny, I may be patient ; if he defer, I may continue to pray and wait, and 
may not faint. We must look up or look out, as he that has shot an arrow 
Iooks to see how near it has come to the mark. We lose much of the comfort 
of our prayers for want of observing the returns of them. Thus praying, 
thus waiting, as the lame man looked stedfastly on Peter and John, Acts iii. 4, 
we may expect that God will give ear to our words, and consider them, and to 
him we* may refer ourselves, as David here ; who doth not pray. Lord, do this 
or the other for me, but hearken to me, consider my case, and do in it as seemeth 
good unto thee. 

Secondly. As a sin-hating God, ver. 4 — 6. David takes notice of this, 1. As 
a warning to himself, and all other praying people, to remember that, as the 
God with whom we have to do is gracious and merciful, so he is pure and 
holy. Though he is ready to hear prayer, yet if we regard iniquity in our 
heart he will not hear our prayers, Ps. lxvi. 18. 2. As an encouragement to 
his prayers against his enemies ; they were wicked men, and therefore enemies 
to God, and such as he had no pleasure in. See here, 

1st. The holiness of God's nature. AYhen he saith, "Thou art not a God that 
hath pleasure in wickedness," he means, thou art a God that hatest it, as 
directly contrary to thine infinite purity, and rectitude, and holy will. Though 
the workers of iniquity prosper, let none from thence infer, that God hath plea- 
sure in wickedness ; no, not in that by which men pretend to honour him, or 
those do that hate their brethren and cast them out, and say, " Let the Lord 
be glorified." God has no pleasure in wickedness, though palliated with a cloak 
of religion. Let those, therefore, who delight in sin, know that God hath no 
delight in them ; nor let any say when he is tempted, " I am tempted of God," 
for God is not the author of sin, neither shall evil dwell with him; that is. 
it shall not always be countenanced and suffered to prosper. Dr. Hammond 
thinks this refers to that law of Moses, which would not permit strangers that 
persisted in their idolatry to dwell in the land of Israel. 

2nd. The justice of his government. The foolish shall not stand in his sight; 
that is, shall not be smiled upon by him, nor admitted to attend upon him, nor 
shall they be acquitted in the judgment of the great day. The workers of 
iniquity are very foolish : sin is folly, and sinners are the greatest fools of any 
others ; not fools of God's making, — those are to be pitied, he hateth nothing 
that he has made,— -but fools of their own making, and those he hates. Wicked 
people hate God, justly therefore are they hated of him, and it will be their 
endless misery and ruin; Those whom thou hatest thou shalt destroy; parti- 
cularly two sorts of sinners, who are here marked for destruction. First. 
Those that are fools ; that speak leasing, or lying, and that are deceitful. There 
is a particular emphasis laid on these sinners, Rev. xxi. 8, all liars; and 
xxii. 15, "whosoever loves and makes a lie." Nothing more contrary than 
this, and therefore nothing more hateful to the God of truth. Secondly. 
Those that are cruel ; Thou wilt abhor the bloody man ; for inhumanity is no 
less contrary, no less hateful to the God of mercy, whom mercy pleaseth. 
Liars and murderers are in a particular manner said to resemble the devil, and 
to be his children; and, therefore, it may well be expected that God should 
abhor them. These were the characters of David's enemies, and such as 
these are still the enemies of Christ and his church, men perfectly lost to all 
virtue and honour; and the worse they are the surer we may be of their ruin 
in due time. 

In singing these verses and praying over them, we must engage and stir up 
ourselves to the duty of prayer, and encourage ourselves in it, because we shall 
not seek the Lord in vain ; and must express our detestation of sin. and our 
awful expectation of that day of Christ's appearing, which will be tne day of 
the perdition of ungodly men. 

7 But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multi- 

tude of thy mercy : 
And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. 

8 Lead me, 0 Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine 
Make thy way straight before my face. [enemies ; 

9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth ; 
Their inward part is very wickedness ; 
Their throat is an open sepulchre ; 

They flattei with their tongue. 



PSALM V. 



10 Destroy thou them, 0 God; 

Let them fall by their own counsels ; 

Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions ; 

For they have rebelled against thee. 

11 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice : 
Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them : 
Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. 

12 For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; 

With favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield. 

Tn these verses David gives three characters, of himself, of his enemies and 
of all the people of God, and subjoins a prayer to each of them. 

First. He gives an account of himself, and prays for himself, ver. 7, 8. 

1. He is stedfastly resolved to keep close to God. and to his worship. Sinners 
go away from God, and so make themselves odious to his holiness, and ob- 
noxious to his justice ; but as for me, that shall not keep me from thee. God's 
holiness and justice are so far from being a terror to the upright in heart, to 
drive them from God, that they are rather by them invited to cleave to him. 
David resolves, 1st. To worship God; that is, to pay his homage to him, and 
give unto God the glory due unto his name. 2nd. To worship him publicly ; "I 
will come into thy- house," the courts of thy house, to worship there with other 
thy faithful worshippers. David was much in secret worship, prayed often alone 
by himself, ver. 2, 3 : and yet was very constant and devout in his attendance 
on the sanctuary. The duties of the closet are designed to prepare us for, not 
excuse us from, public ordinances. 3rd. To worship him reverently, and with 
a due sense of the infinite distance there is between God and man ; "In thy fear 
will I worship," with a holy awe of God upon my spirit, Heb. xii. 28. God is 
greatly to be feared by all his worshippers. 4th. To take his encouragement 
in worship from God himself only. First. From his infinite mercy. It is in the 
multitude of that (the inexhaustible treasures of mercy that are in God, and 
the innumerable proofs and instances of it which we receive from him,) that 
David confides, and not in any merit or righteousness of his own, in his ap - 
preaches to God. The mercy of God should ever be both the foundation of our 
hopes and the fountain of our joy in every thing wherein we have to do with 
him. Secondly. From the instituted medium of worship ; which was then the 
temple, here called the temple of his holiness, as a type of Christ., the great and 
only Mediator, who sanctifies the service, as the temple sanctified the ^old; and 
to whom we must have an eye in all our devotions, as they then had to the 
temple. 

2. He earnestly prays, that God by his grace would guide and preserve him 
always in the way of his duty ; ver. 8, "Lead me in thy righteousness, because 
of mine enemies,*' Heb., i Because of those which observe me,' which watch for 
my halting, and seek occasion against me. See here, 1st. The good use which 
David made of the malice of his enemies against him. The more curious they 
were in spying faults in him, that they might have whereof to accuse him, the 
more cautious he was to avoid sin, and all appearances of it, and the more 
solicitous to be always found in the good way of God and duty. Thus by 
wisdom and grace good may come out of evil. 2nd. The right course which 
David took for the baffling of those who sought occasion against him. He 
committed himself to a Divine conduct, _ begged of God both by his providence 
and by his grace to direct him in the right way, and keep him from turning 
aside out of it, at any time, in any instance whatsoever, that the most critical 
and captious of his enemies, like Daniel's, might find no occasion against him. 
The way of our duty is here called God's way and his righteousness, because 
he prescribes to us by his just and holy laws, which, if we sincerely set before 
us as our rule, we may in faith beg of God to direct us in all particular cases. 
How this prayer of David's was answered to him, see 1 Sam. xviii. 14, 15. 

Secondly, xle gives an account of his enemies, and prays against them, 
ver. 9, 10. 1. If his account of them be true, as no doubt it is, they have a very 
bad character; and if they had not been ill men indeed they could not have 
been enemies to a man after God's own heart. He had spoken, ver. 6, of God's 
hating the bloody and deceitful men ; Now, Lord, saith he, that is the character 
of my enemies. They are deceitful; there is no trusting them: for '' there is 
no faithfulness in their mouth." They thought it was no sin to tell a deliberate 
lie, if it might but blemish David, a: id make him odious ; " Lord, lead me,'' saitn 
he, ver. 8, fur such as these are the men I have to do with, against whose 
slanders innocency itself is no security. Do they speak fair? Do they talk 



PSALM V. 29 

of peace and friendship? They flatter with their tongues; it is designed to 
cover their malice, and to gain their point the more secure. Whatever they 
pretend of religion or friendship, two sacred things, they are true to neither; 
their inward part is wickedness itself, — it is very wickedness. They are like- 
wise bloody, for their throat is an open sepulchre ; cruel as the grave, gaping 
to devour and to swallow up; insatiable as the grave, which never saith, " It is 
enough," Pr. xxx. 15, 16. This is quoted Rom. hi. 13, to shew the general cor- 
ruption of mankind ; for they are all narurally prone to malice, Tit. iii. 3. The 
grave is opened for them all, and yet they are as open graves to one another. 
2. If his prayer against them be heard, as no doubt it is, they are in a bad con- 
dition. As men are and do, so they must expect to fare. He prays to God to 
destroy them, (according to what he had said, ver. 6, "Thou shalt destroy '' men 
of this character, so let them fall ; and sinners will soon throw themselves into 
ruin, if they be let alone;) to cast them out of his protection and favour, out of 
the heritage of the Lord, out of the land of the living. And woe to those whom 
God casts out. They have by their sins deserved destruction ; there is enough to 
justify God in their utter rejection; "Cast them out in the multitude of their 
transgressions," by which they have filled up the measure of their iniquity, and 
are become ripe for ruin. Persecuting God's servants fills the measure as soon 
as any thing, 1 Thes. ii. 15, 16. Nay, they may be easily made to fall by their 
own counsels; that which they do to secure themselves and do mischief to 
others, by the overruling providence of God, may be made a means of their 
destruction, Ps. vii. 15 ; jx. 17. He pleads, " They have rebelled against thee." 
Had they been only mine enemies, I could safely have forgiven them, but they 
are rebels against God, his crown and dignity ; they oppose his government, 
and will not repent to give him glory, and therefore I plainly foresee their ruin. 
His prayer for their destruction comes not from a spirit of revenge, but from 
a spirit of prophecy; by which he foretold, that all that rebel against God will 
certainly be destroyed by their own counsels. If "it is a righteous thing with 
God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble " his people, as we are told 
it is, 2 Thes. i. 6, we pray it may be done whenever we pray, "Father, thy will 
be done." 

Thirdly. He gives an account of the people of God, and prays for them, 
concluding with an assurance of their bliss, which he doubted not of his own 
interest in. Observe, 

1. The description he gives of God's people. They are "the righteous," 
ver. 12; for they put their trust in God, are well assured of his power and 
all-sufficiency, venture their all upon his promise, and are confident of his pro- 
tection in the way of their duty ; and they love his name, are well-pleased 
with all that by which God has made himself known, and take delight in their 
acquaintance with him. This is true and pure religion, to live a life of com- 
placency in God, and dependence on him. 

2. His prayer for them ; "Let them rejoice ;" let them have cause to rejoice, 
and hearts to rejoice. Fill them with joy, with great joy, and unspeakable, " let 
them shout for joy." With constant joy, and perpetual; "let them ever shout 
for joy, with holy joy ; and that which terminates in God, let them "be joyful 
in thee," in thy favour, in thy salvation, not in any creature. Let them rejoice, 
" because thou coverest them," or overshadowest them, dwellest among them. 
Perhaps it is an allusion to the pillar of cloud and fire, which was to Israel 
a visible token of God's special presence with them, and the special protection 
they were under. Let us learn of David to pray not for ourselves only, but for 
others ; for all good people, for all that trust in God and love his name, though 
not in every thing of our mind, or in our interest. Let all that are entitled 
to God's promises have a share in our prayers. " Grace be with all that love 
Christ in sincerity." This is to concur with God. 

3. His comfort concerning them, ver. 12. Therefore he takes them into his 
prayers, because they are God's peculiar people; therefore he doubts not but his 
prayers shall be heard, and they shall always rejoice ; for, 1st. They are happy 
in the assurance of God's blessing; " Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous;' 5 
wilt command a blessing upon them. Thou hast in thy word pronounced them 
blessed, and therefore wilt make them truly so ; 4 Those whom thou blessest, 
they are blessed indeed.' 2nd. They are safe under the protection of thy favour ; 
'with that thou wilt crown him,' so some read it ; it is his honour ; it will be 
to him a diadem of beauty, and make him truly great. With that thou wilt 
compass him, wilt surround him on every side, as with a shield. A shield 
in war guards only one side, but the favour of God is to the saints a defence 
on every side, like the hedge about Job, round about, so that while they keep 
themselves under the Divine protection they are entirely safe, and ought to be 
entirely satisfied. 

In singing these verses, and praying them over, we must by faith put our- 
selves under God's conduct and care, and then please ourselves with his mercy 
and grace, and with the prospect of God's triumphs at last over all his enemies, 
and his people's triumphs in him and in his salvation. 



30 



PSALM VI. 



David was a weeping prophet as well as Jeremiah, and this psalm is one of his lamenta- 
tions ; either it was penned at a time, or at least calculated for a time, of great trouble, 
both outward and inward. Is any afflicted ? is any sick ? Let him sing this psalm. 
The method of the psalm is very observable, and what we shall often meet with. He 
begins with doleful complaints, but ends with joyful praises; like Hannah, who went 
to prayer with a sorrowful spirit, but when she had prayed went her way, and her 
countenance was no more sad. Three things the psalmist is here complaining of : 
I. Sickness of body. II. Trouble of mind, arising from the sense of sin, the merito- 
rious cause of pain and sickness. III. The insults of his enemies upon occasion of 
both. Now here, 1. He pours out his complaint before God, deprecates his wrath, and 
begs earnestly for the return of his favour, ver. 1 — 7 ; 2. He assures himself of an 
answer of peace shortly, to his full satisfaction, ver. 8 — 10. This psalm is like the book 
of Job. 

To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. 

OLOKD, rebuke me not in thine anger, 
Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 

2 Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord ; for I am weak : 

0 Lord, heal me ; for my bones are vexed. 

3 My soul is also sore vexed : 
But thou, 0 Lord, how long ? 

4 Eeturn, 0 Lord, deliver my soul : 
Oh save me for thy mercies' sake. 

5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee : 
In the grave who shall give thee thanks ? 

6 I am weary with my groaning ; 

All the night make I my bed to swim ; 

1 water my couch with my tears. 




7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; 
It waxeth old because of all mine enemies. 



PSALM VI. 31 

These verses speak the language of a heart truly humbled under humbling 
providences, of a broken and contrite spirit under great afflictions, sent on 
purpose to awaken conscience, and mortify corruption. Those heap up wrath 
who cry not when God binds them ; but those are getting ready for mercy 
who, under God's rebukes, sow in tears, as David doth here. Let us observe 
here, 

First. The representation he makes to God of his grievances. He pours out 
his complaint before him. Whither else should a child go with his complaints 
but to his father? 1. He complains of bodily pain and sickness; ver. 2, "My 
bones are vexed ; " his bones and his flesh, like Job's were touched. Though 
David was a king, yet sick and pained ; his imperial crown would not keep his 
head from aching. Great men are men, and subject to the common calamities 
of human life. Though David was a stout man, a man of war from his youth, 
yet that will not secure him from distempers, which will soon make even the 
strong men to bow themselves. Though David was a good man, yet neither 
will his goodness keep him in health; "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest 
is sick." Let this help to reconcile us to pain and sickness, that it has been the 
lot of some of the best saints, and that we are directed and encouraged by their 
example to shew before God our trouble in that case, who is for the body, and 
takes cognizance of its ailments. 2. He complains of inward trouble; "My 
soul is also sore vexed," and that is much more grievous than the vexation of the 
bones ; " The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity," if that be in good plight, 
but if that be wounded the grievance is intolerable. David's sickness brought 
his sin to his remembrance, and he looked upon it as a token of God's dis- 
pleasure against him ; and that was the vexation of his soul that made him 
cry, I am weak, heal me. It is a sad thing for a man at the same time to have 
his bones vexed and his soul vexed too. But this has been sometimes the lot of 
God's own people; nay, and this completed his complicated trouble, it was 
continued upon him a great while, which is here intimated in that expostula- 
tion, ver. 3, '* Thou, O Lord, how long ? " To the living God we must at such 
a time apply ourselves, who is the only physician, both of body and mind, and 
not to the Assyrians, not to the god of Ekron. 

Secondly. The impression which his troubles made upon him. They lay 
very heavy. He groaned till he was weary, wept till he made his bed to swim, 
and watered his couch, ver. 6. Wept till ne had almost wept his eyes out ; 
ver. 7, " Mine eye is consumed because of grief." David had more courage 
and consideration than to mourn thus for any outward affliction. But when 
sin sat heavy upon his conscience, and he was made to possess his iniquities, — 
when his soul was wounded with the sense of God's wrath, and his with- 
drawings from him, — then he takes on thus, and mourns in secret, and even his 
soul refuseth to be comforted. This not only kept his eyes waking, but kept 
his eyes weeping. Note, 1. It has often been the lot of the best men to be men 
of sorrows ; our Lord Jesus himself was so. Our way lies through a vale of 
tears, and we must accommodate ourselves to the temper of the climate. 2. It 
well becomes the greatest spirits to be tender, and to relent under the tokens 
of God's displeasure. David, that could face Goliath himself, and many another 
threatening enemy, with an undaunted bravery, yet melts into tears at the 
remembrance of sin, and under the apprehensions of Divine wrath ; and it is no 
diminution at all to his character. 3. True penitents weep in their retirements. 
The Pharisees disguised their faces, that they might appear unto men to mourn, 
but David mourns in the night upon his bed, where he lay communing with his 
own heart, and no eye was a witness to his grief but His that is all eye. Peter 
went out, covered his face, and wept. 4. Sorrow for sin ought to be great 
sorrow; so David's was; he wept so bitterly, so abundantly, that he watered 
his couch. 5. The triumphs of wicked men in the sorrows of the saints add 
very much to their grief. David's eye waxed old because of his enemies, who 
rejoiced in his afflictions, and put ill constructions upon his tears. In this great 
sorrow David was a type of Christ, who often wept, and who cried out, " My 
soul is exceeding sorrowful ;" Heb. v. 7. 

Thirdly. The petitions which he offers up to God in this sorrowful and dis- 
tressed state. 1. That which he dreads as the greatest evil is the anger of God. 
This was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery ; it was 
the infusion of this that made it indeed a bitter cup ; and therefore he prays, 
ver. 1, " O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger," though I have deserved it, 
" neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure." He doth not pray, Lord, rebuke 
me not, Lord, chasten me not; for as many as God loves he rebukes and 
chastens, "as a father the son in whom he delighteth." He can bear the rebuke 
and chastening well enough, if God at the same time lift up the light of his 
countenance upon him, and by his Spirit make him to hear the joy and gladness 
of his lovingkindness ; the affliction of his body will be tolerable, if he have 
but comfort in soul. No matter, though sickness make his bones ache, if God's 
wrath do not make his heart ache ; therefore his prayer is, "Lord, rebuke me 



32 PSALM VI. 

not in thy wrath ;" let me not lie under the impressions of that, for that will sink 
me. Herein David was a type of Christ, whose sorest complaint in his surl'erings 
was of the trouble of his soul, and of the suspension of his Father's smiles. 
He never so much as whispered a complaint of the rage of his enemies, — Why 
do they crucify me ? or the unkindness of his friends, — AVhy do they desert 
me? but he cried with a loud voice, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me?" Let us thus deprecate the wrath of God more than any outward trouble 
whatsoever, and always take heed of treasuring up wrath against a day of 
affliction. 2. That which he desires as the greatest good, and which would 
be to him the restoration of all good, is the favour and grace of God. He prays, 
1st. That God would pity him, and look upon him with compassion. He thinks 
himself very miserable, and misery is the proper object of mercy; and there- 
fore he prays, " Have mercy upon me, O Lord ;" in wrath remember mercy, and 
deal not with me in strict justice. 2nd. That God would pardon his sins : for 
that is the proper act of mercy, and is often chiefly intended in that petition, 
Have mercy upon me. 3rd. That God would put forth his power for his relief; 
"Lord, heal me," ver. 2 ; " Save me," ver. 4 ; speak the word, and I shall be whole, 
and all will be well. 4th. That he would be at peace with him ; Return, O Lord, 
receive me into thy favour again, and be reconciled to me. Thou hast seemed 
to depart from me, and neglect me ; nay, to set thyself at a distance, as one 
angry; but now, Lord, return, and shew thyself nigh to me. 5th. That he 
would especially preserve the inward man, and the interests of that, whatever 
becomes of the body; " O Lord, deliver my soul" from sinning, from sinking, 
from perishing for ever. It is an unspeakable privilege that we have a Goa 
to go to in our afflictions ; and it is our duty to go to him, and thus to wrestle 
with him, and we shall not seek in vain. 

Fourthly. The pleas with which he enforceth his petitions : not to move God, 
he knows our cause, and the true merits of it, better than we can state it ; but 
to move himself. 1. He pleads his own misery, and that his misery had con- 
tinued long. " I am weak," I am troubled, sore troubled ; O Lord, how long 
shall I be so ? 2. He pleads God's mercy, and from thence we take some of our 
best encourgements in prayer. " Save me, for thy mercy's sake." 3. He pleads 
God's glory, ver. 5, " For in death there is no remembrance of thee." Lord, if 
thou deliver me and comfort me, I will not only give thee thanks for my deliver- 
ance, and stir up othersto join with me in these thanksgivings, but I will spend 
the new life thou shalt intrust me with in thy service, to thy glory, and ail the 
remainder of my days preserve a grateful remembrance of thy favours to 
me, and be quickened thereby in all instances of service to thee ; but if I die 
I shall be cut short of that opportunity of honouring thee, and doing good to 
others ; for " in the grave, who will give thee thanks ? " Is ot but that separate 
souls live and act, and the souls of the faithful joyfully remember God, and give 
thanks to him ; but, 1st. In the second death (which perhaps David, being now 
troubled in soul under the wrath of God, had some dreadful apprehensions of) 
there is no pleasing remembrance of God ; devils and damned spirits blaspheme 
him, and do not praise him. Lord, let me not lie always under this wrath, for 
that is Sheol, it is hell itself, and lays me under an everlasting disability to praise 
thee. They that sincerely seek God's glory, and desire and delight to praise 
him, may pray in faith, Lord, send me not to that dreadful place, where there 
is no devout remembrance of thee, nor any thanks given to thee. 2nd. Even 
the death of the body puts an end to our opportunity and capacity of glorifying 
God in this world, and serving the interests of his kingdom among men, by 
opposing the powers of darkness, and bringing many on this earth to know 
God, and devote themselves to him. Some have maintained, that the joys ot 
saints in heaven are more desirable, intinitely more so, than the comforts of 
saints on earth ; yet the services of saints on earth, especially such eminent ones 
as David was, are more laudable, and redound more to the glory of the Divine 
grace, than the services of saints in heaven, who are not employed in main- 
taining the war against sin and Satan, nor in edifying the body of Christ. 
Courtiers in the royal presence are most happy, but soldiers in the field are 
more useful ; and therefore we may with good reason pray, that if it be the will 
of God, and he has any farther work for us or our friends to do in this world, he 
will yet spare us or them to serve him. To depart and be with Christ is most 
happy for the saints themselves ; but for them to abide in the flesh is more pro- 
fitable for the church. And this David had an eye to when he pleaded this, 
"In the grave, who shall give thee thanks?" Ps. xxx. 9; lxxxviii. 10; cxv. 17; 
Isa. xxxviii. 18. And this Christ had an eve to when he said, ''I pray not that 
thou shouldest take them out of the world." 

~SYe should sing these verses with a deep sense of the terrors of God's wrath, 
which we should therefore dread and deprecate above anything; ana with 
thankfulness, if this be not our condition ; and compassion to those who are thus 
afflicted. If we be thus troubled, let it comfort us, that our case is not without 
precedent ; nor, if we humble ourselves, and pray as David did, shall it be Ion?? 
without redress. 



PJSAJLM VI. 



33 



8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; 

For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping 

9 The Lord hath heard my supplication ; 
The Lord will receive my prayer. 

10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and soid vexed : 
Let them return and be ashamed suddenly. 

"What a sudden change is here for the better! He that was groaning, and 
weeping, and giving up all for gone, ver. 6, 7, here looks and speaks very plea- 
sant. Having made his requests known to God, and lodged his case with him, 
he is very confident the issue will be good, and his sorrow turned into joy. 

First. iHe distinguished himself from the wicked and ungodly, and fortifies 
himself against their insults ; ver. 8, " Depart from me, all ye workers of ini- 
quity." When he was in the depth of his distress, 1. He was afraid that God's 
wrath against him would give him his portion with the workers of iniquity ; but 
now that cloud of melancholy was blown over, he is assured that his soul shall 
not be gathered with sinners, for they are not his people. He besjan to suspect 
himself to he one of them, because of the heavy pressures of God's wrath upon 
him ; but now all his fears are silenced, he bids them depart, knowing that his 
lot is among the chosen. 2. The workers of iniquity had teazed him, and taunted 
him, and asked him, Where was his God? triumphing in his despondency and 
despair, but now he had wherewith to answer them that reproached him, for 
God was about to return in mercy to him, had now comforted his spirit, and 
would shortly complete his deliverance. 3. Perhaps they had tempted him to 
do as they did, to quit his religion, and betake himself for ease to the pleasures 
of sin. But now, "Depart from me;" I will never lend ear to your counsel; 
vou would have had me to curse God and die, but I will bless him, and live. 
This good use we should make of God's mercies to us, we should thereby 
have our resolutions strengthened never to have anything more to do with sin 
and sinners. David was a king, and he takes this occasion to renew his purpose 
of using his power for the suppression of sin, and the reformation of manners, 
Ps. lxxv. 4 ; ci. 3. When God has done great things for us, that should put us 
upon studying what we shall do for him. Our Lord Jesus seems to borrow 
these words from the mouth of his father David, when, having all judgment 
committed to him, he shall say. "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity," 
Lu. xiii. 27 ; and so teaches us to say so now, Ps. cxix. 1 15. 

Secondly. He assures himself that God was, and would be, propitious to him, 
notwithstanding the present intimations of wrath which he was under. 1. He 
is confident of a gracious answer to this prayer which he is now making. W r hile 
he is yet speaking, he is aware that God hears, as Isa. lxv. 24 ; Dan. ix. 20, and 
therefore speaks of it as a thing done, and repeats it with an air of triumph, "the 
Lord hath heard;" and again, "the Lord hath heard." By the workings of 
God's grace upon his heart, he knew his prayer was graciously accepted, and 
therefore did not doubt but it would in due time be effectually answered. His 
tears had a voice, a loud voice in the ears of the God of mercy ; and " the Lord 
hath heard the voice of my weeping." Silent tears are not speechless ones. His 
prayers were cries to God ; and " the Lord hath heard the voice of my supplica- 
tions," has put his fiat to my petitions, and so it will appear shortly. 2. From 
thence he infers the like favourable audience of all his other prayers ; he "has 
heard the voice of my supplication," and therefore he will receive my prayer ; 
for he gives, and doth not upbraid with former grants. 

Thirdly. He either prays for the conversion or predicts the destruction of his 
enemies and persecutors, ver. 10. 1. It may very well be taken as a prayer for 
their conversion. " Let them all be ashamed" of the opposition they have given 
me, and the censures they have passed upon me ; let them be (as all true peni- 
tents are) vexed at themselves for their own folly ; let them return to a better 
temper and disposition of mind, and let them be ashamed of what they have done 
against me, and take shame to themselves. 2. If they be not converted, it is a 
prediction of their confusion and ruin. They shall be ashamed, and sore vexed, 
so it may be read, and that justly ; they rejoiced that David was vexed, ver. 2, 3, 
and therefore, as usually, it returns upon themselves; they also shall be sore 
vexed. > They that will not give glory to God shall have their faces filled with 
everlasting shame. 

In singing this, and praying over it, we must give glory to God, as a God 
ready to hear prayer, must own his goodness to us in hearing our prayers, and 
must encourage ourselves to wait upon him, and to trust in him in the greatest 
straits and difficulties. 

c 



34 



PSALM VII. 



It appears by the title that this psalm was penned upon a particular occasion, which was 
the malicious imputations that David was unjustly laid under by some of his enemies. 
Being thus wronged, I. He applies himself to God for favour, ver. 1, 2. II. He appeals 
to God concerning his innocency as to those things whereof he was accused, ver. 3 — 5. 
III. He prays to God to piead his cause, and judge for him against his persecutors,' 
ver. fi— 9. IV. He expresseth his confidence in God that he would do so, and would 

return the mischief upon the h^ad of those that designed it against him, ver. 10 16. 

V. He promiseth to give God the glory of his deliverance, ver. 17. In this David was 
a type of Christ, who was himself, and still is in his members, thus injured, but will 
certainly be righted at last. 

Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the Lord, concerning the words of 
Cush the Benjamite. 

OLOPJ) my God, in thee do I put my trust : 
Save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver 

2 Lest he tear my soul like a lion, [me : 
Eending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. 

3 0 Lord my God, if I have done this ; 

If there be iniquity in my hands ; [me ; 

4 If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with 
(Yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine 

enemy :) 

5 Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it ; 
Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, 
And lay mine honour in the dust. Selah. 

6 Arise, 0 Lokd, in thine anger, 

Lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies : 
And awake for me to the judgment that thou hast com- 
manded, [about : 

7 So shall the congregation of the people compass thee 
For their sakes therefore return thou on high. 

8 The Lord shall judge the peoj)le : 

Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, 
And according to mine integrity that is in me. 

9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end ; 
But establish the just : 

For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. 

Shiggaion is a song or psalm ; the word is used so only here and Hab. iii. 1. 
A wandering song, so some ; the matter and composure of the several parts 
being different, but artificially put together. A charming song, so others ; very 
delightful. David not only penned it, but sang it himself in a devout religious 
manner unto the Lord, concerning the words or affairs of Cush the Benjamite ; 
that is, of Saul himself, whose barbarous usage of David bespoke him rather a 
Cushite, or Ethiopian, than a trueborn Israelite. Or more likely it was some 
kinsman of Saul named Cush, who was an inveterate enemy to David, misre- 
presented him to Saul as a traitor, and (which needed not) exasperated Saul 
against him ; one of those children of men, children of Belial indeed, whom 
David complains of, I Sam. xxvi. 19, that made mischief between him and Saul. 
David, thus basely abused, has recourse to the Lord. The injuries men do us 
should drive us to God, for to him we may commit our cause. Nay, he sings to 
the Lord : his spirit was not ruffled by it, nor cast down, but so composed and 
cheerful, that he was still in tune for sacred songs, and it did not occasion one 
fj;trring string of his harp. Thus let the injuries we receive from men, instead 
of provoking our passions, kindle and excite our devotions. In these verses, 



PSALM VII. 35 

First. He puts "himself under God's protection, and flies to him for succour 
and shelter; ver. 1, "Lord, save me, and deliver me" from the power and malice 
of " all them that persecute me," that they may not have their will against 
me. He pleads, ). His relation to God. Thou art my God, and therefore 
whither else should I go but to thee? Thou art my God, and therefore my 
shield, Gen. xv. 1 ; my God, and therefore I am one of thy servants who may 
expect to be protected. 2. His confidence in God. Lord, save me, for I depend 
upon thee; " in thee do I put my trust," and not in any arm of flesh. Men of 
honour will not fail those that repose a trust in them, especially if they them- 
selves have encouraged them to do so; which is our case. 3." The rage and 
malice of his enemies, and the imminent danger he was in of being swallowed 
up by them. Lord, save me or I am gone; he will tear my soul like a lion 
tearing his prey, with so mueh pride, and pleasure, and power ; so easily, so 
cruelly. St. Paul compares Nero to a lion, 2 Tim. iv. 17, as David here com- 
pares Saul. 4. The failure of all other helpers. Lord, be thou pleased to 
deliver me ; for otherwise there is none to deliver, ver. 2. It is the glory of God 
to help the helpless. 

Secondly. He makes a solemn protestation of his innoeency, as to those 
things whereof he was accused, and by a dreadful imprecation appeals to God, 
the searcher of hearts, concerning it, ver. 3 — 5. Observe, in general, 1. When 
we are falsely accused by men, it is a great comfort if our ow r n consciences 
acquit us. 

— ; —Hie mams aheneus esto 

Nil conscire sibi. 

'Be this thy brazen bulwark of defence, 
Still to preserve thy conscious innocence.' 
Not only, that they cannot prove their calumnies, Acts xxiv. 13, but that our hearts 
can disprove them to our own satisfaction. 2. God is the patron of w ronged 
innoeency. David had no court on earth to appeal to ; his prince, that should 
have righted him, w T as his sworn enemy ; but he had the court of heaven to fly 
to, and a righteous judge there, whom he could call his God. And here see, 

1st. What the indictment is which he pleads not guilty to. He was charged 
with a traitorous design against haul's crown and life, that he compassed and 
imagined to depose and murder him, and in order to that levied war against 
him. This he utterly denies. He never did this; there was no iniquity of this 
kind in his hand, ver. 3; he abhorred the thought of it. He never rewarded 
evil to Saul when' he w r as at peace with him, nor to any other, ver. 4; nay, as 
some think it should be rendered, he never rendered evil for evil, never did 
them mischief that had injured him. 

2nd. What evidence he produceth of his innoeency. It is hard to prove a nega- 
tive, and yet this was a negative which David could produce very good proof 
of; " I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy." By this it ap- 
peared beyond contradiction, that David had no design against Saul's life, that 
once and again Providence so ordered it that Saul lay at his mercy, and there 
were those about him that would soon have dispatched him, but David gene- 
rously and conscientiously prevented it, when he cut off his skirt, 1 Sam. xxiv. 4 ; 
and afterwards, when he took away his spear, 1 Sam. xxvi. 12, to be witnesses 
for him what he could have done. Saul himself owned both these to be un- 
deniable proofs of David's integrity and good affection to him. If w^e render 
good for evil, and deny ourselves the gratifications of our passion, it may turn 
to us for a testimony more than we think of another day. 

3. What doom he W'Onld submit to if he were guilty: ver. 5, "Let the enemy- 
persecute my soul" to the death, and my good name when I am gone : let him 
"lay my honour in the dust." This intimates, 1st. That if he had been indeed 
injurious to others, he had reason to expect that they would repay him in the 
same coin. He that hath his hand against every man, must count upon it that 
every man's hand will be against him. 2nd. That in that case he could not with 
any confidence go to God, and beg of him to deliver him or plead his cause, it 
is a presumptuous, dangerous tiling for any that are guilty, and suffer justly, to 
appeal to God, as if they w 7 ere innocent and suffered wrongfully ; such must 
humble themselves, and accept the punishment of their iniquity, and not expet-t 
that the righteous God will patronise their unrighteousness. 3rd. That he was 
abundantly satisfied in himself concerning his innoeency. It is natural to us 
to wish well to ourselves, and therefore a curse to ourselves if we swear falsely 
has been thought as awful a form of swearing as any other. With such an oath 
or imprecation David here ratifies the protestation of his innoeency, which yet 
will not justify us in deing the like for every light and trivial cause ; for the 
occasion here vs:as important. 

Thirdly. Having this testimony of his conscience concerning his innoeency, he 
humbly prays to God to appear for him against his persecutors, and breaks 
every petition with a proper plea, as one that knew how to order his cause 
before God. 

L He prays that God would manifest bis wrath against his enemies v asLQi 



36 PSALM VII. 

pleads their wrath against him. Lord, they are unjustly angry at me, be thou 
justly angry with them, and let them know that thou art so ; ver. 6, "in thine 
anger, lift up thyself" to the seat of judgment, and make thy power and justice 
conspicuous, " because of the rage," the furies, the outrages (the word is plural) 
" of mine enemies." Those need not fear men's wrath against them who have 
God's wrath for them. " Who knows the power of his anger ? " 

2. He prays that God would plead his cause; " Awake for me to judgment," 
that is, let my cause have a hearing, "to the judgment which thou hast com- 
manded;" that speaks, 1st. The Divine power. As he blesseth effectually, and is 
therefore said to command the blessing, so he judgeth effectually, and is there- 
fore said to command the judgment, which is such as none can countermand, 
for it certainly carries execution along with it. 2nd. The Divine purpose and 
promise. It is the judgment which thou hast determined to pass upon all the 
enemies of thy people. " Thou hast commanded" the princes and judges of the 
earth to right the injured, and vindicate the oppressed; Lord, awaken thyself 
to that judgment. He that loves righteousness, and requires it in others, will 
no doubt execute it himself: though he seem to connive at wrong as one asleep, 
he will awake in due time, Ps. lxxviii. 65; and will make it to appear that the 
delays were no neglects. He prays, ver. 7, "Return thou on high;" maintain 
thine own authority, resume thy royal throne which they have despised the 
sovereignty of, and the judgment-seat which they have despised the sentence 
of. " Return on high," that is, visibly, and in the sight of all, that it may be 
universally acknowledged, that Heaven itself owns and pleads David's cause. 
Some make this to point at the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, 
who, when he returned to heaven, (returned on high in his exalted state,) had 
all judgment committed to him. Or it may refer to his second coming, when 
he shall return on high to this world to execute judgment upon all. This 
return his injured people wait for, and pray for ; and to it they appeal from 
the unjust censures of men. He prays again, ver. 8, Judge me, judge for me, 
give sentence on my side. 

To enforce this suit, First. He pleads that his cause was now brought into 
the proper court. "The Lord shall judge the people," ver. 8. It is his place, it 
is his promise, " God is the Judge," therefore, Lord, judge me. He is the Judge 
of all the earth, and therefore no doubt he shall do right ; and all will be 
obliged to acquiesce in his judgment. Secondly. He insists upon his integrity 
as to all the matters in variance between him and Saul ; and desires no other 
but to be judged in this matter "according to his righteousness," and the 
sincerity of his heart in all the steps he had taken towards his preferment. 
Thirdly. He foretells that it would be much for the glory of God, and the 
edification and comfort of his people, if God would appear for him. _ " So shall 
the congregation of the people compass thee about ; " therefore do it for their 
sakes, that they may attend thee with their praises and services in the courts 
of thine house. \st. They will do it of their own accord. Gods appearing on 
David's behalf, and fulfilling his promise to him, would be such an instance 
of his righteousness, goodness, and faithfulness, as would greatly enlarge the 
hearts of all his faithful worshippers, and fill their mouths with praise. David 
was the darling of his country, especially of all the good people in it; and there- 
fore when they saw him in a fair way to the throne they would greatly rejoice, 
and give thanks to God. Crowds of them would attend his footstool with their 
praises for such a blessing to their land. 2nd. If David come into power, as 
pod had promised him, he would take care to bring people to church by his 
influence upon them, and the ark should not be neglected as it had been in the 
days of Saul, I Chr. xiii. 3. 

'A. He prays in general for the conversion of sinners, and the establishment 
of saints ; ver. 9, O let the wickedness," not only of my wicked enemies, but 
" of " all " the wicked come to an end; but establish the just." Here are two 
things which we every one of us must desire, and may hope for: 1st. The 
period of sin, that it may be brought to an end in ourselves and others. When 
corruption is mortified, when every wicked way and thought is forsaken, and the 
stream which ran violently towards the world and the flesh is driven back and 
runs towards God and heaven, then the wickedness of the wicked conies to an 
end ; — when there is a general reformation of manners, when atheists and 
profane are convinced and converted ; when a stop is put to the spreading of 
the infection of sin, so that evil men proceed no farther, their folly being made 
manifest ; — when the wicked designs of the church's enemies are_ baffled and 
their power broken, and the man of sin is destroyed, then " the wickedness of 
the wicked comes to an end." And this is that which all that love God, and 
for his sake hate evil, desire and pray for. 2nd. The perpetuity of righteous- 
ness ; " But establish the just." As we pray that bad may be made good, so we 
pray that the good may be made better ; that they may not be seduced by the 
wiles of the wicked, nor shocked by their malice ; that they may be confirmed 
in their choice of the w r ays of God ; and in their resolution to persevere therein ; 



PSALM VII. 37 

may be firm to the interests of God and religion, and zealous in their endeavours 
to bring " the wickedness of the wicked to an end." His plea to enforce this 
petition is, for "the righteous God trieth the hearts and the reins ;* and there- 
fore the secret wickedness of the wicked he knows, and knows how to bring 
to an end; and the secret sincerity of the just he is witness to, and has secret 
ways of establishing. 

As far as we have the testimony of an unbiassed conscience for us, that m 
any instance we are wronged and injuriously reflected on, we may, in singing 
these verses, lodge our appeal with the righteous God, and be assured that he 
will own our righteous cause, and will one day, in the last day at farthest, bring 
forth our integrity as the light. 

10 My defence is of God, 

Which saveth the upright in heart. 

11 God judge th the righteous, 

And God is angry with the wicked every day 

12 If he turn not, he will whet his sword ; 
He hath bent his bow, and made it ready. 

13 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death ; 
He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. 

14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, 
And hath conceived mischief, 
And brought forth falsehood. 

15 He made a pit, and digged it, 

And is fallen into the ditch which he made. 

16 His mischief shall return upon his own head, [pate. 
And his violent dealing shall come down upon his own 

17 I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: 
And will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. 

David having lodged his appeal with God by prayer, and a solemn profession 
of his integrity in the former part of the psalm, in this latter part doth as it 
were take out judgment upon the appeal, by faith in the Word of God, and 
the assurance it gives of the happiness and safety of the righteous, and the 
certain destruction of wicked people, that continue impenitent. 

First. David is confident he shall find God his powerful protector and 
saviour, and the patron of his oppressed innocency; ver. 10, "My defence is of 
God." Not only God is my defender, and I shall find him so. but I look for 
defence and safety in no other; my hope for shelter in a time of danger is placed 
in God alone : if I have defence, it must be of God. ' My shield is upon God.' 
so some read it; there is that in God which hath an ass'urance of protection 
to all that are his ; his name is a strong tower, Pr. xviii. 10. Two things David 
builds this confidence upon : 1. The particular favour God has for all that are 
sincere; "He saveth the upright in heart," saves them with an everlasting 
salvation, and therefore will preserve them to his heavenly kingdom; saves them 
out of their present troubles as far as is good for them ; their integrity and 
uprightness will preserve them. The upright in heart are safe, and ought to 
think themselves so, under the Divine protection. 2. The general respect 
he has for justice and equity ; " God judgeth the righteous ; " that is, he owns 
every righteous cause, and will maintain it in every righteous man, and will 
protect him. God is a righteous Judge, so some read it ; who not only doth 
righteousness himself, but will take care that righteousness be done by the 
children of men, and will avenge and punish all unrighteousness. 

Secondly, lie is no less confident of the destruction of all his wicked perse- 
cutors, even as many of them as would not repent to give glory to God. He 
reads their doom here, for their good if possible, that they might cease their 
enmity ; or, however, for his own comfort, that he might not be afraid of them, 
nor aggrieved at their prosperity and success for a time. He gGes into the 
sanctuary of God, and there understands, 1. That they are children of wrath ; 
they are not to be envied, for " God is angry'" with them '"is angry with the 
wicked every day." They are every day doing that which is provoking to him, 
and he resents it, and treasures it \ip against the day of wrath ; as his mercies 



38 PSALM VII. 

are new every morning towards his people,, so his anger is new every morning 
against the wicked, upon the fresh occasions given for it by their renewed 
transgressions. God is angry with the wicked even in the merriest and 
most prosperous of their days, even in the days of their devotion. For if 
they be sufferedto prosper, it is in Avrath; if they pray, their very prayers 
are an abomination. The wrath of God abides upon them, Jno. iii. 36 ; and 
continual additions are made to it. 2. That they are children of death, as all 
the children of wrath are; sons of perdition marked out for ruin. See their 
destruction. 

1. God will destroy them. The destruction they are reserved for is, " de- 
struction from the Almighty," which ought to be a terror to every one of us, 
for it comes from the wrath of God, ver. 13, 14. It is here intimated, 1st. That 
the destruction may be prevented by the conversion of the sinner, for it is 
threatened on that condition, "if he turn not" from his evil way, if he do not let 
fail his enmity against the people of God, then let him expect it will be his 
ruin ; but, if he turn, it is implied that his sin shall be pardoned, and ail shall 
be well. Thus even the threatenings of wrath are introduced with a gracious 
implication of mercy, enough to justify God for ever in the destruction of them 
that perish; they might have turned and lived, but they chose rather to go on 
and die, and their blood is therefore upon their own heads. 2nd. That if it be 
not thus prevented by the conversion of the sinner, it will be prepared for him 
by the justice of God. In general, ver. 13, " He hath prepared for him the instru- 
ments of death," of all that death which is the wages of sin ; if God will slay, he 
will not want instruments of death, for any creature, even the least and weakest, 
may be made so when he pleaseth. First. Here is variety of instruments, all 
which breathe threatenings and slaughter; here is a sword which wounds and 
kills at hand, a bow and arrows Avhich wound and kill at a distance those who 
think to get out of the reach of God's vindictive justice. If the sinner flees 
from the iron weapon, yet the bow of steel shall strike him through, Job xx. 24. 
Secondly. These instruments of death are all said to be made ready, God has 
them not to seek, but always at hand ; " Judgments are prepared for scorners ; 
Tophet is prepared of old." Thirdly. While God is preparing his instruments 
of death, he gives the sinners timely warning of their danger., and space to 
repent and prevent it. He is slow to punish, and " longsuti'ering to usward, 
not willing that any should perish." Fourthly. The longer the destruction is 
delayed, to give time for repentance, the sorer will it be, and the heavier will 
it light and lie for ever, if that time be not so improved; while God is waiting 
the sword is in the wlietting and the bow in the drawing. Fifthly. The 
destruction of impenitent sinners, though it come slowly, yet it comes surely; 
for it is ordained, they are of old ordained to it. Sixthly. Of all sinners, per- 
secutors are set up as the fairest marks of Divine wrath ; against them more 
than any other God has ordained his arrows. They set God at defiance, but 
cannot set themselves out of the reach of his judgments. 

2. They will destroy themselves, ver. 14 — 16. The sinner is here described 
taking a great deal of pains to ruin himself, more pains to damn his soul than 
if directed aright would save it. 1st. It is described by the pains of a labouring 
woman that brings forth a false conception, ver. 14. The sinner's head with its 
politics conceives mischief, contriver it with a great deal of art, lays his plot 
deep, and keeps it close ; the sinner's heart with its passions travails with 
iniquity, and is in pain to be delivered of the malicious projects it is hatching 
against the people of God. But what doth it come to when it comes to the 
birth? It is a falsehood, it is a cheat upon himself, it is a lie in his right hand; 
he cannot compass what he intended, nor, if he gain his point, will he gain the 
satisfaction he promised himself; he brings forth wind, Isa. xxvi. 18; stubble, 
Isa. xxxiii. 11; death, Jas. i. 15; that is, falsehood. 2nd. By the pains of a. 
labouring man that works hard to dig a pit, and then falls into it, and perishes 
in it. First. This is true in a sense of all sinners, they prepare destruction for 
themselves by preparing themselves for destruction ; loading themselves with 
guilt, and submitting themselves to their corruptions. Secondly. It is often 
remarkably true of those who contrive mischief against the people of God, or 
against their neighbours. By the righteous hand of God it is made to return 
upon their own heads ; what they designed for the shame and destruction of 
others proves to be their own confusion. 

Nec lex est justior tdla, 

Quam necis artifices arte perire sua. 

— ' There is not a juster la>\ than that the author of a murderous contrivance 
shall perish by it.' Some apply it to Saul, who fell upon his sword. 

In singing this, we must do as David here doth; ver. 17, "'praise the Lord 
according to iiis righteousness;" that is, give him the glory of that gracious 
protection under which he takes his arHicted people, and the just vengeance 
with which he will pursue them that amict them._ Thus we must sing to the 
praise of the Lord most high, who when his enemies deal proudly, shews thaw 
he is above them. 



PSALM VIII. 



3D 



This psalm is a solemn meditation on, and admiration of, the glory and greatness of God, 
which we are all concerned to think highly and honourably of. It begins and ends 
with the same acknowledgment of the transcendent excellency of God's name. It is 
proposed to be proved, ver. 1, " How excellent is thy name in all the earth." And then 
it is repeated, as proved (with a quod erat demonstrandum, — 'that which was to be 
proved,') in the last verse. For the proof of God's glory, he gives instances of his good- 
ness to man ; for God's goodness is his glory. God is to be glorified, I. For making 
known himself and his great name to us, ver. 1. II. For making use of the weakest 
of the children of men, by them to serve his own purposes, ver. 2. III. For making 
even the heavenly bodies useful to man, ver. 3, 4. IV. For making him to have 
dominion over the creatures in this lower world, and thereby placing him but a little 
lower than the angels, ver. 5 — 8. This psalm is, in the New Testament, applied to 
Christ and the work of our redemption which he wrought out; the honour given by the 
children of men to him, (compare ver. 2 with Mat. xxi. 16,) and the honour put upon 
the children of men by him, both in his humiliation, when he was made a little lower 
than the angels, and in his exaltation, when he was crowned with glory and honour: 
compare ver. 5, 6, with Heb. ii. 6 — 8 ; 1 Cor. xv. 27. When we are observing the glory 
ef God in the kingdom of nature and providence, we should be led by that, and through 
that, to the contemplation of his glory in the kingdom of grace. 



How excellent is thy name in all the earth ! 
Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings 
Hast thou ordained strength 
Because of thine enemies, 

That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 

The psalmist here sets himself to give unto God the glory due unto his name. 
Dr. Hammond grounds a conjecture upon the title of this psalm concerning the 
occasion of penning it. It is said to be upon Gittith, which is generally taken 
for the tune, or musical instrument with which this psalm was to be sung; but 
he renders it, ' upon the Gittite,' that is, Goliath the Gittite, whom he vanquished 
and slew, 1 Sam. xvii., and then by him, who was in comparison but a babe 
and suckling, Avas that enemy stilled. The conjecture would be probable 
enough, bat that we find two other psalms with the same title, Ps. lxxxi. and 
Ixxxiv. Two things David here admires : 

First. How plainly God displays his glory himself, ver. 1. He addresses 
himself to God with all humility and reverence as the Lord, and his people's 
Lord, " O Lord, our Lord." If we believe that God is the Lord, we must 
avouch and acknowledge him to be ours ; he is ours, for he made us, protects 
us, and takes special care of us. He must be ours, for we are bound to obey 
him and submit to him; we must own the relation, not only when we come to 

f)ray to God, as a plea with him to shew us mercy, but when we come to praise 
lim, as an argument with ourselves to give him glory. And we shall never 
think we can do that with affection enough, if we consider, 

1. How bright God's glory shines even in this lower world ; " How excellent 
is thy name in all the earth ! " The works of creation and providence evince 
and proclaim to all the world that there is an Infinite Being, the fountain of all 
being, power, and perfection, the Sovereign Ruler, powerful Protector, and 
bountiful Benefactor of all the creatures. How great, how illustrious, how 
magnificent is this name in all the earth : the light of it shines in men's faces 
everywhere, Rom. i. 20 ; if they shut their eyes against it, that is their fault. 
There is no speech or language but the voice of God's name either is heard in 
it or may be. But this looks farther, to the Gospel of Christ, by which the 
name of God as it is notified by Divine revelation, which before was great in 
Israel only, came to be so in all the earth, the utmost ends of which have thus 
been made to see God's great salvation, Mar. xvi. 16. 

2. How much brighter it shines in the upper world ; Thou " hast set thy glory 
above the heavens." 1st. God is infinitely more glorious and excellent than the 
noblest creatures, and those that shine brightest. 2nd. Whereas we on this 
earth only hear God's excellent name, and praise that, the angels and blessed 
spirits above see his glory and praise that, and yet he is exalted far above even 
their blessing and praise. 3rd. In the exaltation of the Lord Jesus to the right 
hand of God, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image 
of his person, God set his glory above the heavens, far above all principalities 
and powers. 



To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David. 




LORD our Lord, 



40 PSALM VIII. 

Secondly. How powerfully he discovers it by the weakest of his creatures : 
rer. 2, " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, 
or perfected praise, the praise of thy strength, Mat. xxi. 16. This speaks the 
glory of God, 

1. In the kingdom of nature. The care God takes of little children when 
they first come into the world, the most helpless of all animals, the special 
protection they are under, and the provision nature has made for them, ought 
to be acknowledged by every one of us to the glory of God, as a great instance 
of his power and goodness, and the more sensibly, because we nave all had the 
benefit of it, for to this we owe it that we died not from the womb, that the 
knees then prevented us, and the breasts that we should suck ; this is such an 
instance of thy goodness as may for ever put to silence the enemies of thy glory, 
who say, " There is no God." 2. In the kingdom of providence. In the govern- 
ment of this lower world, he makes much use of the children of men, some that 
know him, and others that do not, Isa. xlv. 4, and these such as have been 
babes and sucklings ; nay, sometimes he is pleased to serve his own purposes by 
the ministry of such as are still, in wisdom and strength, little better than babes 
and sucklings. 3. In the kingdom of grace, the kingdom of the Messiah. It is 
here foretold, that by the apostles, who were looked upon but as babes, un- 
learned and ignorant men, Acts iv. 13, mean and despicable, and by the foolish- 
ness of their preaching, the devil's kingdom should be thrown down, as Jericho's 
walls were by the sound of ram's horns. The Gospel is called the arm of the 
Lord, and the rod of his strength. This was ordained to work wonders, not out 
of the mouth of philosophers or orators, politicians or statesmen, but of a com- 
pany of poor fishermen, who lay under the greatest external disadvantages that 
could be ; and a specimen was given of this in the children's crying, Hosanna 
to the Son of David, when the chief priests and the Pharisees owned him not, 
but despised and rejected him; to that therefore our Saviour applies this, 
Mat. xxi. 16, and by it stilled the enemy. Sometimes the grace of God appears 
wonderfully in young children, and he "teacheth them knowledge, and maketh 
them to understand doctrine, who are but newly weaned from the milk, and 
drawn from the breasts," Isa. xxviii. 9. Sometimes the power of God brings to 
pass great things in his church by very weak and unlikely instruments, and 
confounds the noble, wise, and mighty, by the base, and weak, and foolish 
things of the world, that no flesh might glory in his presence, but the excellency 
of the power may the more evidently appear to be of God, and not of man, 
1 Cor. i. 27, 28. This he doth because of his enemies, because they are insolent 
and haughty, that he may still them, may put them to silence, and put them to 
shame, and so be justly avenged on the avengers : see Acts iv. 14; vi. 10. The 
devil is the great enemy and avenger; and by the preaching of the Gospel he 
was in a great measure stilled, his oracles were silenced, the advocates of his 
cause were confounded, and unclean spirits themselves not suffered to speak. 

In singing this let us give God the glory of his great name, and the great 
things he has done by the power of his Gospel, in the chariot of which the 
exalted Redeemer rides forth, conquering and to conquer, and ought to be 
attended not only with our praises, but with our best wishes ; praise is per- 
fected, that is, God is in the highest degree glorified, when strength is ordained 
out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. 

-3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, 
The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained : 

4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? 
And the son of man, that thou visitest him ? 

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, 
And hast crowned him with glory and honour. 

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of 
Thou hast put all things under his feet : [thy hands ; 

7 All sheep and oxen, 

Yea, and the beasts of the field; 

8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, 

And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 

9 0 Lord our Lord, 

How excellent is thy name in all the earth ! 



PSALM VIII. 41 

David here goes on to magnify the honour of God, by recounting the honours 
he has put upon man ; especially the man Christ Jesus. The condescensions of 
the Divine grace call for our praises as much as the elevations of the Divine 
glory ; how God has condescended in favour to man, the psalmist here observes 
with wonder and thankfulness, and recommends it to our thoughts. See here, 

First. What it is that leads him to admire the condescending favour of God 
to man. It is his consideration of the lustre and influence of the heavenly 
bodies, which are within the view of sense ; ver. 3, " I consider thy heavens, ' 
and there particularly "the moon and the stars." But why doth he not take 
notice of the sun, which much excelleth them all? Probably because it was in 
a ni§ht walk by moonlight that he entertained and instructed himself with this 
meditation, when the sun was not within view, but only the moon and the stars; 
which, though they are not altogether so serviceable to man as the sun is, yet 
are no less demonstrations of the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator. 
Observe, 1. It is our duty to consider the heavens. We see them, we cannot 
but see them ; by this, among other things, man is distinguished from the beast, 
that while they are so framed as to look downwards to the earth, man is made 
erect, to look upward towards heaven. Os homini sublime dedit ccelumque tueri 
jussit, — ' To man he gave an erect countenance, and bade him look towards 
heaven,' that thus he may be directed to set his affections on things above ; for 
what we see has not its due influence upon us unless we consider it. 2. We 
must always consider the heavens as God's heavens, not only as all the world 
is his, even the earth, and the fulness thereof, but in a more peculiar manner, 
" the heavens, even the heavens are the Lord's," Ps. cxv. 16 ; they are the place 
of the residence of his glory, and we are taught to call him, Our Father in 
heaven. 3. They are therefore his, because they are the work of his fingers; he 
made them, he made them easily. The stretching out of the heavens needed not 
any outstretched arm, it was done with a word, it was but the work of his 
fingers. He made them with very great curiosity and fineness, like a nice piece 
of work, which the artist makes with his fingers. 4. Even the lesser lights, the 
moon and stars, shew the glory and power of the Father of lights, and furnish 
us with matter for praise. 5. The heavenly bodies are not only the creatures of 
the Divine power, but subjects to the Divine government. God not only made 
them, but ordained them; and the ordinances of heaven can never be altered. 
But how doth this come in here to magnify God's favour to man ? 1st. When we 
consider how the glory of God shines in the upper world, we may well wonder 
he should take cognizance of such a mean creature as man : that he who is resi- 
dent in and president over that bright and blessed part of the creation, should 
humble himself to behold the things done upon this earth : see Ps. cxiii. 5, 6. 
2nd. When we consider of what great use the heavens are to men on earth, and 
how the lights of heaven are divided unto all nations, Deu. iv. 19, Gen. i. 15, 
we may well say, " Lord, what is man," that thou shouldst settle the ordinances 
of heaven with an eye to him, and to his benefit, and that his comfort and con- 
venience should be so much consulted in the making of the lights of heaven, and 
directing their motions ! 

Secondly. How he expresseth this admiration ; ver. 4, " Lord, what is man," 
Enosh, sinful, weak, miserable man, a creature so forgetful of thee, and his duty 
to thee, "that thou art" thus "mindful of him," that thou takest cognizance of 
him, and of his actions and affairs, that in the making of the world thou hadst a 
respect to him? What is "the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Dost not 
only feed him and clothe him, protect him and provide for him, in common with 
other creatures, but visitest him, as one friend visits another, art pleased to 
converse with him, and concern thyself for him? What is man, so mean a crea- 
ture, that he should be thus honoured ; so sinful a creature^ that he should be 
thus countenanced and favoured ? Now this refers, 

1. To mankind in general. Though "man is a worm, and the son of man is a 
worm," Job xxv. 6, yet God puts a respect upon him, and shews him abundance 
of kindness. Man is above all the creatures in this lower world the favourite 
and darling of Providence. For, 

1st. He is of a very honourable rank of beings. We may be sure he takes 
place of all the inhabitants of this lower world, for he is made but "a little 
lower than the angels," ver. 5 ; lower indeed, because by his body he is allied to 
the earth, and to the beasts that perish ; and yet by his soul, which is spiritual 
and immortal, he is so near akin to the holy angels, that he may be truly said to 
be but a little lower than they, and is in order next to them. He is but for a 
little while lower than the angels, while his great soul is cooped up in a house 
of clay ; but the children of the resurrection shall be la-dyyeXoi, — ' angels' peers/ 
Lu. xx. 36, and no longer lower than they. 

2nd. He is endued with noble faculties and capacities; "Thou hast crowned 
him with glory and honour." He that gave him his being has distinguished him, 
and qualified him for a dominion over the inferior creatures ; for having "made 



42 PSALM IX. 

him wiser than the beasts of the earth, and the fowls of heaven," Job xxxr. !!, 
he has made him fit to rule them, and it is fit they should be ruled by him. 
Man's reason is his crown of glory; let him not profane that crown by disturb- 
ing the use of it, nor forfeit that crown by acting contrary to its dictates. 

3rd. He is invested with a sovereign dominion over the inferior creatures, 
under God, and is constituted their lord. He that made them, and knows them, 
and whose own they are, has "made man to have dominion over them," ver. 6. 
His charter, by which he holds this royalty, bears equal date w r ith his creation, 
Gen. i. 28, and was renewed after the flood, Gen. ix. 2. God has put all things 
under man's feet, that he might serve himself not only of the labour, but of the 
products and lives, of the inferior creatures; they are all delivered into his 
hand, nay, they are all put under his feet. He instanceth in some of the inferior 
animals, ver. 7, 3 ; not only sheep and oxen, which man takes care of and provides 
for, but the beasts of the field, as well as those of the flood; yea, and those 
creatures which are most at a distance from man, as the fowl of the air, yea, 
and the fish of the sea, which live in another element, and pass unseen through 
the paths of the seas. Man has arts to take these ; though many of them are 
much stronger, and many of them much swifter than he, yet one way or other 
he is too hard for them ; Jas. hi. 7, " Every kind of beasts and birds and things 
in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed;" he has likewise liberty to use them 
as he has occasion ; " Rise, Peter, kill and eat," Acts x. 13. Every dish of fish 
and fowl that comes to our table is an instance of this dominion man has over 
the works of God's hands, and it is a reason for om* subjection to God our chief 
Lord, and to his dominion over us. 

2. But this refers in a particular manner to Jesus Christ ; of him we are taught 
to expound it Heb. ii. 6 — 8, where the apostle, to prove the sovereign dominion 
of Christ, both in heaven and in earth, shews that he is that man, that Son of 
man, here spoken of, whom God has crowned with glory and honour, and made 
to have dominion over the works of his hands. And it is certain that the greatest 
favour that ever was shewed to the human race, and the greatest honour that 
ever was put upon the human nature, was by the incarnation and exaltation of 
the Lord Jesus, far beyond the favours and honours done us by creation and 
providence ; though those also are great and far more than we deserve. We 
have reason humbly to value ourselves by it, and thankfully to admire the grace 
of God in it. 

1st. That Jesus Christ assumed the nature of man, and in that nature humbled 
himself. He became the Son of man, a partaker of flesh and blood ; being so, 
God visited him; which some apply to his sufferings for us, for it is said, 
Htb. ii. 9, by "the suffering of death," a visitation in wrath, "he was crownea 
with glory and honour." God visited him, that is, having laid upon him the 
iniquity of us all, he reckoned with him for it, visited him with a rod, and with 
stripes, that we by them might be healed. He was for a little while (so the 
apostle interprets it) made lower than the angels, when he took upon him the 
form of a servant, and made himself of no reputation. 

2nd. That in that nature he is exalted to be Lord of all; God the Father 
exalted him because he had humbled himself; crowned him with glory and 
honour, the glory which he had with him before the worlds were; set him at 
his own right hand ; constituted him not only the head of the church, but head 
over all things to the church ; and gave all things into his hand, intrusted him 
with the administration of the kingdom of providence in conjunction with, and 
subserviency to, the kingdom of grace. All the creatures are put under his feet, 
and even in the days of his flesh he gave some specimens of his power over 
them, as when he commanded the winds and the seas, and appointed a fish to 
pay his tribute. 

With good reason therefore doth the psalmist conclude as he began, " Lord, 
how excellent is thy name in all the earth ! " which has been honoured with the 
presence of the Redeemer, and is still enlightened by his Gospel, and governed 
by his wisdom and power. And in singing this, and praying over it, though we 
must not forget to acknowledge with suitable affections God's common favours 
to mankind, particularly in the serviceableness of the inferior creatures to us, 
yet we must especially set ourselves to give glory to our Lord Jesus, by con- 
fessing that he is Lord, and submitting to him as our Lord, and waiting till we 
see all things put under him, and all his enemies made his footstool. 



PSALM IX. 

In this psalm, I. David praiseth God for pleading his cause, and giving him victory over 
his enemies, and the enemies of his country, ver. 1 — 6, and calls upon others to join 
with him in his songs of praise, ver. 11, 12. II. He prays to God that he might still 
have farther occasion to praise him, .for his own deliverances, and the confusion of his 
enemies, ver. 13, 14, 19, 20. III. He triumphs in the assurance he had of God's judging 
the world, ver. 7, 8; protecting his oppressed people, ver. 9 10, IS; and bringing his 



PSALM IX. 43 

and their implacable enemies to ruin, ver. 15 — 17. And this is very applicable to the 
kingdom of the Messiah, the enemies of which have been in part destroyed already, and 
shall be yet more and more, till they all be made his footstool, which we are to assure 
ourselves of, that God may have the glory, and we may take the comfort. 

To the chief Musician upon Muth-labben, A Psalm of David. 

I WILL praise thee, 0 Lord, with my whole heart ; 
I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. 

2 I will be glad and rejoice in thee : 

I will sing praise to thy name, 0 thou most High. 

3 When mine enemies are turned back, 
They shall fall and perish at thy presence. 

4 For thou hast maintained my right and my cause ; 
Thou satest in the throne judging right. 

5 Thou hast rebuked the heathen, 
Thou hast destroyed the wicked, 

Thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. 

6 0 thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end : 
And thou hast destroyed cities ; 

Their memorial is perished with them. 

7 But the Lord shall endure for ever : 

He hath prepared his throne for judgment. 

8 And he shall judge the world in righteousness, 

He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. 

9 The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, 
A refuge in times of trouble. 

J 0 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee : 
For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. 

The title of this psalm gives a very uncertain sound concerning the occasion 
of penning it. It is upon Muthlabben, which some make to refer to the death 
of Goliath, others to Nabal, others of Absalom, but I incline to think it sig- 
nifies only some tune or musical instrument to which this psalm was intended 
to be sung; and that the enemies he is here triumphing in the defeat of are the 
Philistines, and other the neighbour nations that opposed his settlement in the 
throne, whom he contested with, and subdued in the beginning of his reign, 
2 Sam. v. and viii. In these verses, 

First. David excites and engages himself to praise God for his mercies, and 
the great things he had of late done for him and his government, ver. 1, 2. 
Note, I. God expects suitable returns of praise from those for whom he has 
done marvellous works. 2. If we would praise God acceptably, we must 
praise him in sincerity with our hearts, and not only with our lips, and be 
lively and fervent in the duty, with our whole heart. 3. When we give thanks 
for some one particular mercy, we should take occasion from thence to remem- 
ber former mercies, and so to " shew forth all his marvellous works." 4. Holy 
joy is the life of thankful praise, as thankful praise is the language of holy joy ; 
**! will be glad and rejoice in thee." 5. Whatever occurs to make us glad, our 
joy must pass through it, and terminate in God only ; " I will be glad and 
rejoice in thee," not in the gift so much as in the Giver. 6. Joy and praise are 
properly expressed by singing of psalms. 7. When God has shewed himself to 
be above the proud enemies of the church, we must take occasion from thence 
to give glory to him as the Most High. 8. The triumphs of the Redeemer 
ought to be the triumphs of the redeemed : see Rev. xii. 10 ; xix. 5; xv. 3, 4. 

Secondly. He acknowledges the almighty power of God, as that which the 
strongest and stoutest of his enemies were no way able to contest with or 
stand before, ver. 3. But, 1. They are forced to turn back, their policy and 
their courage fail them, so that they cannot, they dare not, push forward in 
their enterprises, but retire with precipitation. 2. When once they turn back, 



44 PSALM IX. 

they fall and perish, even their retreat will be their ruin, and they will save 
themselves no more by flying than by fighting. If Haman begin to fall before 
Mordecai he is a gone man, and shall prevail no more : see list. vi. 13. 3. The 
presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, is sufficient for the destruc- 
tion of his and his people's enemies. That is easily done which a man doth 
with his very presence ; with that God confounds his enemies, such a presence 
has he. This was fulfilled when our Lord Jesus with one word, " I am he," made 
his enemies to fall back at his presence, Jno. xviii. 6, and at the same time could 
have made them perish. _ 4. When the enemies of God's church are put to con- 
fusion, w r e must ascribe it to the power, not of instruments, but of his presence, 
and give him all the glory. 

Thirdly. He gives to God the glory of his righteousness in his appearing on 
his behalf; ver. 4, "Thou hast maintained my right and my cause;" that is, 
my righteous cause, when that came on, "thou satest in the throne judging 
right." Observe, I. God sits in the throne of judgment. To him it belongs to 
decide controversies, determine appeals, to right the injured, and to punish the 
injurious; for he hath said, "Vengeance is mine." 2. We are sure that the 
judgment of God is according to truth, and with him there is no unrighteous- 
ness. Far be it from God that he should pervert justice. If there seem to 
us to be some irregularity in the present decisions of Providence, yet those 
instead of shaking our belief of God's justice, may seem to strengthen our 
belief of the judgment to come, which will set all to rights. 3. W 7 hoever 
disown and desert a just and injured cause, we may be sure that the righteous 
God will maintain it, and plead it with jealousy, and will never suffer it to be 
run down. 

Fourthly. He records with joy the triumphs of the God of heaven over all 
the powers of hell, and attends those triumphs with his praises, ver. 5. By 
three steps the power and justice of God had proceeded against the heathen 
and wicked people that were enemies to the king God had lately set up upon 
his holy hill of Zion. 1. He had checked them; "Thou hast rebuked the 
heathen ; " that is, hast given them real proofs of thy displeasure against them. 
This he did before he destroyed them, that they might have taken warning 
by the rebukes of Providence, and so have prevented their own destruction. 
2. He had cut them off ; "Thou hast destroyed the wicked." The wicked are 
marked for destruction, and some are made monuments of God's vindictive 
justice and destructive power in this world. 3. He had buried them in obli- 
vion and perpetual infamy : had " put out their name for ever," that they should 
never be remembered with any respect. 

Fifthly. He insults over the enemy whom God thus appears against; ver. 6, 
"Thou hast destroyed cities." Either, thou, O enemy, hast destroyed our 
cities, at least in intention and imagination; or, thou, O God, hast destroyed 
their cities by the desolation brought upon their country. It may be taken 
either way, for the psalmist will have the enemy to know, 1. That their 
destruction is just; and Godwas but reckoning with them for all the mischief 
which they had done and designed against his people. The malicious and vex- 
atious neighbours of Israel, as the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites. 
and Syrians, had made incursions upon them when there was no king in Israel 
to fight their battles, had destroyed their cities, and done what they could to 
make their memorial perish with them ; but now the wheel wae turned upon 
them, their destructions of Israel were come to a perpetual end, they shall now 
cease to spoil, and must themselves be spoiled, Isa. xxxiii. 1. 2. That it is total 
and final ; such a destruction as should make a perpetual end of them, so that 
the very memorial of their cities should perish with them. So devouring a 
thing is time. And much more such desolations do the righteous judgments 
of God make upon sinners, that great and populous cities have been reduced 
to such ruins, that their very memorial is perished, and those that have sought 
them could not find where they stood. But we look for a city that has stronger 
foundations than so. 

Sixthly. He comforts himself and others in God, and pleaseth himself with 
the thoughts of him. 

1. With the thoughts of his eternity. On this earth we see nothing durable, 
even strong cities are buried in rubbish, and forgotten, " but the Lord shall 
endure for ever," ver. 7. There is no change of his being ; his felicity, power, 
and perfection, are out of the reach of all the combined forces of hell ana 
earth ; they may put an end to our liberties, our privileges, our lives, but our 
God is still the same, and sits even upon the floods, unshaken, undisturbed, 
Ps. xxix. 10 ; xciii. 2. 

2. With the thoughts of his sovereignty both in government and judgment. 
He hath prepared Yiis throne, has fixed it by his infinite wisdom, has fixed it by 
his immutable counsel. It is the great support and comfort of good people 
when the power of the church's enemies is threatening, and the posture of its 
affairs melancholy and perplexed, that God doth now rule the world, and will 
shortly judge the world. 



PSALM IX. 45 

3. "With the thoughts of his justice and righteousness in all the administra- 
tions of his government. He doth all every day, he will do all at the last day, 
according to the eternal, unalterable rules of equity; ver. 8, " He shall judge 
the world," all persons, and all controversies ; " shall minister judgment to the 
people," shall determine their lot both in this and in the future state, "in 
righteousness and in uprightness," so that there shall not be the least colour of 
exception against it. 

4. With the thoughts of that peculiar favour which God bears to his own 
people, and the special protection which he takes them under. The Lord that 
endures for ever is their everlasting strength and protection. He that judgeth 
the world will be sure to judge for them, when at any' time they are injured or 
distressed, ver. 9. He "will be a refuge for the oppressed;" a high place, a 
strong place, "for the oppressed in times of trouble." It is the lot of God's 
people to be oppressed in this world, and to have troublous times appointed to 
them. Perhaps God may not presently appear for them as their deliverer and 
avenger, but in the midst of their distresses they may by faith fly to him as 
their refuge, and may depend upon his power and promise for their safety, so 
that no real hurt shall be done them. 

5. With the thoughts of that sweet satisfaction and repose of mind which 
they have that make God their refuge ; ver. 10, " They that know thy name will 
put their trust in thee," as I have done, for the grace of God is the same in all 
the saints, and then they will find, as I have found, that "thou dost not forsake 
them that seek thee," for the favour of God is the same towards all the saints. 
Note, 1st. The better God is known, the more he is trusted. Those who 
know him to be a God of infinite wisdom will trust him farther than they can 
see him, Job xxxv. 14; to be a God of almighty power, will trust him when 
creature confidences fail, and they have nothing else to trust to, 2 Chr. xx. 12; 
and to be a God of infinite grace and goodness, will trust him though he slay 
them, Job xiii. 15. Those that know him to be a God of inviolable truth and 
faithfulness will rejoice in his word of promise and rest upon that, though the 
performance be deferred, and intermediate providences seem to contradict it. 
Those that know him to be the Father of spirits, and an everlasting Father, 
will trust him with their souls as their main care; and trust in him at all times, 
even to the end. 2nd. The more God is trusted, the more he is sought unto. 
If we trust God, we will seek him by faithful and fervent prayer, and by a 
constant care to approve ourselves to him in the whole course of our conversa- 
tion. 3rd. God never did nor ever will disown or desert any*that duly seek to 
him and trust in him. Though he afflict them he doth not leave them, he doth 
not leave them comfortless; though he seem to forsake them for a while, yet 
he will gather them with everlasting mercies. 

11 Sing praises to the Lord, which clwelleth in Zion : 
Declare among the people his doings. [them : 

12 When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth 
He forgetteth not the cry of the humble. 

1 3 Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord ; 

Consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, 
Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death : 

1 4 That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the 
I will rejoice in thy salvation. [daughter of Zion 

] 5 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made : 
In the net which they hid is their own foot taken. 

16 The Lord is known by the judgment which he exe- 

cuteth : [Higgaion. Selah. 

The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. 

1 7 The wicked shall be turned into hell, 
And all the nations that forget God. 

18 For the needy shall not alway be forgotten : 

The expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever. 



46 PSALM IX. 

19 Arise, 0 Lord ; let not man prevail : 
Let the heathen be judged in thy sight. 

20 Put them in fear, 0 Loud : [Selah. 
That the nations may know themselves to be but men. 

In these verses, 

First. David, having praised God himself, calls upon and invites others to 
praise him likewise, ver. 11. Those who believe God is greatly to be praised 
not only desire to do that work better themselves, but desire that others also 
may join with them in it, and would gladly be instrumental to bring them to it, 
"Sing praises to the Lord which dwelleth in Zion." As the special residence 
of his glory is in heaven, so the special residence of his grace is in his church, 
of which Zion was a type. There he meets his people with his promises and 
graces, and there he expects they should meet him with their praises and cer- 
vices. In all our praises we should have an eye to God as dwelling in Zion, in 
a special manner present in the assemblies of his people, as their protector and 
patron. He resolved himself to shew forth God's marvellous works, ver. 2, 
and here he called uponothers to " declare among the people his doings ;" he 
commands his own subjects to do it, for the honour of God^ of their country, 
and of their holy religion ; he courts his neighbours to do it; to sing praises, not 
as hitherto to their false gods, but to Jehovah who dwelleth in Zion, to the God 
of Israel, and to own among the heathen that the Lord has done great things 
for his people Israel, Ps. cxxvi. 3, 4. Let them particularly take notice of the 
justice of God in avenging the blood of his people Israel on the Philistines, and 
other their wicked neighbours, who had in making war upon them used them 
barbarously and given them no quarter, ver. 12. When God comes to make 
inquisition for blood, by his judgments on earth, before he comes to do it by the 
judgment of the great day, he remembereth them, remembers every drop of 
the innocent blood which they have shed, and will return it sevenfold upon 
the head of the bloodthirsty. He will give them blood to drink, for they are 
worthy. This assurance he might well build upon that word, Deu. xxxii. 43, 
"He will avenge the blood of his servants/' Note, There is a day coming 
when God will make inquisition for blood, when he will discover what has 
been shed secretly, and revenge what has been shed unjustly : see Isa. xxvi. 21 ; 
Jer. li. 35. In that day it will appear how precious the blood of God's people 
is to him, Ps. lxxii. 14, when it must all be accounted for. It will then appear 
that he has not forgotten the cry of the humble, nor the cry of their blood, 
nor the cry of their prayers, but both are sealed up among his treasures. 

Secondly. David, having praised God for former mercies and deliverances, 
earnestly prays that God would still appear for him; for he sees not yet all 
things put under him. He prays, 1. That God would be compassionate to 
him: ver. 13, "Have mercy upon me," who having misery only, and not merit, 
to speak for me, must depend upon mere mercy for relief. 2. That he would 
be concerned for him. He is not particular in his requests, lest he should seem 
to prescribe to God, but refers himself to the wisdom and will of God in this 
modest request, " Lord, consider my trouble," and do for me as thou thinkest 
fit. He pleads, 1st. The malice of his enemies, the trouble which he suffered 
of them that hated him ; and hatred is a cruel passion. 2nd. The experience 
he had had of Divine succours, and the expectation he now had of the con- 
tinuance of them, as the necessity of his case required. O thou that liftest me 
up, that canst do it, that hast done it, that wilt do it, whose prerogative it is to 
lift up thy people from the gates of death. We are never brought so low, so 
near to death, but God can raise us up. If he has saved us from spiritual and 
eternal death, we may from thence take encouragement to hope that in all our 
distresses he will be a very present help to us. 3rd. His sincere purpose to 
praise God when his victories shall be completed, ver. 14. Lord, save me, not 
that I may have the comfort and credit of it, but that thou mayest have the 
glory, " That I may shew forth all thy praise;" and that publicly, "in the gates 
of the daughter of Zion." There God was said to dwell, ver. 11, and there David 
would attend him, with joy in God's salvation, typical of the great salvation 
which was to be wrought out by the Sou of David. 

Thirdly. David by faith foresees and foretells the certain ruin of all wicked 
people both in this world and in that to come. 

1. In this world, ver. 15, 16. God executeth judgment upon them when the 
measure of their iniquities is full, and doth it so as, 1st. To put shame upon 
them, and make their fall inglorious, for they sink into the pit which they 
themselves digged, Ps. vii. 15 ; they are taken in the net which they themselves 
laid for the ensnaring of God's people, and they are snared in the work of their 
own hands. In all the struggles David had with the Philistines they were the 
aggressors, 2 Sam. v. 22. And other nations were subdued by those wars in 
which they enioroiled themselves. And many times the overruling providence 



PSALM X. 



47 



ol God so orders it, that their persecutors and oppressors are brought to ruin 
by those very projects which they intended to be destructive to the people of 
God. Drunkards kill themselves; prodigals beggar themselves; the conten- 
tious bring mischief upon themselves; and thus men's sins may be read in their 
punishment, and it becomes visible to all, that the destruction of sinners is 
not only meritoriously but efficiently of themselves, which will fill them with 
the utmost confusion. 2nd. So as to get honour to himself. " The Lord is 
known;" that is, he makes himself known "by these judgments which he 
executeth." It is known there is a God who judgeth in the earth; that he 
is a righteous God, and one that hates sin, and will punish it. In these the 
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighte- 
ousness of men; and therefore the psalmist adds here a note extraordinary, 
commanding special regard, Higgaion ; it is a thing to be carefully observed 
and meditated upon. What we see of present judgments, and what we believe 
of the judgment to come, ought to be the subject of our frequent and serious 
meditations. 

2. In the other world, ver. 17. " The wicked shall be turned into hell," as cap- 
tives into the prison-house, even "all the nations that forget God." Note, 1. That 
forgetfulness of God is the cause of all the wickedness of the wicked. 2. There 
are nations of those that forget God, multitudes that live without God in the 
-world, many great and mighty nations who never regard him, nor desire the 
knowledge of his ways. 3. Hell will at last be the portion of such, a state of 
everlasting misery and torment; Sheol, a pit of destruction, in which they and 
all their comforts will be for ever lost and buried. Though there be nations 
of them, yet they shall be turned into hell, like sheep into the slaughter-house, 
Ps. xlix. 14; and their being so numerous will neither be any security or ease 
to them, nor any loss to God, or the least impeachment of his goodness. 

Fourthly. David encourageth the people of God to wait for his salvation, 
though it should be long deferred, ver. 18. The needy may think themselves, 
and others may think them, forgotten for a while, and their expectation of help 
from God may seem to have perished, and to have been for ever frustrated; 
but he that believeth doth not make haste, the vision is for an appointed time, 
and at the end it shall speak. We may build upon it as undoubtedly true, that 
God's people, God's elect, shall not always be forgotten, nor shall they be dis- 
appointed of their hopes from the promise. God will not only remember them 
at last, but will make it appear that he never did forget them. It is impossible 
he should, though a woman may forget her sucking child. 

Fifthly. He concludes with prayer that God would humble the pride, break 
the power, and blast the projects of all the wicked enemies of his church; 
"Arise, O Lord," ver. 19, stir up thyself, exert thy power, take thy seat, and 
deal with all these proud and daring enemies of thy name, and cause, and 
people. 1. Lord, restrain them, and set bounds to their malice. " Let not man 
prevail;" consult thine own honour, and let not weak and mortal men prevail 
against the kingdom and interest of the almighty and immortal God. " Shall 
mortal man be too hard for God, too strong for his Maker?" 2. Lord, reckon 
with them, "Let the heathen be judged in thy sight;" that is, let them be 
plainly called to an account for all the dishonour done to thee, and the mischief 
done to thy people. Impenitent sinners will be punished in God's sight, and 
when their day of grace is over the bowels even of infinite mercy will not 
relent towards them, Rev. xiv. 10. 3. Lord, frighten them; ver. 20, "Put them 
in fear, O Lord." Or, strike a terror upon them, make them afraid with thy 
judgments. God knows how to make the strongest and stoutest of men to 
tremble, and to flee when none pursues; and thereby he makes them know 
that they are but men, and own it; they are but weak men, unable to stand 
before the holy God; sinful men, the guilt of whose consciences makes them 
subject to frights. Note, It is a very desirable thing, much for the glory of 
God, and the peace and welfare of the universe, that men should know and 
consider themselves to be but men ; depending creatures ; mutable, mortal, and 
accountable. 

In singing this, we must give to God the glory of his justice in pleading his 
people's cause against his and their enemies, and encourage ourselves to wait 
for the year of the redeemed, and the year of recompences for the controversy 
of Zion, even the final destruction of all antichristian powers and factions, to 
which many of the ancients apply this psalm. 

PSALM X. 

The Septuagint translation joins this psalm with the 9th, and makes them but one ; hut 
the Hebrew makes it a distinct psalm, and the scope and style is different. In this 
psalm, 1. David complains of the wickedness of the wicked, and describes the mighty 
pitch of impiety to which they were arrived, to the gre-at dishonour of God, and the 
prejudice of his church and people, and the delay of God's appearing against them, 
ver. 1 — 11. II. He prays to God to appear against them for the relief of his people, and 
comforts himself with hopes that he would do so in due time, ver. 12— IS. 



48 



PSALM X. 



XITHY standest thou afar off, 0 Lord ? 
? T Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? 

2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor : 

Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined 

3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, 

And blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. 

4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will 
God is not in all his thoughts. [not seek after God : 

5 His ways are always grievous ; 

Thy judgments are far above out of his sight . 
As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. 

6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved : 
For / shall never he in adversity 

7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud : 
Under his tongue is mischief and vanity 

8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: 
In the secret places doth he murder the innocent : 
His eyes are privily set against the poor. 

9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den : 
He lieth in wait to catch the poor : 

He doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. 

10 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, 
That the poor may fall by his strong ones. 

11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten : 
He hideth his face ; he will never see it. 

David in these verses discovers, 

First. A very great affection to God and his favour; for in the time of 
trouble that which he complains of most feelingly is, God's withdrawing his 
gracious presence ; ver. 1, " Why standest thou afar off," as one unconcerned 
in the indignities done to thy name, and the injuries done to thy people? 
j^ote, God's withdrawings are very grievous to his people at any time, but 
especially "in times of trouble." Outward deliverance is afar off, and is 
hidden from us, and then we think God is afar off, and we therefore want 
inward comfort; but that is our own fault, it is because we judge by outward 
appearance; we stand afar off from God by our unbelief, and then we complain 
that God stands afar off from us. 

Secondly. A very great indignation against sin, the sins that made the times 
perilous, 2 Tim. iii. 1. He beholds the transgressors, and is grieved, is amazed, 
and brings to his heavenly Father their evil report; not in a way of vainglory, 
boasting before God that he was not as these publicans, Lu. xviii. 11, much less 
venting any personal resentments, piques, or passions of his own ; but as one 
that laid to heart that which is offensive to God and all good men, and ear- 
nestly desired a reformation of manners. ^ Passionate and satirical invectives 
against bad men do more hurt than good ; if we will speak of their badness, let 
it be to God in prayer, for he alone can make them better. This long remon- 
strance of the wickedness of the wicked is here summed up in the first v* r ords 
of it ; ver. 2, " The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor," where two 
things are laid to their charge, pride and persecution ; the former the cause 
of the latter. Proud men will have all about them to be of their mind, of their 
religion, to say as they say, to submit to their dominion, and acquiesce in their 
dictates ; and tho>e that either eclipse them or will not yield to them, they 
malign, and are inveterate in their hatred of them. Tyranny both in state and 
church owes its original to pride. The psalmist, having begun this description, 
presently inserts a short prayer, a prater in a parenthesis, which is an advan- 



PSALM X. 49 

tage, and no prejudice to the sense; "Let them be taken," as proud people 
often are "in the devices that they have imagined," ver. 2. Let their counsel 
be turned headlong, and let them fall headlong by them. These two heads 
of the charge are here enlarged upon. 

1. They are proud, very proud, and extremely conceited of themselves; 
justly, therefore, did he wonder that God did not speedily appear against 
them, for he hates pride, and resists the proud. 

1st. The sinner proudly glories in his power and success. He boasteth of 
his heart's desire, brags that he can do what he pleaseth, as if God himself 
could not control him; and that he hath all he wished for, and has carried his 
point. Ephraim said, "I am become rich, I have found me out substance," 
Hos. xii. 8. Now, Lord, is it for thy glory to suffer a sinful man thus to pre- 
tend to the sovereignty and felicity of a god? 

2nd. He proudly contradicts the judgment of God, which we are sure is 
according to truth; for he "blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhors." 
See how God and men differ in their sentiments of persons. God abhors 
covetous worldlings, who make money their god, and idolize it ; he looks 
upon them as his enemies, and will have no communion with them; "the 
friendship of the world is enmity to God." But proud persecutors bless them, 
and approve their saying, Ps. xlix. 13 ; they applaud them as wise whom 
God pronounceth foolish, Lu. xii. 20 ; they justify them as innocent whom God 
condemns as deeply guilty before him; and they admire them as happy in 
having their portion in this life whom God declares upon that account truly 
miserable ; " Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things." 

3rd. He proudly casts off the thoughts of God, and all dependence upon him, 
and devotion to him ; ver. 4, " The wicked, through the pride of his coun- 
tenance," that pride of his heart which appears in his very countenance, 
Pr. vi. 17, "will not seek after God," nor entertain the thoughts of him ; "God 
is not in all his thoughts," that is, not in any of them. "All his thoughts are 
that there is no God." See here, First. The nature of impiety and irreligion. 
It is, not seeking after God, and not having him in our thoughts. No inquiry 
after him, Job xxxv. 10 ; Jer. ii. 6 ; no desire towards him, no communion with 
him, and a secret wish to have no dependence upon him, and not to be beholden 
to him. Wicked people will not seek after God, that is, not call upon him ; 
they live without prayer, and that is living without God. They have many 
thoughts, many projects and devices, but no eye to God in any of them, no 
submission to his will, nor aim at his glory Secondly. The cause of this impiety 
and irreligion, and that is pride. Men will not seek after God, because they 
think they have no need of him, their own hands are sufficient for them ; they 
think it a thing below them to be religious, because religious people are few, 
and mean, and despised, and the restraints of religion will be a disparagement 
to them. 

4th. He proudly makes light of God's commandments and judgments ; ver. 5, 
" His ways are always grievous ;" that is, he is very daring and resolute in his 
sinful courses; he will have his way, though never so tiresome to himself and 
vexatious to others ; he travails with pain in his wicked courses, and yet his 
pride makes him wilful and obstinate in them. God's judgments, that is, what 
he commands, and what he threatens for the breach of his commands, are far 
above, out of his sight; he is not sensible of his duty by the law of God, nor of 
his danger by the wrath and curse of God. Tell him of God's authority over 
him, he turns it off with this, he never saw God, and therefore doth not know 
that there is a God ; he is in the height of heaven, and qucs supra nos nihil ad 
nos, — 'we have nothing to do with things above us.' Tell him of God's judg- 
ments which will be executed upon those that go on still in their trespasses, 
and he will not be convinced that there is any reality in them ; they are far 
above, out of his sight, and therefore he thinks they are mere bugbears. 

5th. He proudly despiseth all his enemies, and looks upon them with the 
utmost disdain. He puffs at them, whom God is preparing to be a scourge and 
ruin to him, as if he could baffle them all, and was able to make his part good 
with them. But as it is impolitic to despise an enemy, so it is impious to 
despise any instrument of God's wrath. 

6th. He proudly sets trouble at defiance, and is confident of the continuance 
of his own prosperity : ver. 6, " He hath said in his heart," and pleased himself 
with the thought, "I shall not be moved," my goods are laid up for many \ears, 
and "I shall never be in adversity." Like Babylon, that said, "I shall be a 
lady for ever," Isa. xlvii. 7 ; Rev. xviii. 7. Those are nearest ruin who thus set 
it farthest from them. 

2. They are persecutors, cruel persecutors. For the gratifying of their pride, 
covetousness, and in opposition to God and religion, they are very oppressive 
to all within their reach. Observe concerning these persecutors, 

1st. That they are very bitter and malicious ; ver. 7, His mouth is full of curs- 
ing." Those he cannot do a real mischief to, yet he will spit his venom at, and 
breathe out the slaughter which he cannot execute. Thus have God's faithful 

D 



50 PSALM X. 

worshippers been anathematized, and cursed with bell, book, and candle. 
Where there is a heart full of malice, there is commonly a mouth full of 

curses. 

2nd. That they are very false and treacherous. There is mischief designed, 
but it is hid under the tongue not to be discerned, for the mouth is full of 
deceit and vanity ; he has learned of the devil to deceive, and so to destroy ; 
with this his hatred is covered, Pr. xxvi. 26. He cares not what lies he tells, 
nor what oaths he breaks, nor what arts of dissimulation he useth to compass 
his ends. 

3rd. That they are very cunning and crafty in carrying on their designs. 
They have ways and means to concert what they intend, that they may the 
more effectually accomplish it. Like Esau, that cunning hunter, he sits in the 
lurking places, in the secret places, and his eyes are privily set to do mischief, 
ver. 8, not because he is ashamed of what he doth, (if he blushed, there were 
some hopes he would repent,) nor because he is afraid of the wrath of God, for 
he imagines God will never call him to an account, ver. 11, but because he is 
afraid lest the discovery of his designs should be the breaking of them. Per- 
haps it refers particularly to robbers and highwaymen, who lie in wait for 
honest travellers, to make a prey of them and what they have. 

4th. That they are very cruel and barbarous. Their malice is against the 
innocent, that never provoked them ; against the poor, that cannot resist them, 
and that it will be no glory to them to triumph over. Those are perfectly lost 
to all honesty and honour, against whose mischievous designs neither innocence 
nor poverty will be any man's security. Those that have power ought to 
protect the innocent, and provide for the poor ; yet he will be the destroyer of 
those whose guardian he ought to be. And what do they aim at? It is to 
catch the poor, and draw them into their net, that is, get them into their 
power, not to strip them only, but to murder tnem ; they hunt for the preciuus 
life. They are God's poor people that they are persecuting, against whom 
they bear a mortal hatred, for his sake whose they are, and whose image they 
bear, and therefore they lie in wait to murder them ; " He lies in wait as a 
lion" that thirsts after blood, and feeds with pleasure upon the prey. The 
devil, whose agent he is, is compared to a roaring lion that seeks not what, but 
whom, he may devour. 

5th. That they are base and hypocritical, ver. 10. He "croucheth and hum- 
bleth himself," as beasts of prey do, that they may get their prey within their 
reach. This intimates that the sordid spirits of persecutors and oppressors 
will stoop to any thing, though never so mean, for the compassing of their 
wicked designs. Witness the scandalous practices of Saul when he hunted 
David. It intimates likewise, that they cover their malicious designs with the 
pretence of meekness and humility, and a show of kindness to those they design 
the greatest mischief to; they seem to humble themselves, to take cognizance 
of the poor, and concern themselves in their concernments, when it is in order 
to make them fall, to make a prey of them. 

6th. That they are very impious and atheistical, ver. 11. They could not 
thus break through all the laws of justice and goodness towards man, if they 
had not first shaken off all sense of religion, and risen up in rebellion against 
the light of its most sacred and self-evident principles. "He hath said in his 
heart, God has forgotten." When his own conscience rebuked him for his 
wickedness, and threatened him with the consequences of it, and asked how 
he would answer it to the righteous Judge of heaven and earth, he turned it 
off with this, " God has forsaken the earth," Eze. viii. 12 ; ix. 9. This is a blas- 
phemous reproach, First. Upon God's omniscience and providence, as if he 
could not or did not see what men do in this lower world. _ Secondly. Upon his 
holiness and the rectitude of his nature, as if, though he did see, yet he did not 
dislike, but was willing to connive at the most unnatural and inhuman villanies. 
Thirdly. Upon his justice and the equity of his government, as if, though he 
did see and dislike the wickedness of the wicked, yet he would never reckon 
with them, nor punish them for it, either because he could not, or durst not, or 
was not inclined to it. Let those that suffer by proud oppressors hope that 
God will in due time appear for them ; for those that are abusive to them are 
abusive to God Almighty too. 

In singing this, and praying over it, w^e should have our hearts much affected 
with a holy indignation at the wickedness of the oppressors, a tender compas- 
sion of the miseries of the oppressed, and a pious zeal for the glory and honour 
of God, Avith a firm belief that he will in due time right the injured, and reckon 
with the injurious. 

12 Arise, 0 Lord ; 0 God, lift up thine hand : 
Forget not the humble. 

13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? 



PSALM X. 



-51 



He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. 

14 Thou hast seen it; [thy hand : 
For thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with 
The poor comniitteth himself unto thee ; 

Thou art the helper of the fatherless. 

15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: 
Seek out his wickedness till thou find none. 

1 6 The Lord is King for ever and ever : 
The heathen are perished out of his land. 

17 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble : 
Thou wilt prepare their heart, 

Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear : 

18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, 
That the man of the earth may no more oppress. 

David here, upon the foregoing remonstrance of the inhumanity and impiety 
of the oppressors, grounds an address to God ; wherein observe, 

Eirst. What he prays for. 1. That God would himself appear: ver. 12, 
"Arise, O Lord ; O God, lift up thine hand." Manifest thy presence and pro- 
vidence in the affairs of this lower world; " Arise, O Lord," to the confusion 
of those who say thou hidest thy face. Manifest thy power, exert it for main- 
taining of thine own cause, lift up thine hand to give a fatal blow to these 
oppressors ; let thine everlasting arm be made bare. 2. That he would appear 
for his people. " Forget not the humble, the afflicted," that are poor, that are 
made poorer, and are poor in spirit. Their oppressors in their presumption 
say, Thou hast forgotten them ; and they in their despair are ready to say the 
same. Lord, make it to appear that they are both mistaken. 3. That he would 
appear against their persecutors, ver. 15. 1st. That he would disable them to 
do any farther mischief; "Break thou the arm of the wicked;" that is, take 
away his power, "that the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared," 
Job xxxiv. 30. We read of oppressors whose "dominion was taken away, but 
their lives were prolonged," Dan. vii. 12, that they might have time to repent. 
2nd. That he would deal with them for the mischief they had done. " Seek 
out his wickedness let it all be brought to light, which he thought should 
for ever lie undiscovered; let it all be brought to account, which he thought 
should for ever go unpunished; bring it out "till thou find none," that is, till 
none of his evil deeds remain unreckoned for, none of his evil designs remain 
undefeated, and none of his partisans undestroyed. 

Secondly. What he pleads, for the encouraging of his own faith, in these 
petitions. 

1. He pleads the great affronts which these proud oppressors put upon God 
himself. Lord, it is thine own cause we beg thou wouldest appear in ; the 
enemies have made it so, and therefore it is not for thy glory to let them go 
unpunished ; ver. 13, "Wherefore do the wicked contemn God?" He doth so; 
for he saith, " Thou wilt not require it ;" that is, thou wilt never call them to 
an account for what they do; than which they could not put a greater indignity 
upon the righteous God. The psalmist here speaks with admiration, 1st. At 
the wickedness of the wicked. Why do they speak so impiously, why so 
absurdly? It is a great trouble to good men to think what contempt is cast 
upon the holy God by the sin of sinners, upon his precepts, his promises, his 
threatenings, his favours, his judgments; all are despised and made light of. 
"Wherefore do the wicked thus contemn God?" It is because they do not 
know him. 2nd. At the patience and forbearance of God towards them. Why 
are they suffered thus to contemn God? Why doth he not presently vindicate 
himself and take vengeance on them ? It is because the day of reckoning is yet 
to come, when the measure of their iniquity is full. 

2. He pleads the notice God took of the impiety and iniquity of these 
oppressors, ver. 14. Do the persecutors encourage themselves with a ground- 
less fancy that thou will never see it? Let the persecuted encourage them- 
selves with a well-grounded faith, not only that thou hast seen it, but that thou 
dost behold it : even all the mischief that is done by the hands, and all the spite 
and malice that lurks in the hearts of these oppressors. It is all known to thee, 
and observed by thee; nay, not only thou hast seen it, and dost behold it, but 



52 



PSALM X. 



thou wilt requite it, wilt recompense it into their bosoms, by thy just and 

avenging hand. 

3. He pleads the dependence which the oppressed had upon him. " The poor 
committeth himself unto thee;" each of them doth so, poor I for one. They 
rely on thee as their Patron and Protector, they refer themselves to thee as 
their Judge, in whose determination they acquiesce, and at whose disposal they 
are willing to be. 'They leave themselves with thee,' so some read it; not pre- 
scribing, but subscribing to thy wisdom and will. They thus give thee honour 
as much as their oppressors dishonour thee. They are thy willing subjects, 
and put themselves under thy protection, therefore protect them. 

4. He pleads the relation in which God is pleased to stand to us. 1st. As a 
great God. "He is king for ever and ever," ver. 16; and it is the office of a king to 
administer justice for the restraint and terror of evil-doers, and the protection 
and praise of them that do well. To whom should the injured subject appeal 
but to the sovereign ; " Help, my Lord, O king ;" " Avenge me of mine adver- 
sary." Lord, let all that pay homage and tribute to thee as their king have the 
benefit of thy government, and find thee their refuge. Thou art an everlasting 
king, which no earthly prince is, and therefore canst and wilt by an eternal 
judgment dispense rewards and punishments in an everlasting state, when time 
shall be no more; and to that judgment the poor refer themselves. 2nd. As a 
good God. " He is the helper of the fatherless," yer. 14 ; that is, of those who 
have no one else to help them, and have many to injure them. He has appointed 
kings to defend the poor and fatherless, Ps. lxxxii. 3; and therefore much more 
will he do it himself; for he has taken it among the titles of his honour, to be 
a Father to the fatherless, Ps. lxviii. 5 ; a Helper of the helpless. 

5. He pleads the experience which God's church and people had had of God's 
readiness to appear for them. 1st. He had dispersed and extirpated their 
enemies; ver. 16, "The heathen are perished out of his land;" that is, the 
remainders of the Canaanites, the seven devoted nations, which have long been 
as thorns in the eyes and goads in the sides of Israel, are now at length utterly 
rooted out ; and that is an encouragement to us to hope that God will in like 
manner break the arm of the oppressive Israelites, that were in some respects 
worse than heathens. 2nd. He had heard and answered their prayers ; ver. 17, 
"Lord, thou hast" many a time "heard the desire of the humble," and never 
saidst to a distressed supplicant, Seek in vain. Why may not we hope for the 
continuance and repetition of the wonders, the favours, which our fathers 
told us of? 

6. He pleads their expectations from God pursuant to their experiences of 
him. "Thou hast heard," therefore "thou wilt cause thine ear to hear," as 
Ps. vi. 9. Thou art the same, and thy power, and promise, and relation to thy 
people the same; and the work and workings of grace are the same in them, 
and therefore why may we not hope that He who has been will still be, will 
ever be, a God hearing prayer? But observe, 1st. In what method God hears 
prayer. He first prepares the heart of his people, and then gives them an 
answer of peace ; nor may we expect his gracious answer but in this way : so that 
God's working upon us is the best earnest of his working for us. He prepares 
the heart for prayer by kindling holy desires, and strengthening our most holy 
faith, fixing the thoughts, and raising the affections, and then he graciously 
accepts the prayer; he prepares the heart for the mercy itself that is wanting 
-and prayed for, makes us fit to receive it and use it well, and then gives it in 
to us. " The preparation of the heart is from the Lord," and we must seek 
unto him for it, Pr. xvi. 1, and take that as a leading favour. 2nd. What he 
will do in answer to prayer, ver. 18. First. He will plead the cause of the per- 
secuted ; will judge the fatherless and oppressed, will judge for them, clear 
up their innocency, restore their comforts, and recompense them for all the loss 
and damage they have sustained. Secondly. He will put an end to the fury 
of the persecutors. Hitherto they shall come, but no farther ; here shall 
the proud waves of their malice be stayed ; an effectual course shall be taken 
"that the man of the earth may no more oppress." See how light the psalmist 
now makes of the power of that proud persecutor whom he had been describ- 
ing in this psalm, and how slightly he speaks of him, now he had been consider- 
ing God's sovereignty. 1st. He is but a man of the earth, 'a man out of the 
earth,' so the word is ; sprung out of the earth, and therefore mean and weak, 
and hastening to the earth again. Why then should we be afraid of the fury 
of the oppressor, when he is but man that shall die, a son of man that shall be 
as grass? Isa. li. 12. He that protects us is the Lord of heaven ; he that perse- 
cutes us is but a man of the earth. 2nd. God has him in a chain, and can 
easily restrain the remainder of his wrath, so that he cannot do what he 
would. When God speaks the word, Satan shall by his instruments no more 
deceive, Rev. xx. 3 ; no more oppress. 

In singing these verses, we must commit religion's just, but injured cause, to 
God, as those that are heartily concerned for its honour and interests, believ- 
ing that he will in due time plead it with jealousy. 



PSALM XL 53 

In this psalm we have David's struggles with, and triumphs over, a strong temptation to 
distrust God, and betake himself to indirect means for his own safety in a time of 
danger. It is supposed to have been penned when he began to feel the resentments of 
Saul's envy, and had had the javelin thrown at him once and again. He was then 
advised to run his country. ' No,' saith he, ' I trust in God, and therefore will keep 
my ground.' Observe, I. How he represents the temptation, and perhaps parleys wiih 
it, ver, 1 — 3. II. How he answers it, and puts it to silence, with the consideration of 
God's dominion and providence, ver. 4 ; his favour to the righteous, and the wrath 
which the wicked are reserved for, ver. 5 — 7. In time of public fears, when the insults 
of the church's enemies are daring and threatening, it will be profitable to meditate on 
this psalm. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 

IN the Lord put I my trust : 
How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? 

2 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, 

They make ready their arrow upon the string, 
That they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. 

3 If the foundations be destroyed, 
What can the righteous do ? 

Here is, First. David's fixed resolution to make God his confidence. "In 
the Lord put I my trust," ver. I. Those that truly fear God and serve him, are 
welcome to put their trust in him, and shall not be made ashamed of their 
doing so. And it is the character of the saints that, having taken God for their 
God, they make him their hope. Even when they have other things to stay 
themselves upon, yet they do not, they dare not, stay upon them, but on God 
only. Gold is not their hope, nor horses and chariots their confidence, but God 
only. And, therefore, when second causes frown, yet their hopes do not fail 
them, because the First Cause is still the same, is ever so. The psalmist, 
before he gives an account of the temptation he was in to distrust God, records 
his resolution to trust in him, as that which he was resolved to live and die by. 

Secondly. His resentment of a temptation to the contrary. " How say ye 
to my soul," which hath thus returned to God as its rest, and reposeth in him, 
* Flee as a bird to your mountain," to be safe there out of the reach of the 
fowler ? This may be taken either, 

1. As the serious advice of his timorous friends; so many understand it, and 
with great probability. Some that were hearty well-wishers to David, when 
they saw how much Saul was exasperated against him, and how maliciously he 
sought his life, pressed him by all means to flee for the same to some place of 
shelter, and not to depend too much upon the anointing he had received; 
which they thought was more likely to lose him his head than to save it him. 
That which grieved him in this motion was, not that to flee now would savour 
of cowardice, and ill become a soldier, but 'that it would savour of unbelief, 
and would ill become a saint, who had so often said, " In the Lord put I my 
trust." Taking it thus, the two following verses are the reason with which 
these faint-hearted friends of David backed this advice. They would have him 
flee, 1st. Because he could not be safe where he was, ver. 2. Look, say they, 
how the wicked bend their bow ; Saul and his instruments aim at thy life, ana 
the uprightness of thine heart will not be thy security. See what an enmity 
there is in the wicked against the upright, in the seed of the serpent against the 
seed of the woman, what pains they take, what preparations they make to do 
them a mischief. They privily shoot at them, or in darkness, that they may not 
see the evil designed, to avoid it, nor others to prevent it; no, nor God himself 
to punish it. 2nd. Because he could be no longer useful where he was: for, 
say they, " If the foundations be destroyed," as they were by Saul's maladmin- 
istration, if the civil state and government be unhinged, and all out of course, 
Ps. lxxv. 3, lxxxii. 5, what canst thou do with thy righteousness to redress 
the grievances? Alas, it is to no purpose to attempt the saving of a kingdom 
so wretchedly shattered; whatever the righteous can do signifies nothing. 
AM in celltim, et die miserere mei Domine, — 'Away to thy cell, and there cry, 
Pity me, O Lord.' Many are thus hindered from doing the service they might 
do to the public in difficult times by a despair of success. 

2. It may be taken as a taunt wherewith his enemies bantered him, upbraid- 
ing him with the professions he used to make of confidence in God, and scorn- 
fully bidding him try what stead that would stand him in now. You say, God 



54 PSALM XL 

is your mountain ; flee to him now, and see what the better you will be. Thus 
they endeavoured to shame the counsel of the poor, saying, There is no help 
for them in God, Ps. xiv. 6; iii. 2. The confidence and comfort which the 
saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, is a 
riddle to a carnal world, and is ridiculed accordingly. 

Taking it thus, the two following verses are David's answer to this sarcasm; 
in which, 1. He complains of the malice of those who did thus abuse him; 
ver. 2, " They bend their bow, and make ready their arrows ;" and we are told, 
Ps. lxiv. 3, what they are, " even bitter words," such words as these, by which 
they endeavour to discourage their hope in God, which David felt as a sword 
in his bones. 2. He resists the temptation with a gracious abhorrence, ver. 3. 
He looks upon this suggestion as striking at the foundations which every 
Israelite builds upon. If you destroy the foundations, if you take good people 
oii' from their hope in God, if you can persuade them that their religion is 
a cheat and a jest, and can banter them out of that, you ruin them, and break 
their hearts indeed, and make them of all men the most miserable. The prin- 
ciples of religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the right- 
eous are built. These we are concerned, in interest as well as duty, to hold fast 
against all temptations to infidelity ; for, if these be destroyed, if we let these 
go, "What can the righteous do?" Good people would be undone if they 
had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for. 

4 The Lord is in his holy temple, 
The Lord's throne is in heaven : 

His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. 

5 The Lord trieth the righteous : [hateth. 
But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul 

6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, 

Fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest : 
This shall be the portion of their cup. 

7 For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness ; 
His countenance doth behold the upright. 

The shaking of a tree, they say, makes it take the deeper and faster root. 
The attempt ot David's enemies to discourage his confidence in God engageth 
him to cleave so much the closer to his first principles, and to review them; 
which he here doth abundantly to his own satisfaction, and the silencing of all 
temptations to infidelity. That which was shocking to his faith, and has been 
so to the faith of many, was the prosperity of -wicked people in their wicked 
ways; and the straits and distresses which the best men are sometimes reduced 
to ; from hence such an evil thought as this was apt to arise, Surely it is vain 
to serve God ; and we may call the proud happy. But, to stifle and shame all 
such thoughts, we are here called to consider, 

First. That there is a God, a God in heaven. "The Lord is in his holy 
temple " above, where, though he is out of our sight, yet we are not out of his. 
Let not the enemies of the saints insult over them, as if they were at a loss, 
and at their wit's end. No; they have a God, and they know where to find 
him, and how to direct their prayer unto him as their Father in heaven. Or, 
he is in his holy temple ; that is, in his church. He is a God in covenant and 
communion with his people, through a Mediator, of whom the temple was a 
type. We need not say, Who shall go up to heaven to fetch us from thence 
a God to trust to? No, the w r ord is nigh us, and God in the word. His Spirit 
is in his saints, those living temples, and "the Lord is that Spirit." 

Secondly. That this God governs the world. The Lord has not only his 
residence but his throne in heaven, and he has set the dominion thereof in the 
earth, Job xxxviii. 33 ; for, having " prepared his throne in the heavens, his 
kingdom ruleth over all," Ps. ciii. 19. Hence the heavens are said to rule, 
Dan. iv. 26. Let us by faith see God on his throne ; on his throne of glory, 
infinitely transcending the splendour and majesty of earthly princes ; on his 
throne of government, giving law, giving motion, and giving aim to all the 
creatures; on his throne of judgment, rendering to every man according to his 
works ; and on his throne of grace, to which his people may come boldly for 
mercy and grace ; and we shall see no reason to be discouraged by the pride 
and power of oppressors, or any. of the afflictions that attend the righteous. 

Thirdly. That this God perfectly knows every man's true character. "His 
eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." He not only sees them, but 



PSALM XT. 55 

he sees through them ; not only knows all they say and do, but knows what 
they think, what they design, and how they really stand affected, whatever they 
pretend. We may know what men seem to be, but he knows what they are; 
as the refiner knows what the value of the gold is when he has tried it. God is 
said to try with his eyes and his eyelids, because he knows men, not as earthly 
princes know men, by report and representation, but by his own strict inspec- 
tion, which cannot err or be imposed upon. This may comfort us when we are 
deceived in men, even in men that we think we have tried, that God s judgment 
of men we are sure is according to truth. 

Fourthly. That if he afflict good people it is for their trial, and therefore it 
is for their good, ver. 5. The Lord tries all the children of men, that he may 
do them justice; but he tries the righteous, that he may do them good in their 
Utter end, Deu. viii. 16. Let not that, therefore, shake our foundations, or 
dscourage our hope and trust in God. 

Fifthly. That however persecutors and oppressors may prosper and prevail 
a vhile, they now lie under, and will for ever perish under, the wrath of God. 

1. He is a holy God, and therefore hates them, and cannot endure to look 
upoi them ; " the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth," for 
notting is more contrary to the rectitude and goodness of his nature. Their 
prosierity is so far from being an evidence of God's love, that their abuse of it 
doth certainly make them the objects of his hatred. He that hates nothing that 
he hat made yet hates those who have thus ill made themselves. Dr. Hammond 
offers mother reading of this verse : ' The Lord trieth the righteous and the 
wickec;' that is, distinguished infallibly between them, which is more than 
wecanlo; and 'he that loveth violence hateth his own soul;' that is, perse- 
cutors bing certain ruin upon themselves, Pr. viii. 36, as follows here. 

2. He ? a righteous Judge, and therefore he will punish them, ver. 6. Their 
punishment will be, 1st. Inevitable. "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares." 
Here is alouble metaphor, to speak the unavoidableness of the punishment of 
wicked mn. It shall be rained upon them from heaven, Job xx. 23; against 
which th^e is no fence, and from which there is no escape: see Jos. x. 11; 
I Sam. ii. i. It shall surprise them as a sudden shower sometimes surpriseth 
the travels in a summer's day. It shall be as snares upon them, to hold them 
fast, and Vep them prisoners, till the day of reckoning comes. 2nd. Very 
terrible. J is "fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest," which plainly 
alludes to te destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and very fitly, for that 
destruction 'as intended for a figure of " the vengeance of eternal fire," Jude 7. 
The fire of ixl's wrath, fastening upon the brimstone of their own guilt, will 
burn certain; and furiously, will burn to the lowest hell, and to the utmost 
line of eternir. What a horrible tempest are the wicked hurried away in at 
death ! Whaa lake of fire and brimstone must they make their bed in for 
ever, in the cigregation of the dead and damned ! That is it that is here 
meant ; that is-, that shall be " the portion of their cup, the heritage appointed 
them by the Anighty," and allotted to them, Job xx. 29. This is the cup of 
trembling whk shall be put into their hands, which they must drink the dregs 
of, Ps. lxxv. 8. ^very man has the portion or his cup assigned him. They that 
choose the LorOor the portion of their cup shall have what they choose, and 
be for ever hapr in their choice, Ps. xvi. 5. But they who reject his grace 
shall be made to r ink the cup of his fury, Jer. xxv. 15 ; Isa. li. 17; Hab. ii. 16. 

Sixthly. That tough honest, good people may be run down and trampled 
upon, yet pod dci and will own them, and favour them, and smile upon them: 
and that is the &son why God will severely reckon with persecutors ana 
oppressors, becau those whom they oppress and persecute are dear to him, 
so that whosoevetoucheth them, "toucheth the apple of his eye," ver. 7. 
1. He loves them,n<i the work of his own grace in them. He is himself a 
righteous God, ar. therefore loves righteousness wherever he finds it, and 
pleads the cause oi,he righteous that are injured and oppressed; he delights 
to execute judgme for them, Ps. ciii. 6. We must herein be followers of 
pod, must love rigeousness, as he doth, that we may keep ourselves always 
in his love. 2. Hlooks graciously upon them. " His countenance doth 
behold the upright that is, he is not only at peace with them, but well 
pleased in them, ande comforts them, and puts gladness into their hearts by 
letting them know t^t he is so. He, like a tender father, looks upon them 
with pleasure ; and e y, like dutiful children, are pleased and abundantly 
satisfied with his sum. They walk in the light of the Lord. 

In singing this psa W e must encourage and engage ourselves to trust in 
God at ail times, muslepend upon him to protect our innocency, and make 
us happy ; must dreahis frowns as worse than death, and desire his favour 
as better than life. 



56 



PSALM XII. 



It is supposed that David penned this psalm in Saul's reign, when there was a general 
decay of honesty and piety both in court and country, which he here complains of to 
God, and very feelingly, for he himself suffered by the treachery of his false friends, 
and the insolence of his sworn enemies. I. He begs help of God, because there was 
none among men whom he durst trust, ver. 1, 2. II. He foretells the destruction )f 
his proud and threatening enemies, ver. 3,4. III. He assures himself and others, thac, 
how ill soever things went now, ver. 8, God would preserve and secure to himself Iris 
own people, ver. 5, 7, and would certainly make good his promises to them, ver. 6. 
Whether the psalm was penned in Saul's reign or no, it is certainly calculated for a bid 
reign ; and perhaps David in spirit foresaw that some of his successors would bring 
things to as ill a pass as is here described, and treasured up this psalm for the use of 
the church then. 0 temporal O mores! — 'Oh the times ! Oh the manners !' 



HELP, Lord ; for the godly man ceasetli ; 
For the faithful fail from among the children of mer. 

2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour ; 
With flattering lips a?id with a double heart do uey 

3 The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, [sp/aJk 
And the tongue that speaketh proud things : 

4 Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail ; 
Our lips are our own : who is lord over us ? 

5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the 
Now will I arise, saith the Lord ; needy, 
I will set him in safety from him that puffeth aUim. 

6 The words of the Lord are pure words • 

As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified sevn times 

7 Thou shalt keep them, 0 Lord, 

Thou shalt preserve them from this generations ever. 

8 The wicked walk on every side, 
When the vilest men are exalted. 

This psalm furnisheth us with good thoughts for bad times, invhieh, though 
the prudent will keep silent, Amos v. 13, because a man mi be made an 
offender for a word, yet a man may comfort himself with suchmitable medi- 
tations and prayers as are here got ready to our hand in such a^y. 

First. Let us see here what it is that makes the times bad, >d when it may 
be said to be so. Ask the children of this world, What it is^ their account 
that makes the times bad? and they will tell you, Scarcity of oney, and decay 
of trade, and the desolations of war make the times bad; )t the Scripture 
lays the badness of the times upon causes of another nat/e, 2 Tim. Hi. 3, 
'* Perilous times shall come," for iniquity shall abound, and^at is the thing 
David here complains of. 

1. When there is a general decay of piety and honesty am'g men, the times 
are then truly bad; ver. 1, when "the godly man ceaset and the faithful 
fail." Observe, How these two characters are here put gether, the godly 
and the faithful. As there is no true policy, so there is nofue piety, without 
honesty. Godly men are faithful men, fast men, so they h'e sometimes been 
called; their word is as confirming as their oath, as obl("g as their bond: 
they make conscience of being true both to God and man/They are here saidi 
to cease and fail either by death or desertion, or both. Ti s ^ that were godly 
and faithful are taken away, and those that are left are sfo degenerated, and 
are not what they were, so that there are few or no hd people that are 
Israelites indeed to be met with. Perhaps he means tha* ne re were no godly, 
faithful men among Saul's courtiers; if he mean there ere few or none in 
Israel, we hope he was under the same mistake that Eyh w as, who thought 
he only was left alone, when God had seven thousand W kept their integrity, 
Rom. xi. 3; or, he means there were few in comparisi/ there was a general 
decay of religion and virtue, and the times are bad, verj/ a ^, when it is so; not 
a man to be found that executes judgment, Jer. v. 1. / 

2. When dissimulation and flattery have corrupted/a debauched all con- 
versation, then the times are very bad, ver. 2; when rP are generally so pro- 
fligate that they make no conscience of a lie, are so sp^ul as to design against 



To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. 



PSALM XII. 57 

their neighbours the worst of mischiefs, and yet so base as to cover the design 
with the most specious and plausible pretences, and professions of friendship. 
Thus " they speak vanity," that is, falsehood and a lie, "every one to his neigh- 
bour;" with flattering lips and a double heart they will kiss and kill, (as Joab 
did Abner and Amasa, in David's own time,) smile in your face and cut your 
throat. This is the devil's image complete, a complication of malice and false- 
hood. The times are bad indeed when there is no such thing as sincerity to be 
met with; when an honest man knows not who to believe, nor who to trust, 
nor dares put confidence in a friend, in a guide, Mic. vii. 5, 6 ; Jer. ix. 4, 5. Woe 
to those who help to make the times thus perilous ! 

3. When the enemies of God, and religion, and religious people, are impu- 
dent and daring, and threaten to run down all that is just and sacred, then the 
times are very bad ; when proud sinners are arrived to such a pitch of impiety 
as to say, " With our tongues will we prevail" against the cause of virtue, 
"our lips are our own," and we may say what we will ; "Who is lord over us?" 
either to restrain us, or to call us to an account, ver. 4. This speaks, 1st. A 
proud conceit of themselves, and confidence in themselves, as if the point were 
indeed gained by eating forbidden fruit, and they were as gods, independent 
and self-sufficient, infallible in their knowledge of good and evil, and therefore 
fit to be oracles; irresistible in their power, and therefore fit to be lawgivers, 
that could prevail with their tongues, and, like God himself, speak, and it is 
done. 2nd. An insolent contempt of God's dominion ; as if he had no pro- 
priety in them,— their lips are their own ; an unjust pretension, for who made 
man's mouth? In whose hand is his breath, and whose is the air he breathes 
in? And, as if he had no authority either to command them or judge them, 
"Who is lord over us?" like Pharaoh, Ex. v. 2. And this is as absurd and 
unreasonable as the former; for He in whom we live, and move, and have our 
being, must needs be, by an indisputable title, Lord over us. 

4. When the poor and needy are oppressed, and abused, and puffed at, then 
the times are very bad. This is implied, ver. 5, where God himself takes notice 
of the oppression of the poor, and the sighing of the needy ; they are oppressed 
because they are poor, have all manner of wrong done them purely because 
they are not in a capacity to right themselves. Being thus oppressed, they 
dare not speak for themselves, lest their defence should be made their offence; 
but they sigh, secretly bemoaning their calamities, and pouring out their souls 
in sighs before God If their oppressors be spoken to on their behalf, they 
puff at them, make light of their own sin, and the misery of the poor, and lay 
neither to heart : see Ps. x. 5. 

5. When wickedness abounds, and goes barefaced under the protection and 
countenance of those in authority, then the times are very bad, ver. 7. When 
the vilest men are exalted to places of trust andpower, that, instead of putting 
the laws in execution against vice and injustice, and punishing the wicked 
according to their merits, patronize and protect them, give them countenance, 
and support their reputation by their own example, then the wicked walk on 
every side, they swarm in all places, and go up and down seeking to deceive, 
and debauch, and destroy others ; they are neither afraid nor ashamed to dis- 
cover themselves ; they declare their sin as Sodom, and there is none to check 
or control them. Bad men are base men, the vilest of men, and they are so, 
though they are never so highly exalted in this world. Antiochus the illustri- 
ous the Scripture calls a vile person, Dan. xi. 21. But it is bad with a kingdom 
when such are preferred; then no marvel if wickedness grow impudent and 
insolent. "When the wicked bear rule, the people mourn." 

Secondly. Let us now see what good thoughts we are here furnished with 
for such bad times; and what times we may yet be reserved for we cannot tell. 
When times are thus bad, it is comfortable to think, 

1. That we have a God to go to, from whom we may ask and expect the 
redress of all our grievances. This he begins with, ver. 1, " Help, Lord, for the 
godly man ceaseth." All other helps and helpers fail; even the godly and 
faithful, who should lend a helping hand to support the dying cause of religion, 
they are gone, and therefore whither shall we seek but to thee? Note, When 
godly, faithful people cease and fail, it is time to cry, Help, Lord ! The abound- 
ing of iniquity threatens a deluge. Help, Lord, help the virtuous; few seek 
to hold fast their integrity, and to stand in the gap; help to save thine own 
interest in the world from sinking. "It is time for thee, Lord, to work." 

2. That God will certainly reckon with false and proud men, and will punish 
and restrain their insolence. They are above the control of men, and set them 
at defiance. Men cannot discover the falsehood of flatterers, nor humble 
the haughtiness of those that speak proud things; but the righteous God will 
cut off all flattering lips that give the traitor's kiss, and speak words softer than 
oil, when war is in the heart; he will pluck out that tongue that speaks proud 
things against God and religion, ver. 3. Some translate it as a prayer, 'May 
God cut off those false and spiteful lips : ' " Let lying lips be put to silence." 



68 PSALM XIII. 

3. That God will, in due time, work deliverance for his oppressed people, 
and shelter them from the malicious designs of their persecutors; ver. 5, " Now 
will I arise, saith the Lord." This promise of God, which David here delivers 
by the Spirit of prophecy, is an answer to that petition which he put up to God 
by the Spirit of prayer. Help, Lord, saith he. I will, saith God; here I am 
with seasonable help, and effectual help. 1st. It is seasonable, now, in the 
fittest time. First. When the oppressors are in the height of their pride and 
insolence, when they say, " Who is lord over us ?" then is God's time to let them 
know to their cost, that he is above them. Secondly. When the oppressed are 
in the depth of their distress and despondency ; when they are signing like 
Israel in Egypt, by reason of the cruel bondage, then is God's time to appear 
for them ; as for Israel, when they were most dejected, and Pharaoh was most 
elevated. " Now will I arise." Note, There is a time fixed for the rescue of 
oppressed innocency ; that time will come, and we may be sure it is of all other 
the fittest time, Ps. cii. 13. 2nd. It is effectual. " I will set him in safety ; " or, 
in salvation ; not only protect him, but restore him to his former prosperity, 
wilL bring him out into a wealthy place, Ps. lxvi. 12. So that upon the whole 
matter he shall lose nothing by his sufferings. 

4. That, though men are false, God is faithful; though they are not to be 
trusted, God is. They speak vanity and flattery ; but " the words of the Lord 
are pure words," ver. 6; not only all true, but all pure, "like silver tried in 
a furnace of earth," or crucible. It notes, 1st. The sincerity of God's word. 
Every thing is really as it is there represented, and not otherwise; it doth not 
jest with us, nor impose upon us, nor has it any other design upon us but our 
own good, 2nd. The preciousness of God's word. It is of great intrinsic value, 
like silver refined to the highest degree; it has nothing in it to depreciate it. 
3rd. The many proofs that have been given of its power and truth. It has been 
often tried; all the saints in all ages have trusted it, and so tried it, and it never 
deceived them or frustrated their expectation ; but they have all set to their 
seal that God's word is true, with an experta crede,— 'trust one that has made 
trial ;' they have found it so. Probably this refers especially to these promises 
of succouring and relieving the poor and distressed. Their friends put them 
in hopes they will do something for them, and yet prove a broken reed. But 
the words of God are what we may rely upon; and, the less confidence is to be 
put in men's words, let us, with the more assurance, trust in God's word. 

5. That God will secure his chosen remnant to himself, how bad soever the 
times are; ver. 7, "Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." 
This intimates that as long as the world stands there will be a generation of 
proud and wicked men in it, more or less, who will be in danger by their 
wretched arts of ruining religion, by " wearing out the saints of the Most 
High," Dan. vii. 25. But let God alone to maintain his own interest, and to 
preserve his own people. He will keep them from this generation ; that is, 
1st. From being debauched by them, and drawn away from God, from mingling 
with them, and learning their works. In times of general apostacy the Lord 
knows them that are his, and they shall be enabled to keep their integrity. 
2nd. From being destroyed and rooted out by them. The church is built, upon 
a rock, and so well fortified that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 
In the worst of times God has his remnant, and in every age will reserve to 
himself a holy seed, and preserve that to his heavenly kingdom. 

In singing this psalm and praying over it, we must bewail the general cor- 
ruption of manners; thank God that things are not worse than they are, but 
pray and hope that they will be better in God's due time. 



PSALM XIII. 

This psalm is the deserted soul's case and cure. Whether it was penned upon any par- 
ticular occasion doth not appear, but in general, I. David sadly complains that God 
had long withdrawn from him, and delayed to relieve him, ver. 1, 2. II. He earnestly 
prays God to consider his case, and comfort him, ver. 3, 4. III. He assures himself of 
an answer of peace, and therefore concludes the psalm with joy and triumph, because 
he concludes his deliverance as good as wrought, ver. 5, 6. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 

HOW long wilt thou forget me, 0 Lord ? 
For ever ? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me ? 
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, 
Having sorrow in my heart daily ? 
How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me ? 



PSALM XIII. 59 

3 Consider and hear me, 0 Lord my God: 
Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death ; 

4 Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him ; 
And those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved 

5 But I have trusted in thy mercy ; 

My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. 

6 I will sing unto the Lord, 

Because he hath dealt bountifully with me. 

David, in affliction, is here pouring out his soul before God. His address 
is short, but the method is very observable, and of use for direction and 
encouragement. 

First. His troubles extort complaints, ver. 1, 2; and the afflicted have liberty 
to pour out their complaint before the Lord, Ps. cii. title, It is some ease to 
a troubled spirit to give vent to its griefs, especially to give vent to them at 
the throne of grace, where we are sure to find one who is afflicted in the 
afflictions of his people, and is troubled with the feeling of their infirmities; 
thither we have boldness of access by faith, and there we have 4 freedom of 
speech,' irapp^aia. Observe here, 

1. What it is that David complains of. Three things : 

1st. God's unkindness; so he construed it, and it was his infirmity. He 
thought God had forgotten him, had forgotten his promises to him, his covenant 
with him, his former lovingkindness which he had shew T ed him, and which 
he took to be an earnest of farther mercy ; had forgotten that there was such 
a man in the w r orld who needed and expected relief and succour from him. 
Thus"Zion said, My God has forgotten me," Isa. xlix. 14; "Israel said, My 
way is hid from the Lord," Isa. xl. 27. Not that any good man can doubt 
the omniscience, and goodness, and faithfulness of God; but it is a peevish 
expression of prevailing fear, which yet, w 7 hen it ariseth from a high esteem 
and earnest desire of God's favour, though it be indecent and culpable, shall 
be passed by and pardoned, for the second thought will retract it, and repent 
of it. God hid his face from him; that is, he wanted that inward comfort in 
God which he used to have, and herein w^as a type of Christ upon the cross 
crying out, " My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" God sometimes hides 
his face from his own children, and leaves them in the dark concerning their 
interest in him. And this they lay to heart more than any outward trouble 
whatsoever. 

2nd. His own uneasiness. First. He was racked with care, that filled his 
head. "I take counsel in my soul;" that is, I am at a loss, and am inops 
consilii, — 1 have no friend to advise with,' that I can put any confidence in, and 
therefore am myself continually projecting what to do to help myself; but none 
of my projects are likely to take effect. So that I am at my wit's end, and in 
a continual toss. Anxious cares are heavy burthens with which, many times, 
good people load themselves more than they need. Secondly. He w r as over- 
whelmed with sorrow that filled his heart ; !i 1 have sorrow in my heart daily." 
He had a constant disposition to sorrow, and it preyed upon his spirits: nut 
only in the night, when he was silent and solitary, but by day too, when lighter 
griefs are diverted and dissipated by conversation and business ; nay, every day- 
brought with it fresh occasions of grief. The clouds returned after the rain. 
The bread of sorrows is sometimes the saint's daily bread. Our Master 
himself was a man of sorrows. 

3rd. His enemies' insolence, which added to his grief. Saul, his great 
enemy, and others under him, were exalted over him, triumphed in his distress, 
pleased themselves with his grief, and promised themselves a complete victory 
over him. This he complained of as reflecting dishonour upon God, and his 
power and promise. 

2. How he expostulates with God hereupon. How long shall it be thus? 
And shall it be thus for ever? Long afflictions try our patience, and often tire 
it; and it is a common temptation when trouble lasts long to think it will last 
always; and despondency then turns into despair, and those that have long 
been without joy begin at last to be without hope. Lord, tell me how long 
thou wilt hide thy face, and assure me that it shall not be for ever, but that 
thou wilt return at length in mercy to me, and then I shall the easier bear my 
present troubles. 

Secondly. His complaints stir up his prayers, ver. 3, 4. We should never 
allow ourselves to make any complaints but what are fit to be offered up to 
God, and what drive us to our knees. Observe here, 

1. What his petitions are. Consider my case, hear my complaints, and 



6u 



SALM XIV. 



lighten mine eyes ; that is, 1st. Strengthen my faith : for faith is the eye of the 
soul, with which it sees above, and sees through the things of sense. Lord, 
enable me to look beyond my present troubles, and to foresee a happy issue of 
tb em. 2nd. Guide my way ; enable me to look about me, that I nay avoid the 
snares which are laid for me. 3rd. Refresh my soul with the joy of thy salva- 
tion. That which revives the drooping spirits is said to enlighten the eyes, 
1 Sam. xiv. 27; Ezra ix. 8. Lord, scatter the cloud of melancholy which 
darkens my eyes, and let my countenance be made pleasant. 

2. ^ hat his pleasure. He mentions his relation to God, and interest in him, 
** O Lord, my God," and insists upon the greatness of the peril, winch called 
for speedy relief and succour. If his eyes were not lightened quickly, 1st. He 
concludes that he must perish. I shall sleep the sleep of death, I cannot live 
under the weight of all this care and grief. Nothing more killing to a soul than 
the want of God's favour : nothing more reviving than the return of it. 2nd. 
That then his enemies would triumph; Lest mine enemy say, So would I have 
it : lest Saul, lest Satan, be gratified in my fall. It would gratify the pride of 
his enemy; He will say. I have prevailed, I have gotten the day, and been too 
hard for him and his God. It would gratify the malice of his enemies; they 
will rejoice when I am moved. And will it be for God's honour to suffer them 
thus to trample upon all that is sacred both in heaven and earth? 

Thirdly. His prayers are soon turned into praises, ver. 5, 6. But " my heart 
shall rejoice, and I will sing to the Lord." What a surprising change is here 
in a few lines; in the beginning of the psalm we have him drooping and trem- 
bling, and ready to sink into melancholy and despair ; but in the close of it, 
rejoicing in God, and elevated and enlarged in his praises. See the power of 
faith, the power of prayer, and how good it is to draw near to God. If we bring 
our cares and griefs to the throne of grace, and leave them there, we may go 
away, like Hannah, and our countenance be no more sad, 1 Sam. i. IS. And 
here observe the method of his comfort. 

1. God's mercy is the support of his faith. My case is bad enough, and I am 
ready to think it deplorable, till I consider the infinite goodness of God; and 
finding I have that to trust to I am well enough, though I have no merit of my 
own. In former distresses I have trusted in the mercy of God, and I never 
found that it failed me; his mercy has in due time relieved me, and my con- 
fidence in it has in the meantime supported me. Even in the depth of this 
distress, when God hid his face from me, when without were fightings and 
within were fears, yet I trusted in the mercy of God, and that was as an anchor 
in a storm, by the help of which, though I was tossed, I was not overset. And 
still I do trust in thy mercy; so some read it. I refer myself to that, with an 
assurance that will do well for me at last. This he pleads with God, knowing 
what pleasure he takes in those that hope in his mercy, Ps. cxlvii. 11. 

2. His faith in God's mercy nlled his heart with joy in his salvation; for joy 
and peace come by believing, Rom. xv. 13; " Believing ye rejoice," 1 Pet. i. 8. 
Having put his trust in the mercy of God, he is fully assured of salvation, and 
that his heart, which was now daily grieving, should rejoice in that salvation. 
Though weeping endure long, joy will return. 

3. His joy in God's salvation would fill his mouth with songs of praise; 
ver. 6, "1 will sing unto the Lord; v sing in remembrance of what he has done 
formerly. Though I should never recover the peace I have had, I will die bless- 
ing God" that ever I had it. He has dealt bountifully with me formerly, and 
he shall have the glory of that, however he is pleased to deal with me now. 
I will sing in hope of what he will do for me at last ; being confident that ail 
will end well, will end everlastingly well. But he speaks of it as a thing past, 
" He has dealt bountifully with me," because by faith he had^ received the ear- 
nest of the salvation, and he was as confident of it as if it had been done 
already. 

In singing this psalm, and praying over it, if we have not the same complaints 
to make that David had, we must thank God that we have not, dread and 
deprecate his withdrawing, pity and sympathize with those that are troubled 
in mind, and encourage ourselves in our most holy faith and joy. 



PSALM XIV. 

It doth not appear upon what occasion this psalm was penned, nor whether upon any 
particular occasion. Some saY David penned it when Saul persecuted him ; others, 
when Absalom rebelled against him ; but they are mere conjectures, which have not 
certainty enough to warrant us to expound the psalm by them. The apostle in quoting 
part of this psalm, Rom. iii. 10. <S:c., to prove that Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, 
ver. 9. and. all the world is guilty before God, ver. 19, leads us to understand it in 
general a-s a description of the pravity of the human nature, and the sinfulness of the 
sin we are conceived and born in, and the deplorable corruption of a great part of man- 
kind.; even of the world that lies in wickedness, 1 Jno. v. 19. But as in those psalms 



PSALM XIY. 



61 



■which are designed to discover our remedy in Christ, there is commonly an allusion to 
David himself, yea, and some passages that are to be understood primarily of him, as in 
Ps. ii., xvi., xxii., and others; so in this psalm, which is designed to discover our 
wound by sin, there is an allusion to David's enemies and persecutors, and other the 
oppressors of good men at that time, to whom some passages have an immediate refer- 
ence. In all the psalms from the 3rd to this, (except the 8th.) David had been com- 
plaining of those that hated and persecuted him, insulted him and abused him ; now 
here he runs up all those bitter streams to the fountain, the general corruption of 
nature, and sees they were not his enemies only, but all the children of men that were 
thus corrupted. Here is, I. A charge exhibited against a wicked world, ver. 1. 
II. The proof of the charge, ver. 2, 3. III. A serious expostulation with sinners, 
especially with persecutors, upon it, ver. 4 — 6. IV. A believing prayer for the salva- 
tion of Israel, and a joyful expectation of it, ver. 7. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 




iHE fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. 
They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, 



There is none that doeth good. 

2 The Lord looked down from heaven 
Upon the children of men, 

To see if there were any that did understand, 
And seek God. 

3 They are all gone aside, 

They are all together become filthy : 
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. 

If we apply our hearts as Solomon did, JEccl. vii. 26, " to search out the wick- 
edness of folly, even of foolishness and madness," these verses will assist us 
in the search, and will shew us sin exceeding sinful. Sin is the disease of 
mankind, and it appears here to be malignant and epidemical. 

First. See how malignant it is, ver. 1, in two things : 

1. The contempt it puts upon the honour of God ; for there is something of 
practical atheism at the bottom of all sin ; " The fool hath said in Ids heart, 
There is no God." We are sometimes tempted to think, Sure there never was 
so much atheism and profaneness as there is in our days, but we see the 
former days were no better ; even in David's time there were such as had 
arrived to such a height of impiety as to deny the very being of a God, 
and the first and self evident principles of religion. Observe, 1st. The sin- 
ner here described. He is one that saith in his heart "There is no God;" 
he is an atheist. There is no Eloliim> no judge or governor of the world, no 
Providence presiding over the affairs of men. They cannot doubt of the being 
of God, but will question his dominion. He saith this in his heart; it is not his 
judgment, but his imagination. He cannot think there is none, but he wisheth 
there were none, and pleaseth himself with the fancy that it is possible there 
may be none; he cannot be sure there is one, and therefore he is willing to 
think there is none. He dares not speak it out lest, he be confuted, and so 
undeceived ; but he whispers it secretly in his heart, for the silencing of the 
clamours of his conscience, and the emboldening of himself in his evil ways. 
2nd. The character of this sinner. He is a fool, he is simple and unwise; and 
this is an evidence of it: he is wicked and profane; and this is the cause of it. 
Note, Atheistical thoughts are very foolish, wicked thoughts, and they are 
at the bottom of a great deal of the wickedness that is in this world. The Word 
of God is a discerner of these thoughts, and puts a just brand on him that 
harbours them, "Nabal is his name, and folly is with him;" for he thinks 
against the clearest light, against his own knowledge and convictions, and the 
common sentiments of all the wise and sober part of mankind. And there is 
no man will say, " There is no God," till he is so hardened in sin, that it is 
become his interest there should be none to call him to an account. 

2. The disgrace and debasement it puts upon the nature of man. Sinners 
are corrupt, quite degenerated from what man was in his innocent estate. 
" They are become filthy," ver. 3, putrid and stinking. All their faculties are so 
disordered, that they are become odious to their Maker, and utterly incapable 
to answer the ends of their creation. Corrupt indeed ; for, 1st. They do no 
good, but are the unprofitable burthens of the earth; they do God no service, 
bring him no honour, nor do themselves any real kindness. 2nd. They do a 
great deal of hurt: "they have done abominable works," for such all sinful 



62 



PSALM XIV. 



works are. Sin is an abomination to God; it is that abominable thing which 
he hates, Jer. xliv. 4, and sooner or later it will be so to the sinner. It will be 
found to be hateful, Ps. xxxvi. 2 ; an abomination of desolation, that is, making 
desolate, Mat. xxiv. 15. This follows upon their saying, "There is no God;" 
for they that " profess they know God, but in works deny him, are abominable, 
and to every good work reprobate," Tit. i. 16. 

Secondly. See how epidemical this disease is; it has infected the whole race 
of mankind. To prove this, God himself is here brought in for a witness, and 
he is an eyewitness, ver. 2, 3. Observe, 1. His inquiry. "The Lord looked 
down from heaven,'' a place of prospect which commands this lower world; 
from thence with an all-seeing eye, he took a view of all the children of men; 
and the question was, Whether there were any among them that did understand 
themselves aright, their duty and interests, and did seek God, and set him 
before them. He that made this search was not only One that could find out 
a good man if he was to be found, though never so obscure ; but One that 
would be glad to find out one, and would be sure to take notice of him, as of 
Noah in the old world. 2. The result of this inquiry, ver. 3. Upon search, 
upon his search, it appeared, "They are all gone aside;" the apostacy is 
universal. " there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Till the free and mighty 
grace of God has wrought a change, whatever good is in any^ of the children 
of men, or is done by them, it is not of themselves, it is God's work in them. 
When God had made the world, he looked upon his own work, and all was very 
good, Gen. i. 31 ; but, some time after, he looked upon man's work, and behold, 
all was very bad, Gen. vi. 5 ; every operation of the thought of man's heart was 
evil, only evil, and that continually. They are gone aside from the right way 
of their duty, the way that leads to happiness, and are turned into the paths 
of the destroyer. 

In singing this, let us lament the corruption of our own nature, and see 
what need we have of the grace of God ; and, since that which is born of the 
flesh is flesh, let us not marvel that w T e are told we must be born again. 

4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge ? 
Who eat up my people as they eat bread, 

And call not upon the Lord. 

5 There were they in great fear : 

For God is in the generation of the righteous. 

6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, 
Because the Lord is his refuge. 

7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion ! 
When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, 
Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. 

In these verses the psalmist endeavours, 

First. To convince sinners of the evil and danger of the way they are in, how 
secure soever they are in that way. Three things he shews them, which, it 
may be, they are not very willing to see, — their wickedness, their folly, and 
their danger; while they are apt to believe themselves very wise, and' good, 
and safe. See here, 

1. Their wickedness. This is described in four instances : 1st. They are them- 
selves workers of iniquity ; they design it, they practise it, and take as much 
pleasure in it as ever any man did in his business. 2nd. They eat up God's 
people with as much greediness as they eat bread; such an innate and 
inveterate enmity they have to them, and so heartily do they desire their ruin, 
because they really hate God, whose people they are. It is meat and drink to 
persecutors to be doing mischief : it is as agreeable to them as their necessary 
food. They eat up God's people easily, daily, securely, without either check 
of conscience when they do it, or remorse of conscience when they have done 
it; as Joseph's brethren cast him into a pit, and then sat down to eat bread, 
Gen. xxxvii. 24, 25 : see Mic. hi. 2. 3. 3rd. They call not upon the Lc4'd. Note, 
Those that care not for God's people, for God's poor, care not for God himself, 
but live in contempt of him; and the reason why people run into all manner 
of wickedness, even the worst, is, because they do not call upon God for his 
grace. What good can be expected from those that live without prayer? 
4th. They shame the counsel of the poor, and upbraid them with making God 
their refuge, as David's enemies upbraided him, Ps. xi. 1. xSote, Those are 
very wicked indeed, and have a great deal to answer for, who not only shake 
oft' religion, and live without it themselves, but say and do what they* can to 



PSALM XV. 63 

put others out of conceit with it that are well inclined; with the duties of it, 
as if they were mean^ melancholy, arid unprofitable; and with the privileges 
of it, as if they were insufficient to make a man safe and happy. Those that 
banter religion, and religious people, will find, to their cost, it is ill jesting with 
edged tools, and dangerous persecuting those that make God their refuge. 
" Be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong." He shews them, 

2. Their folly. They have no knowledge : so it is a sign ; for if they had any 
knowledge of God, if they did rightly understand themselves, and would but 
consider things as men, they would not be so abusive and barbarous as they are 
to the people of God. 

3. Their danger; ver. 5, "There were they in great fear." There, where 
they ate up God's people, their own consciences condemned what they did, and 
filled them with secret terrors. They sweetly sucked the blood of the saints; 
but in their bowels it is turned, and become the gall of asps. Many instances 
there have been of proud and cruel persecutors, who have been 'made, like 
Pashur, Magor-missabibs, terrors to themselves and all about them. They 
that will not fear God perhaps may be made to fear at the shaking of a leaf. 

Secondly. He endeavours to comfort the people of God, 1. With what they 
have. They have God's presence; ver. 5, he "is in the generation of the 
righteous:" they have his protection; ver. 6, "The Lord is their refuge." 
This is as much their security as it is the terror of their enemies, who may jeer 
them for their confidence in God, but cannot jeer them out of it. In the 
judgment-day it will add to the terror and confusion of sinners to see God own 
the generation of the righteous, which they have hated and bantered. 2. With 
what they hope for; and that is the salvation of Israel, ver. 7. When David 
was driven out by Absalom and his rebellious accomplices, he comforted him- 
self with an assurance that God would in due time turn again his captivity, to 
the joy of all his good subjects. But surely this pleasing prospect looks 
farther. He had, in the beginning of the psalm, lamented the general corrup- 
tion of mankind ; and, in the melancholy view of that, wishes for the salvation 
which, in the fulness of time, was to come out of Zion; salvation from sin, 
that great salvation which should be wrought out by the Redeemer, who was 
expected to come to Zion, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, Rom. xi. 26. 
The world is bad; Oh that the Messiah would come and mend them! There 
is a universal corruption ; Oh for the times of reformation ! Those will be as 
joyful times as these are melancholy ones. Then shall God turn again the 
captivity of his people ; for the Redeemer shall ascend up on high, and lead 
captivity captive, and Jacob shall in that rejoice. The triumphs of Zion's king 
will be the joys of Zion's children. The second coming of Christ, finally to 
extinguish the dominion of sin and Satan, will be the completing of this salva- 
tion, which is the hope, and will be the joy, of every Israelite indeed. And 
with the assurance of that we should, in singing this, comfort ourselves and 
one another, with reference to the present sins of sinners, and sufferings of 
saints. 

PSALM XV. 

The scope of this short but excellent psalm is to shew us the way to heaven, and to con- 
vince us that, if we would be happy, we must be holy and honest. Christ, who is 
himself the way, and in whom we must walk as our way, has also shewed us the same 
way that is here prescribed, Mat. xix. 17, " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the com- 
mandments." In this psalm, I. By the question, ver. 1, we are directed and excited 
to inquire the way. II. By the answer to that question in the rest of the psalm, we 
are directed to walk in that way, ver. 2 — 5. III. By the assurance given in the close 
of the psalm, of the safety and happiness of those who answer these characters, we are 
encouraged to walk in that way, ver. 5. 

A Psalm of David. 

IOKD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? 
J Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 

2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, 
And speaketh the truth in his heart. 

3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, 
Nor doeth evil to his neighbour, 

Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. 

4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned ; 
But he honoureth them that fear the Lord. 



64 PSALM XV. 

He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. 
5 He that putteth not out his money to usury, 
Nor taketh reward against the innocent. 
He that doeth these things shall never be moved. 

Here is, First. A very serious and weighty question, concerning the cha- 
racters of a citizen of Zion; ver. 1, " Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle ?" 
that is, Let me know who shall go to heaven. Not who by name, — so the Lord 
only knows them that are his; but who by description, What kind of people 
are they whom thou wilt own, and crown with distinguishing and everlasting 
favours? This supposeth that it is a great privilege to be a citizen of Zion, 
an unspeakable honour and advantage ; that all are not thus privileged, but 
a remnant only ; and that men are not entitled to this privilege by their birth 
and blood; all shall not abide in God's tabernacle that have Abraham to their 
father, but according as men's hearts and lives are accordingly will their lot 
be. It concerns us all to put this question to ourselves, Lord, what shall I be, 
and do, that 1 may abide in thy tabernacle? Lu. xviii. 18 ; Acts xvi. 30. Observe, 

1. Who this inquiry is addressed to ; to God himself. Note, Those that 
would find the way to heaven must look up to God, must take direction from 
his word, and beg direction from his Spirit. It is fit he himself should give 
laws to his servants, and appoint the conditions of his favours, and tell who are 
his, and who not. 

2. How it is expressed in Old Testament language. 1st. By the tabernacle 
we may understand the church militant, typified by Moses' tabernacle, fitted 
to a wilderness state, mean and moveable. There God manifests himself, and 
there he meets his people, as of old, in the tabernacle of the testimony, the 
tabernacle of meeting. Who shall dwell in this tabernacle ? that is, Who shall 
be accounted a true, living member of God's church, admitted among the spi- 
ritual priests to lodge in the courts of this tabernacle? We are concerned to 
inquire this, because many pretend to a place in this tabernacle who really have 
no part nor lot in the matter. 2nd. By the holy hill we may understand the 
church triumphant, alluding to mount Zion, on which the temple was to be 
built by Solomon. It is the happiness of glorified saints that they dwell in that 
holy hill, they are at home there, they shall be for ever there. It concerns us 
to know who shall dwell there, that we make it sure to ourselves that we shall 
have a place among them, and may then take the comfort of it, and rejoice in 
prospect of that holy hill. 

Secondly. A very plain and particular answer to this question. Those that 
desire to know their duty, with a resolution to do it, will find the Scripture 
a very faithful director, and conscience a faithful monitor. Let us see then 
the particular characters of a citizen of Zion. 

1. He is one that is sincere and entire in his religion. "He walketh uprightly," 
according to the condition of the covenant, Gen. xvii. 1, " Walk before me, and 
be thou perfect," (it is the same word that is here used,) and then thou shalt 
find me a God all-sufficient. He is really what he professeth to be, is sound 
at heart, and can approve himself to God in his integrity in all he doth ; his 
conversation is uniform, and he is of a piece with himself, and endeavours to 
stand complete in all the will of God. His eye perhaps is weak, but it is single ; 
he has his spots indeed, but he doth not paint; "an Israelite indeed, in whom 
is no guile," Jno. i. 47 ; 2 Cor. i. 12. I know no religion but sincerity. 

2. He is one that is conscientiously honest and just in all his dealings, faith- 
ful and fair to all with whom he has to do. He " worketh righteousness ;" that 
is, he walks in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord, and takes 
care to give all their due ; is just both to God and man ; and in speaking to 
both he speaketh that which is the truth in his heart; his prayers, professions, 
and promises to God, come not out of feigned lips, nor dares he tell a lie, or 
so much as equivocate in his converse or commerce with men. He walks 
by the rules of righteousness and truth, and scorns and abhors the gains of 
injustice and fraud; and reckons that cannot be a good bargain, nor a saving 
one, which is made with a lie ; and that be who wrongs his neighbour, though 
never so plausibly, will prove in the end to have done the greatest injury to 
himself. 

3. He is one that contrives to do all the good he can to his neighbours; but 
is very careful to do hurt to no man, and is in a particular manner tender of 
his neighbour's reputation, ver. 3. He doth no evil at all to his neighbour 
willingly or designedly, nothing to offend and grieve his spirit, nothing to pre- 
judice the health or ease of his body, nothing to injure him in his estate or 
secular interests, in his family or relations ; but walks by that golden rule of 
equity, — to do as he would be done by. He is especially careful not to injure 
his neighbour in his good name, because many who would not otherwise wrong 



PSALM XV. 



65 



their neighbours make nothing of that; and he that in this matter bridles not 
his tongue, his a religion is vain. He knows the worth of a good name, and there- 
fore he backbiteth not, doiames no man, speaks evil of no man, makes not 
others' faults the subject of his common talk, much less of his sport and ridi 
cule, nor speaks of them with pleasure, nor at all but for edification ; he make 
the best of every body, and the worst of nobody. He doth not take up a 
reproach; that is, he neither raiseth it, nor receiveth it; he gives no credit nor 
countenance to a calumny, but frowns upon a backbiting tougue, and so 
silenceth it, Pr. xxv. 23. If an ill-natured character of his neighbour be given 
him, or an ill-natured story be told him, he will disprove it if he can: if not, 
it shall die with him, and go no farther. His charity will cover a multitude 
of sins. 

4. He is one that values men by their virtue and piety, and not by the figure 
they make in the world, ver. 5. 1st. He thinks the better of no man's wicked- 
ness for his pomp and grandeur; "In hi? eyes a vile person is contemned." 
Wicked people are vile people, worthless, and good for nothing; so the word 
signifies, as dross, as chaff, as salt that has lost its savour; they are vile in their 
choices, Jer. ii. 13, in their practices, Isa. xxxii. 6. And for this wise and good 
men contemn them, — not denying them civil honour and respect as men, as men 
in authority and power perhaps, 1 Pet. ii. 17 ; Rom. xiii. 7, — but in their judg- 
ment of them, agreeing with the word of God. They are so far from envying 
them that they pity him; despise their gains, Isa. xxxiii. 15, as turning to no 
account; their dainties, Ps. cxli. 4; their pleasures, Heb. xi. 24, 25, as sapless 
and insipid. They despise their society, Ps. cxix. 115; 2 Kin. iii. 14, despise 
their taunts and threats, and are not moved by them, nor disturbed at them : 
they despise the feeble efforts of their impotent malice, Ps. ii. 1,4, and will 
shortly triumph in their fall, Ps. Iii. 6, 7. God despiseth them, and they are 
of his mind. 2nd. He thinks the worse of no man's piety for his poverty and 
meanness; "but he honours them that fear the Lord." He reckons that serious 
piety, wherever it is found, puts an honour upon a man, and makes his face to 
shine more than wealth or wit, or a great name among men doth or can. He 
honours such; that is, he esteems them very highly in love, desires their friend- 
ship and conversation, and an interest in their prayers; is glad of an oppor- 
tunity to shew them respect, or do them a good office ; pleads their cause, and 
speaks of them with veneration, rejoiceth when they prosper, grieves when 
they are removed, and their memory when they are gone is precious with him. 
By this we may judge of ourselves in some measure: What rules do we go by 
in judging of others? 

5. He is one that always prefers a good conscience before any secular interest 
or advantage whatsoever ; for if he has promised upon oath to do any thing, 
though afterwards it appear much to his damage and prejudice in his worldly 
estate, yet he sticks to it, and changeth not, ver. 4. See how weaksighted and 
shortsighted even wise and good men may be, they may swear to their own 
hurt, which they were not aware of when they took the oath; but see how 
strong the obligation of an oath is, that a man must rather sutler loss to himself 
and his family, than wrong his neighbour by breaking his oath. An oath is a 
sacred thing, which we must not think to play fast and loose with. 

6. He is one that will not increase his estate by any unjust practices, ver. 5. 
1st. Not by extortion. " He putteth not out his money to usury," that he may 
live at ease upon the labours of others, while he is in capacity of improving it 
by his own industry. Not that it is any breach of the law of justice or charity 
for the lender to share in the profit which the borrower makes of his money 
any more than for the owner of the land to demand rent from the occupant, 
money being by art and labour as improvable as land; but a citizen of Zion 
will freely lend to the poor, according to his ability, and not be rigorous and 
severe in recovering his right from those that are reduced by Providence. 
2nd. Not by bribery. He will not "take a reward against the innocent ;" that 
is, if he be any way employed in the administration of public justice, he will 
not for any gain, or hope of it to himself, do any thing to the prejudice of 
a righteous cause. 

Thirdly. The psalm concludes with a ratification of this character of the 
citizen of Zion. He is like Zion-hill itself, which cannot be moved, but abideth 
for ever, Ps. cxxv. 1. Every true, living member of the church, like the church 
itself, is built upon a rock, which the gates of hell cannot prevail against. "He 
that doth these things shall never be moved ;" shall not be moved for ever, so 
the word is. The grace of God shall always be sufficient for him to preserve 
him safe and blameless to the heavenly kingdom; temptations shall not over- 
come him, trouble shall not overwhelm him, nothing shall rob him of his 
present peace or his future bliss. 

In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish ourselves and one another, 
to answer the characters here given of the citizen of Zion, that we may never 
be moved from God's tabernacle on earth, and may arrive at last at that holy 
hill, where we shall be for ever out of the reach of temptation and danger. 



66 PSALM XYI. 

This psalm has something of David in it, but much more of Christ. It begins with such 
expressions of devotion as may be applied to Christ, but concludes with such confidence 
of a resurrection (and so timely a one as to prevent corruption) as must be applied to 
Christ, to him only, and cannot be understood of David, as both St. Peter and St. Paul 
have observed, Acts ii. 24; xiii. 36; for David died and was buried, and saw corrup- 
tion. I. David speaks of himself as a member of Christ, and so he speaks the language 
of all good Christians, professing his confidence in God, ver. 1 ; his consent to him, 
ver. 2 ; his affection to the people of God, ver. 3 ; his adherence to the true worship of 
God, ver. 4; and his entire complacency and satisfaction in God, and the interest he 
had in him, ver. 5 — 7. II. He speaks of himself as a type of Christ, and so he speaks 
the language of Christ himself, to whom all the rest of the psalm is expressly and at 
large applied, Acts ii. 25, &c, " David speaketh concerning him," (not concerning him- 
self,) "I foresaw the Lord always before my face," &c. ; and this he spake, being a 
prophet, ver. 30, 31 ; spake, 1. Of the special presence of God with the Redeemer in 
his services and sufferings, ver. 8 ; 2. of the prospect which the Redeemer had of his own 
resurrection, and the glory that should follow, which carried him cheerfully through 
his undertaking, ver. 9 — 11. 

Michtam of David. 

PBESEKVE me, 0 God : 
For in thee do I put my trust. [my Lord: 

2 0 my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art 
My goodness extendeth not to thee ; 

3 But to the saints that are in the earth, 

And to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. 

4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after ano- 
Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, [ther god: 
Nor take up their names into my lips. [cup: 

5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my 
Thou maintainest my lot. 

6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; 
Yea, I have a goodly heritage. 

7 I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel : 
My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. 

This psalm is entitled Michtam, which some translate a golden psalm, a very 

Erecious one, more to be valued by us than gold, yea than much fine gold'; 
ecause it speaks so plainly of Christ and his resurrection, who is the true 
treasure hid in the field of the Old Testament. 

First. David here flies to God's protection with a cheerful, believing confi- 
dence in it ; ver. 1, " Preserve me, O God," from the deaths, and especially from 
the sins, to which I am continually exposed; '* for in thee," and thee only, " do 
I put my trust." Those that by faith commit themselves to the Divine care, 
and submit themselves to the Divine conduct, have reason to hope for the 
benefit of both. This is applicable to Christ, who prayed, "Father, save me 
from this hour," and " trusted in God that he would deliver him." 

Secondly. He recogniseth his solemn dedication of himself to God as his 
God ; ver. 2, *' O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord," 
and therefore thou mayest venture to trust him. Note, 1. It is the duty and 
interest of every one of'us to acknowledge the Lord for our Lord, to subject 
ourselves to him. and then to stay ourselves upon him. Adonai signifies 'my 
stayer,' the strength of my heart. 2. This must be done with our souls. " O 
my soul, thou hast said" it. Covenanting with God must be heart-work, all 
that is within us must be employed therein, and engaged thereby. < 3. Those 
who have avouched the Lord for their Lord should be often putting them- 
selves in mind of what they have done. Hast thou said unto the Lord, Thou art 
my Lord? say it again then, stand to it, abide by it, and never unsay it. Hast 
thou said it? take the comfort of it, and live up to it. " He is thy Lord, and 
worship thou him," and let thine eye be ever towards him. 

Thirdly. He devotes himself to the honour of God, in the service of the 
saints; ver. 2, 3, "My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints." 



PSALM XVI. 



07 



Observe, I. Those that have taken the Lord for their Lord, must, like him, be 
good, and do good ; we do not expect happiness without goodness. 2. What- 
ever good there is in us, or is done by us, we must humbly acknowledge that 
it efttendeth not to God; so that we cannot pretend to merit any thing by it. 
God has no need of our services, he is not benefited by them, nor can they add 
any thing to his infinite perfection and blessedness. The wisest, and best, and 
most useful men in the world, cannot be profitable to God, Job xxii. 2; xxxv. 7. 
God is infinitely above us, and happy without us, and whatever good we do 
it is all from him ; so that we are indebted to him, not he to us. David owns it 
1 Chr. xxix. 4, " Of thine own have we given thee." 3. If God be ours, we 
must for his sake extend our goodness to those that are his, to the saints in 
the earth; for what is done to them he is pleased to take as done to himself, 
having constituted them his receivers. Note, 1st. There are saints in the earth, 
and saints on earth we must all be, or we shall never be saints in heaven. 
Those that are renewed by the grace of God, and devoted to the glory of God, 
are saints on earth. 2nd. "The saints in the earth are excellent ones, great, 
mighty, magnificent ones, and yet some of them so poor in the world, that they 
needed to have David's goodness extended to them. God makes them excellent 
by the grace he gives them. " The righteous is more excellent than his neigh- 
bour." And then he accounts them excellent ; they are precious in his sight, 
and honourable ; they are his jewels, his peculiar treasure. Their God is 
their glory, and a diadem of beauty to them. 3rd. All that have taken the 
Lord for their God delight in his saints as excellent ones, because they bear 
his image, and because he loves them. David, though a king, was a companion 
for all that feared God, Ps. cxix. 63, even the meanest, which was a sign that 
his delight was in them. 4th. It is not enough for us to delight in the saints ; but, 
as there is occasion, our goodness must extend to them ; we must be ready to 
shew them the kindness they need, distribute to their necessities, and abound 
in the labour of love to them. This is applicable to Christ. The salvation he 
wrought out for us was no gain to God, for our ruin would have been no loss 
to him ; but the goodness and benefit of it extends to us men, in whom he 
delighted, Pr. viii. 31. " For their sakes," saith he, " I sanctify myself," 
Jno. xvii. 19. Christ delights even in the saints on earth, notwithstanding 
their weaknesses and manifold infirmities, which is a good reason why we 
should. 

Fourthly. He disclaims the worship of all false gods, and all communion with 
their worshippers, ver. 4; where, 1. He reads the doom of idolaters, who 
"hasten after another god," being mad upon their idols, and pursuing them as 
eagerly as if they were afraid they would overgo them. "Their sorrows shall 
be multiplied," both by the judgments they bring upon themselves from the 
true God whom they forsake and by the disappointment they will meet with 
in the false gods they embrace. They that multiply gods multiply griefs to 
themselves ; for whosoever thinks one god too little, will find two too many, and 
yet hundreds not enough. 2. He declares his resolution to have no fellowship 
with them, nor with their unfruitful works of darkness. "Their drink offer- 
ings of blood will 1 not offer," not only because the gods they are offered to are 
a lie, but because the offerings themselves are barbarous. At God's altar, 
because the blood made atonement, the drinking of it was most strictly pro- 
hibited, and the drink offerings were of wine ; but the devil prescribed his 
worshippers to drink the blood of the sacrifices, to teach them cruelty. I will 
have nothing to do, saith David, with those bloody deities, nor so much as 
"take their names into my lips" with any delight in them, or respect to them. 
Thus must we hate idols and idolatry with a perfect hatred. Some make this 
also applicable to Christ and his undertaking, shewing the nature of the sacri- 
fice he offered,— it was not "the blood of bulls and goats, which was offered 
according to the law," that was never named, nor did he ever make any mention 
of it, but his own blood — shewing also the multiplied sorrows of the unbe- 
lieving Jews, who hastened after another king, Caesar, and are still hastening 
after another Messiah, whom they in vain look for. 

Fifthly. He repeats the solemn choice he had made of God for his portion 
and happiness, ver. 5; takes to himself the comfort of the choice, ver. 6; and 
gives God the glory of it, ver. 7. This is very much the language of a devout 
and pious soul in its gracious exercises, 

I. Choosing the Lord for its portion and happiness. The most of men take 
the world for their chief good, and place their felicity in the enjoyments of it ; 
but this I say, " The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup ; " 
the portion I make choice of, and will gladly take up with, how poor soever 
my condition is in this world. Let me have the love and favour of God, and be 
accepted of him ; let me have the comfort of communion with God, and satis- 
faction in the communications of his graces and comforts. Let me have an 
interest in his promises, and a title by promise to everlasting life and happiness 
in the future state, ana I have enough, I need no more, I desire no more to 
complete my felicity. Would we do well and wisely for ourselves, we must 



68 PSALM XVI. 

take God in Christ to be, 1st. The portion of our inheritance in the other 
world. Heaven is an inheritance, God himself is the inheritance of the saints 
there, whose everlasting bliss it is to enjoy him. We must take that for our 
inheritance, our home, our rest, our lasting, everlasting good, and look tipon 
this world to be no more ours than the country is through which our road lies 
when we are in a journey. 2nd. The portion of our cup in this world with 
which I am nourished and refreshed, and kept from fainting. Those have not 
God for theirs who do not reckon his comforts the most reviving cordials, 
acquaint themselves with them, and make use of them as sufficient to balance 
all the grievances of this present time, and to sweeten the most bitter cup of 
affliction. 

2. Confiding in him for the securing of this portion. "Thou maintainest my 
lot." Thou that hast by promise made over thyself to me to be mine wilt gra- 
ciously make good what thou hast promised, and never leave me to myself to 
forfeit this happiness, nor leave it in the power of mine enemies to rob me of it. 
Nothing shall pluck me out of thy hands, nor separate me from thy love, and 
the sure mercies of David. The saints and their bliss are kept by the power of 
God. 

3. Rejoicing in this portion, and taking a complacency in it; ver. 6, The 
lines are fallen to me in pleasant places." Those have reason to say so that 
have God for their portion ; they have a worthy portion, a goodly heritage. 
What can they have better ? What can they desire more? *' Return unto thy 
rest, O my soul," and look no farther. Note, Gracious souls, though they stiil 
covet more of God, never covet more than God ; but, being satisfied of his 
lovingkindness, are abundantly satisfied with it, and envy not any their carnal 
mirth, and sensual pleasures and delights, but account themselves truly happy 
in what they have, and doubt not but to be completely happy in what they 
hope for. Those whose lot is cast, as David's was, in a land of light, a valley 
of vision, where God is known and worshipped, have upon that account 
reason to say the lines are fallen to them in pleasant places ; much more they 
that have not only the means, but the end, not only Immanuel's land, but 
Immanuel's love. 

4. Giving thanks to God for it, and for grace to make this wise and happy 
choice ; ver. 7, *' I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel," this counsel 
to take him for my portion and happiness. So ignorant and foolish are we, 
that if we be left to ourselves our hearts will follow our eyes, and we shall 
choose our own delusions, and forsake our own mercies for lying vanities ; and 
therefore, if we have indeed taken God for our portion, and preferred spiritual 
and eternal blessings before those that are sensible and temporal, we must 
thankfully acknowledge the power and goodness of Divine grace, directing and 
enabling us to make that choice. If we have the pleasure of it, let God have 
the praises of it. 

5. Making a good use of it. God having given him counsel by his Word and 
Spirit, his own reins, that is, his own thoughts, also instructed him in the night 
season, when he was silent and solitary, and retired from the world. Then his 
own conscience (which is called the reins, Jer. xvii. 10) not only reflected with 
comfort upon the choice he had made, but instructed or admonished him con- 
cerning his duty, which he was obliged to by this choice ; catechised him, and 
engaged and quickened him to live as one that had God for his portion, by 
faith to live upon him, and live to him. Those who have God for their portion, 
who will be faithful to them, must give their own consciences leave to deal 
thus faithfully and plainly with them. 

All this may be applied to Christ, who made the Lord his portion, and was 
pleased with that portion, made his Father's glory his highest end, and made it 
his meat and drink to seek that and to do his will, and delighted to prosecute his 
undertaking, pursuant to his Father's counsel, depending upon him to maintain 
his lot, and to carry him through his undertaking. We may also apply it to 
ourselves in singing it, renewing our choice of God as ours, with a holy com- 
placency and satisfaction. 

8 I have set the Lord always before me : 

Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth : 
My flesh also shall rest in hope. 

L0 Tor thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; 

Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 
11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life : 



PSALM XVI. 



69 



In thy presence is fulness of joy ; 

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. 

All these verses are quoted by St. Peter, in his first sermon after the pouring 
out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Acts ii. 25—28, and he tells us ex- 
pressly, that David in them speaketh concerning Christ, and particularly of 
his resurrection. Something we may allow here of the workings of David's 
own pious and devout affections towards God, depending upon his grace to 
perfect every thing that concerned him, and looking for the blessed hope and 
a happy state on the other side death, in the enjoyment of God. But in these 
holy elevations towards God and heaven he was carried, by the spirit of pro- 
phecy, quite beyond the consideration of himself and his own case, to foretell 
the glory of the Messiah, in such expressions as were peculiar to that, and 
could not be understood of himself. The New Testament furnisheth us with 
a key to let us into the mystery of these lines. 

First. These verses for certain must be applied to Christ. Of him speaketh 
the prophet this, as did many of the Old Testament prophets, who "testified 
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow," 1 Pet. i. 11 r 
and that is the subject of this prophecy here. It is foretold (as he himself 
shewed concerning this, no doubt, among other prophecies in this psalm, 
Lu. xxiv. 44, 46,) that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead, 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4. 

1. That he should suffer and die. This is implied here, when he saith, ver. 8, 
** I shall not be moved." He supposed that he should be struck at, and have a 
dreadful shock given him, as he had in his agony, when his soul was exceeding 
sorrowful, and he prayed that the cup might pass from him. When he saith, 
M my flesh shall rest," it is implied that he must put off the body, and therefore 
must go through the pains of death. It is likewise plainly intimated, that his 
soul must go into a state of separation from the body, and that his body so 
deserted would be in imminent danger of seeing corruption; that he should not 
only die, but be buried, and abide for some time under the power of death. 

2. That he should be wonderfully borne up by the Divine power in suffering 
and dying. 1st. That he should not be moved nor driven off from his under- 
taking, nor sink under the weight of it; that he should not fail nor be dis- 
couraged, Isa. xlii. 4, but should proceed and persevere in it, till he could say, 

It is finished." Though the service was hard, and the encounter hot, and he 
trod the winepress alone, yet he was not moved, did not give up the cause, but 
set his face as a flint, Isa. 1. 7—9. "Here am I, let these go their way." Nay, 
2nd. That his heart should rejoice, and his glory be glad ; that he should go on 
with his undertaking, not only resolutely, but cheerfully, and with an unspeak- 
able pleasure and satisfaction. Witness that saying, Jno. xvii. 11, " Now I am 
no more in the world, but I come to thee;" and that, Jno. xviii. 11, "The cup 
that my Father giveth me, shall I not drink it?" and many the like. By his 
glory is meant his tongue, as appears Acts ii. 26; for our tongue is our glory, 
and never more so than when it is employed in glorifying God. 

Now there were three things which bore him up, and carried him on thus 
cheerfully. First. The respect he had to his Father's will and glory in what 
he did : "I have set the Lord always before me." He still had an eye to his 
Father's commandment, Jno. x. 18; xiv. 31 ; the will of him that sent him. He 
aimed at his Father's honour, and the restoring of the interests of his kingdom 
among men, and this kept him from being moved by the difficulties he met 
with ; for he always did those things that pleased his Father. Secondly. The 
assurance he had of his Father's presence with him in his sufferings : " He is 
at my right hand;" a present help to me, nigh at hand in the time of need; 
Isa, I. 8, " He is near that justifieth me ; " he is at my right hand, to direct and 
strengthen it, and hold it up, Ps. lxxxix. 21. When he was in his agony an 
angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him, Lu. xxii. 43. To this the vic- 
tories and triumphs of the cross were all owing ; it was the Lord at his right 
hand that struck through kings, Ps. ex. 5; Isa. xlii. 1,2. Thirdly. The pros- 

Eect he had of a glorious issue of his sufferings. It was for the joy set before 
im, that he endured the cross, Heb. xii. 2. He rested in hope, and that made 
his rest glorious, Isa. xi. 10. He knew he should be justified in the Spirit by 
his resurrection, and straightway glorified : see Jno. xiii. 31, 32. 

3. That he should be brought through his sufferings, and brought from under 
the power of death by a glorious resurrection. 1st. That his soul should not 
be left in hell; that is, his human spirit should not be long left, as other men's 
spirits are, in a state of separation from the body, but should in a little time 
return and be re-united to it, never to part again. 2nd. That being God's Holy 
One in a peculiar manner, sanctified to the work of redemption, and perfectly 
free from sin, he should not see corruption, or feel it. This implies, that he 
should not only be raised from the grave, but raised so soon that his dead body 
should not so much as begin to corrupt, which in the course of nature it would 
have done, if it had not been raised the third day. We that have so much cor- 



70 



PSALM XVII. 



ruption in our souls must expect that our bodies also will corrupt, Job xxiv. 19. 
But that Holy One of God, who knew no sin, saw no corruption. Under the 
law it was strictly ordered that those parts of the sacrifices which were not 
burnt upon the altar yet should by no means be kept till the third day, lest they 
should putrefy, Lev. vii. 15, 18, which perhaps pointed at Christ's rising the third 
day, that he might not see corruption, as neither was a bone of him broken. 

4. That he should be abundantly recompensed for his sufferings, with the joy 
set before him, ver. 11. He was well assured, 1st. That he should not miss 
of his glory. " Thou wilt shew me the path of life," and lead me to that life 
through this darksome valley. In confidence of this, when he gave up the 
ghost, he said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit;" and a little 
before, "Father, glorify thou me with thine own self." 2nd. That he should 
be received into the presence of God, to sit at his right hand. His being 
admitted into God's presence would be the acceptance of his service; and his 
being set at his right hand the recompence of it. 3rd. Thus, as a reward for 
the sorroAVs he underwent for our redemption, he should have a " fulness of 
joy, and pleasures for evermore;" not only the glory he had with God, as God 
before all worlds, but the joy and pleasure of a Mediator, in seeing his seed, 
and the success and prosperity of his undertaking, lsa. liii. 10, 11. 

Secondly. Christ being the head of the body, the church, these verses may 
for the most part be applied to all good Christians, who are guided and ani- 
mated by the Spirit of Christ; and in singing of them, when we have first given 
glory to Christ, in whom they have to our everlasting comfort had their accom- 
plishment, we may then encourage and edify ourselves and one another with 
them, and may from hence learn, 

1. That it is our wisdom and duty to set the Lord always before us, and to 
see him continually at our right hand, wherever we are ; to eye him as our 
chief good and highest end, our owner, ruler, and judge, our gracious bene- 
factor, our sure guide, and strict observer ; and while we do thus we shall not 
be moved either from our duty or from our comfort. Blessed Paul set the 
Lord before him, when, though bonds and afflictions did abide him, he could 
bravely say, "None of these things move me," Acts xx. 24. 

2. That if our eyes be ever towards God, our hearts and tongues may ever 
rejoice in him. It is our own fault if they do not ; if the heart rejoice in God, 
out of the abundance of that let the mouth speak, to his glory and the edifica- 
tion of others. 

3. That dying Christians, as well as a dying Christ, may cheerfully put off 
the body in a believing expectation of a joyful resurrection. "My flesh also 
shall rest in hope." Our bodies have little rest in this world, but in the grave 
they shall rest as in their beds, lsa. lvii. 2. We have little to hope for from this 
life* but we shall rest in hope of a better life ; that is, we may put off the body 
in that hope. Death destroys the hope of man, Job xiv. 14, but not the hope of 
a good Christian, Pr. xiv. 32. He has hope in his death, living hopes in dying 
moments; hopes that the body shall not be left for ever in the grave; but, 
though it see corruption for a time, it shall at the end of time be raised to 
immortality. Christ's resurrection is an earnest of ours if we be his. 

4. That those who live piously with God in their eye may die comfortably 
with heaven in their eye. In this world sorrow is our lot, but in heaven there 
is joy ; all our joys here are empty and defective, but in heaven there is a ful- 
ness of joy. Our pleasures here are transient and momentary, and such is the 
nature of them that it is not fit they should last long; but those at God's right 
hand are pleasures for evermore; for they are the pleasures of immortal souls 
in the immediate vision and fruition of an eternal God. 



PSALM XVII. 

David, being in great distress and danger by the malice of his enemies, doth in this 
psalm, by prayer, address himself to God, his tried refuge, and seeks shelter in him. 
I. He appeals to God concerning his integrity, ver. 1 — 4. II. He prays to God still 
to be upheld in his integrity, and preserved from the malice of his enemies, 
ver. 5 — 8, 13. III. He gives a character of bis enemies, using that as a plea with God 
for bis preservation, ver. 9 — 12, 14. IV. He comforts himself with the hopes of his 
future happiness, ver. 15. And some make him in this a type of Christ, who was 
perfectly innocent, and yet was hated and persecuted; but, like David, committed 
himself and his cause to him that judgeth righteously. 

A Prayer of David. 

HEAK the right, 0 Lord, 
Attend unto my cry, [lips. 
Give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned 



PSALM XVII. 71 

2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence ; 
Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. 

3 Thou hast proved mine heart ; 
Thou hast visited me in the night ; 

Thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing ; 

I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. 

4 Concerning the works of men, 

By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths 
of the destroyer. 

5 Hold up my goings in thy paths, 
That my footsteps slip not. 

6 I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, 0 God : 
Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. 

7 Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, 
0 thou that savest by thy right hand 
Them which put their trust in thee 
From those that rise up against them. 

This psalm is a prayer. As there is a time to weep, and a time to rejoice, so 
there is a time for praise, and a time for prayer. David was now persecuted, 
probably by Saul, who hunted him like a partridge on the mountains ; without 
were fightings, within were fears, and both drove him to his pravers. He 
addresseth himself to God in these verses, both by way of appeal, " Hear the 
right, O Lord," that is, let my righteous cause have a hearing before thy tri- 
bunal, and give judgment upon it; and by way of petition, "Give ear unto my 
prayer," ver. 1; and again, ver. 6, "Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my 
speech." Not that God needs to be thus pressed with our importunity, but 
he gives us leave thus to express our earnest desires of his gracious answers to 
our prayers. These things he pleads with God for audience, 1. That he was 
sincere, and did not dissemble with God in his prayer; it "goeth not out of 
feigned lips." He meant as he spoke, and the impressions on his mind agreed 
with the expressions of his mouth. Feigned prayers are fruitless, but if our 
hearts lead our prayers God will meet them with his favour. 2. That he had 
been used to pray at other times, and it was not his distress and danger that 
now first brought him to his duty. "I have called upon thee" formerly, ver. 6, 
therefore, Lord ? hear me now. It will be a great comfort to us if trouble, 
when it comes, finds the wheels of prayer a going, for then may we come with 
the more boldness to the throne of grace. Tradesmen are willing to oblige 
those that have been long their customers. 3. That he was encouraged by 
his faith to expect God would take notice of his prayers. I know "thou wilt 
hear me," and therefore, " O God, incline thine ear unto me." Our believing 
dependence upon God is a good plea to enforce our desires towards him. Let 
us now see. 

First. What his appeal is. And there observe, 

1. What the court is to the cognizance and determination of which he doth 
appeal. It is the court of heaven. Lord, do thou " hear the right," for Saul is 
so passionate, so prejudiced, he will not hear it. Lord, "let my sentence come 
forth from thy presence," ver. 2. Men sentence me to be run down, and cut oft* 
as an evil-doer. Lord, I appeal from them to thee. This he did in a public 
remonstrance before Saul's face, 1 Sam. xxiv. 12, " The Lord judge between me 
and thee;" and he repeats it here in his private devotions. Note, 1st. The 
equity and extent of God's government and judgment is a very great support 
to injured innocency. If we are blackened and abused and misrepresented by 
unrighteous men, it is our comfort that we have a righteous God to go to, who 
will take our part, who is the patron of the oppressed, whose judgment is 
according to truth, by the discoveries of which every person and every cause 
will appear in a true light, stript of all false colours, and by the decisions 
of which all unrighteous dooms will be reversed, and to every man will be 
rendered according to his work. 2nd. Sincerity dreads no scrutiny, no, not 
that of God himself, according to the tenor of the "ovenant of grace. "Let 
thine eyes behold the tilings that are equal." God's omniscience is as much 
the joy of the upright as it is the terror of hypocrites, and is particularly 



72 



PSALM XVII. 



comfortable to those who are falsely accused, and in any wise haye wrong done 
them. 

2 What the evidence is by which he hopes to make good his appeal. It is 
the trial God had made of him ; ver. 3, <l Thou hast proved mine heart." God's 
sentence is therefore right, because he always proceeds upon his own know- 
ledge, which is more certain and infallible than that which men attain to by 
the closest views and the strictest searches. He knew God had tried him, 
1st. By his own conscience, which is God's deputy in the soul. " The spirit of 
a man is the candle of the Lord;" with this God had searched him. and visited 
him in the night, when he communed with his own heart upon his bed. He 
had submitted to the search, and had seriously reviewed the actions of his life, 
to discover what was amiss ; but could find nothing of that which his enemies 
charged him with. 2nd. By providence. God had tried him by the fair oppor- 
tunity he had once and again to kill Saul ; and tried him by the malice of Saul, 
the treachery of his friends, and the many provocations that were given him, 
so that if he had been the man he was represented to be, it would have 
appeared ; but upon all these trials there was nothing found against him, no 
proof at all of the things whereof they accused him. 

God tried his heart, and could witness to the integrity of that; but, for the 
farther proof of his integrity, he himself takes notice of two things, concerning 
which his conscience bore nim record : First. That he had a fixed resolution 
against all tongue sins : " Tam purposed," and fully determined, in the strength 
of God's grace, " that my mouth shall not transgress." He doth not say, I hope 
it shall not, or, I wish it may not; but, I am fully purposed that it shall not; 
with this bridle he kept his mouth, Ps. xxxix. 2. Note, Constant resolution 
and watchfulness against tongue sins will be a good evidence of our integrity. 
" If any offend not in word, the same is a perfect man." Jas. iii. 2. He doth not 
say, My mouth never shall transgress, for "in many tnings we all offend ;" but, 
I am purposed that it shall not, and He that searcheth the heart knows whether 
the purpose be sincere. Secondly. That he had been as careful to refrain from 
sinful actions as from sinful words ; ver. 4, "Concerning the" common " works 
of men," the actions and affairs of human life, "I have," by the direction of thy 
word, " kept me from the paths of the destroyer." Some understand it par- 
ticularly, that he had not been himself a destroyer of Saul, when it lay in his 
power, nor had he permitted others to be so, but said to Abishai, "Destroy him 
not," 1 Sam. xxvi. 9. But it may be taken more generally, he kept himself from 
all evil works, and endeavoured, according to the duty of his place, to keep 
others from them too. Note, \si. The ways of sin are paths of the destroyer, 
that is, of the devil, whose name is Abaddon and Apollyon, that is, a destroyer, 
and who ruins souls by decoying them into the paths of sin. 2nd. It concerns 
us all to keep out of the paths of the destroyer, for if we walk in those ways 
that lead to destruction, we must thank ourselves if destruction and misery be 
our portion at last. 3ra. It is by the word of God, as our guide and rule, that 
we must keep out of the paths of the destroyer, by observing the directions and 
admonitions of that, Ps. cxix. 9. 4th. If we carefully avoid all the paths of 
sin, it will be very comfortable in the reflection when we are in trouble, If 
we keep ourselves, that the wicked one touch us not with his temptations, 
1 Jno. v. 18, we may hope he shall not be able to touch us with his terrors. 

Secondly. What his petition is, It is in short this : that he might experience 
the good work of God in him, as an evidence of, and qualification for, the good 
will of God towards him. This is grace and peace from God the Father. 

1. He prays for the work of God's grace in him; ver. 5, " Hold up my goings 
in thy paths." Lord, I have by thy grace "kept me from the paths of the 
destroyer," by the same grace let me be kept in thy paths; let me not only be 
restrained from doing that which is evil, but quickened to abound always in 
that which is good. Let my goings be held in thy paths, that I may not turn 
back from them, nor turn aside out of them ; let them be held up in thy paths, 
that 1 may not stumble and fall into sin, that I may not trifle and neglect my 
duty. Lord, as thou hast kept me hitherto, so keep me still. Those that are 
through grace going in God's paths, have need to pray, and do pray, that 
their goings may be held up in those paths; for we stand no longer than he 
is pleased to hold us, we go no farther than he is pleased to lead us, bear 
up, and carry us. David had been kept in the way of Ids duty hitherto, and 
yet he doth not think that would be his security for the future, and there- 
fore prays, 1 Lord, still hold me up/ Those that w r ouid proceed and per- 
severe in the way of God, must by faith and prayer fetch in daily fresh 
supplies of grace and strength from him. David was sensible that his way 
was slippery, that he himself was weak, and not so well fixed and furnished 
as he should be ; that there were those w r ho watched for his halting, and 
would improve the least slip against him, and therefore he prays, 'Lord, hold 
me up, that my foot slip not, that I may never say or do any thing that looks 
either dishonest or distrustful of thee and thy providence and promise.' 



PSALM XVII. 73 

2. He prays for the tokens of God's favour to him, ver. 7. Observe here, 
1st. How he eyes God as the protector and saviour of his people, so he calls 
him, and from that he takes his encouragement in prayer. " O thou that savest 
by thy right hand" (by thine own power, and needest not the agency of any 
other,) " them which put their trust in thee, from those that rise up against 
them." It is the character of God's people, that they trust in him ; he is 
pleased to make them his confidants, for his secret is with the righteous; and 
they make him their confidence, for to him they commit themselves. Ihose 
that trust in God have many enemies, many that rise up against them, and seek 
their ruin; but they have one friend that is able to deal with them all, and if 
he be for them no matter who is against them. He reckons it his honour to 
be their Saviour. His almighty power is engaged for them, and they have all 
found him ready to save them. The margin reads it, ' O thou that savest them 
which trust in thee from those that rise up against thy right hand.' Those that 
are enemies to the saints are rebels against God and his right hand, and there- 
fore no doubt he will in due time appear against them. 2nd. What he expects 
and desires from God: "Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness." The word 
signifies, First. Distinguishing favours. _ Set apart thy lovingkindnesses for 
me; put me not off with common mercies, but be gracious to me, " as thou 
usest to do to those who love thy name." Secondly. Wonderful favours. O 
make thy lovingkindness admirable ; that is, Lord, testify thy favour to me in 
such a way as that I and others may wonder at it. God's lovingkindness is 
marvellous for the freeness and the fulness of it ; in some instances it appears 
in a special manner marvellous, Ps. cxviii. 23, it will certainly appear so in the 
salvation of the saints, when Christ shall come " to be glorified in his saints, 
and to be admired in all them that believe." 

8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, 

Hide me under the shadow of thy wings, 

9 From the wicked that oppress me, 

From my deadly enemies, who compass me about. 

10 They are inclosed in their own fat : 
With their mouth they speak proudly. 

1 1 They have now compassed us in our steps 

They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth ; 

12 Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, 

And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. 

13 Arise, 0 Lord, disappoint him, cast him down : 
Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword : 

14 From men which are thy hand, 0 Lord, [life, 
From men of the world, which have their portion in this 
And whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure : 
They are full of children, and leave the rest of their 

substance to their babes. 

15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness : 

I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. 

We may observe in these verses, 

First. What David prays for. Being compassed about with enemies that 
sought his life, he prays to God to preserve him safe through all their attempts 
against him, to the crown to which he was anointed. And this prayer was both 
a prediction of the preservation of Christ through all the hardships and diffi- 
culties of his humiliation, to the glories and joys of his exalted state, and a 
pattern to Christians to commit the keeping of their souls to God, trusting him 
to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom. He prays, 

1. That he himself might be protected, ver. 8. Keep me safe ; hide me close, 
where I may not to be found, where I may not be come at. "Deliver my soul, 
not only my mortal life from death, but my immortal spirit from sin Those 
who put themselves under God's protection may in faith implore the benefit 
of it. He prays that God would keep him, 1st. With as much care as a man 
keeps the apple of his eye, which nature has wonderfully fenced, and teaches 



74 PSALM XVII. 

us to guard. If we keep God's law as^ the apple of our eye, Pr. vii. 2, we may 

expect that God will so keep us; for it is said concerning his people, that whoso 
toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye, Zee. ii. 8. 2nd. With as much 
tenderness as the hen gathers her young ones under her wings. Christ useth the 
similitude, Mat. xxiii. 37 ; " Hide me under the shadow of thy wings," where i 
may be both safe and warm. Or, perhaps, it rather alludes to the wings of the 
cherubims shadowing the mercy-seat. Let me be taken under the protection 
of that glorious grace which is peculiar to God's Israel. What David here 
prays for was performed to the Son of David our Lord Jesus, of whom it is 
said, Isa. xlix. 2, that God hid him in the shadow of his hand, hid him as a 
polished shaft in his quiver. David prays, Lord, keep me from the wicked, 
from men of the world; that is, First. From being and doing like them, from 
walking in their counsel, and standing in their way, and eating of their dainties. 
Secondly. From being destroyed and run down by them. Let them not have 
their will against me, let them not triumph over me. 

2. That all the designs of his enemies to bring him either into sin or into 
trouble might be defeated; ver. 13, "Arise, O Lord," appear for me, "dis- 
appoint him," and cast him down in his own eyes by the disappointment. 
While Saul persecuted David, how often did he miss his prey, then when he 
thought he had him sure enough ; and how were Christ's enemies disappointed 
by his resurrection, who thought they had gained their point when they had 
put him to death. 

Secondly. What he pleads for the encouraging of his own faith in these 
petitions, and his hope of speeding. He pleads, 

1. The malice and wickedness of his enemies. They are such as are not 
fit to be countenanced, such as, if I be not delivered from them by the special 
care of God himself, will be my ruin. Lord, see what wicked men they are 
that oppress me, and waste me, and run me down. 1st. They are very spiteful 
and malicious. They are my deadly enemies, that thirst after my blood, my 
heart's blood; * enemies against the soul,' so the word is. David's enemies did 
what they could to drive him to sin, and drive him away from God ; they bade 
him go serve other gods, 1 Sam. xxvi. 19 ; and therefore he had reason to pray 
against them. Note, Those are our worst enemies, and we ought so to account 
them, that are enemies to our souls. 2nd. They are very secure and sensual, 
insolent and haughty, ver. 10. " They are enclosed in their own fat," wrap 
themselves, hug themselves, in their own honour, and power, and plenty, and 
then make light of God, and set his judgments at defiance, Job xv. 26; 
Ps. lxxiii, 7. They wallow in pleasure, and promise themselves that to- 
morrow shall be as this day ; and therefore, " with their mouth they speak 
proudly," glorying in themselves, blaspheming God, trampling upon his people, 
and insulting them : see Rev. xiii. 5, 6. Lord, are not such men as these fit 
to be mortified and humbled, and made to know themselves? Will it not 
be for thy glory to look upon these proud men, and abase them? 3rd. They 
are restless and unwearied in their attempts against me, they compass me 
about, ver. 9. "They have now "in a manner gained their point, they have 
surrounded us, "they have compassed us in our steps," they track us wherever 
we go, follow us as close as the hound doth the hare, and take all advantages 
against us, being both too many for us, and too quick for us; and yet they 
take on them to look another way, "they set their eyes bowing down to the 
earth," as if they were meditating, retired into themselves, and thinking of 
something else; or, as some think, they are watchful and intent upon it to 
do us a mischief ; downlooked, and never slip an opportunity of compassing 
their design. 4th. The ringleader of them (that was Saul) is in a special 
manner bloody and barbarous, politic and projecting, ver. 12, like a lion that 
lives by prey, and is therefore greedy of it. It is as much the meat and drink 
of a wicked man to do mischief, as it is of a good man to do good. He is like 
"a young lion lurking in secret places," disguising his cruel designs. This 
is fitly applied to Saul, who sought David on the rocks of the wild goats, 
1 Sam. xxiv. 2; and in the wilderness of Ziph, 1 Sam. xxvi. 2, where lions 
used to lurk for their prey. 

2. The power God hath over them to control and restrain them. He pleads, 
1st. Lord, they are thy sword, and will any father suffer his sword to be drawn 
against his own children? As this is a reason why we should patiently bear 
the injuries of men, that they are but the instruments of the trouble, it comes 
originally from God, to whose will we are bound to submit, so it is an encou- 
ragement to us to hope both that their wrath shall praise him, and that the 
remainder thereof he will restrain, that they are God's sword, which he can 
manage as he pleaseth, which cannot move without him, and which he will 
sheath when he has done his work with it. 2nd. They are thy hand, by 
which thou dost chastise thy people, and make them feel thy displeasure. He 
therefore expects deliverance from God's hand, because from God's hand the 
trouble came : una eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit, — 1 the same hand 
wounds and heals.' There is no flying from God's haud, but by flying to it. 



PSALM XV1L 75 

It is very comfortable, when we are in fear of the power of man, to see it 
dependent upon, and in subjection to, the power of God : see Isa x. 6, 7, 15. 

3. Their outwara prosperity, ver. 14. Lord, appear against them; for, 1st. 
They are entirely devoted to the world, and care not for thee and thy favour. 
They are men of the world, acted by the spirit of the world, walking accord- 
ing to the course of this world, in love with the wealth and pleasure of this 
world, eager in the pursuits of it, and making them their business, and at ease 
in the enjoyments of it, and making them their bliss. They "have their portion 
In this life;" that is, they look upon the good things of this world as the best 
things, and sufficient to make them happy, and they choose them accordingly, 
place their felicity in them, aim at them as their chief good, rest satisfied with 
them, their souls take their ease in them, and they look no farther, nor are 
in any care to provide for another life. These things are their consolation, 
Lu. vi. 24; their good things, Lu. xvi. 25; their reward, Mat. vi. 5; the penny 
they agreed for, Mat. xx. 13. Now, Lord, shall men of this character be sup- 
ported and countenanced against those that honour thee, by preferring thy 
favour before all the wealth in this world, and taking thee for their portion? 
Ps. xvi. 5. 2nd. They have abundance of the world First. They have enlarged 
appetites, and a great deal wherewith to satisfy them; their " belly thou fillest 
with thy hid treasures." The things of this world are called treasures, because 
they are so accounted ; otherwise to a soul, and in comparison with eternal 
blessings, they are but trash. They are hid in the several parts of the creation, 
and hid in the sovereign disposals of Providence. They are God's hid treasures, 
for the earth is his and the fulness thereof, though the men of the world think 
it is their own, and forget God's property in it. They that fare deliciously 
every day, have their bellies filled with these hid treasures, and they will but 
fill the belly, 1 Cor. vi. 13: they will not fill the soul, they are not bread for 
that, nor can they satisfy, Isa. lv. 2. They are husks, and ashes, and wind; yet 
the most of men, having no care for their souls, but all for their bellies, take 
up with them. Secondly. They have numerous families, and a great deal to 
leave to them. "They are full of children,'' and yet their pasture is not over- 
stocked, they have enough for them all, " and leave the rest of their substance 
to their babes," that is, to their grand-children ; and this is their heaven, it is 
their bliss, it is their all. Lord, saith David, Deliver me from them; that is, 
let not me have my portion with them ; deliver me from their designs against 
me, for, they having so much wealth and power, I am not able to deal with 
them unless the Lord be on my side. 

4. He pleads his own dependence upon God as his portion and happiness* 
They have their portion in this life, but as for me, ver. 15, I am none of them, 
I have but little of the world; nec habeo, nec careo, nec euro, — 'I neither 
have, nor need, nor care for it.' It is the vision and fruition of God that 
I place my happiness in, that is it I hope for, and comfort myself with the 
hopes of, and thereby distinguish myself from those that "have their portion 
in this life." Beholding God's face with satisfaction may be considered, 
1st. As our duty and comfort in this world. We must in righteousness 
(clothed with Christ's righteousness, having a good heart, and a good life,) 
by faith behold God's face, and set him always before us; entertain our- 
selves from day to day with the contemplation of the beauty of the Lord ; 
and when we awake every morning we must be satisfied with his likeness 
set before us in his word, and with his likeness stamped upon us by his renew- 
ing grace. Our experience of God's favour to us, and our conformity to him, 
should yield us more satisfaction than they have whose belly is filled with 
the delights of sense. 2nd. As our recompence and happiness in the other 
world. With the prospect of that he concluded the foregoing psalm, and so 
this: that happiness is prepared and designed only for the righteous that are 
justified and sanctified. They shall be put in possession of it when they awake; 
when the soul awakes, at death, out of its slumber in the body, and when the 
body awakes, at the resurrection, out of its slumber in the grave. That 
blessedness will consist in three things: First. The immediate vision of God 
and his glory, "I shall behold thy face," not as in this world through a glass 
darkly. The knowledge of God will there be perfected, and the enlarged 
intellects filled with it. Secondly. The participations of his likeness ; our 
holiness will there be perfect. This results from the former; 1 Jno. iii. 2, "when 
he shall appear we shall " therefore "be like him, for we shall see him as he 
is." Thirdly. A complete and full satisfaction resulting from this. "I shall be 
satisfied," abundantly satisfied with it. There is no satisfaction for a soul but 
in God, and in his face and likeness, his good-will towards us, and his good 
work in us; and even that satisfaction will not be perfect till we come to 
heaven. 



76 PSALM XVIIL 

This psalm we met with before in the history of David's life, 2 5am. xxii. That \*as the 
first edition of it; here we have it revived, altered a little, and fitted for the service 
of the church. It is David's thanksgiving for the many deliverances God had wrought 
for him, which he desired always to preserve fresh in his own memory, and to diffu&e 
and entail the knowledge of them. It is an admirable composure. The poetry is very 
fine, the images bold, the expressions lofty, and every word proper and significant. 
But the piety far exceeds the poetry ; holy faith, and love, and joy, and praise, and hope, 
are here lively, active, and upon the wing. I. He triumphs in God, ver. I — 3. II. He 
magnifies the deliverances God had wrought for him, ver. 4 — 19. III. He takes the 
comfort of his integrity which God had thereby cleared up, ver. 20 — 28. IV. He gives 
to God the glory of all his achievements, ver. 29 — 42. V. He encourageth himself 
with the expectation of what God would farther do for him and his, ver. 43 — 50. 

l"o the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake 
unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him 
from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul : And he said, 

I WILL love thee, 0 Lord, my strength. 
2 The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer ; 
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust ; [tower. 
My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high 

3 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised 
So shall I be saved from mine enemies. 

4 The sorrows of death compassed me, 

And the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. 

5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about : 

The snares of death prevented me. [my God : 

6 In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto 
He heard my voice out of his temple, 

And my cry came before him, even into his ears. 

7 Then the earth shook and trembled ; 

The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, 
Because he was wroth. 

8 There went up a smoke *out of his nostrils, 
And fire out of his mouth devoured : 
Coals were kindled by it. 

9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down 
And darkness was under his feet. 

10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly : 
Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 

1 1 He made darkness his secret place ; 
His pavilion round about him 

Were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. 

12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds 
Hail stones and coals of fire. [passed, 

13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens, 
And the Highest gave his voice ; 

Hail stones and coals of fire. 

14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them ; 
And he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. 

15 Then the channels of waters were seen, 



PSALM XVIII. 77 
And the foundations of the world were discovered 
At thy rebuke, 0 Lord, 
At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils 

16 He sent from above, he took me, 
He drew me out of many waters. 

1 7 He delivered me from my strong enemy, 
And from them which hated me : 

For they were too strong for me. 

18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity : 
But the Lord was my stay. 

1 9 He brought me forth also into a large place ; 
He delivered me, because he delighted in me 

The title gives us the occasion of penning this psalm. We had it before. 
2 Sam. xxii. 1, only here we are told that the psalm was delivered "to the 
chief musician," or precentor in the temple songs. Note, The private compo- 
sures of good men. designed by them for their own use, may be serviceable to 
the public, that others may not only borrow light from their candle, but heat 
from their fire. Examples sometimes teach better than rules ; and David is 
here called "the servant of the Lord," as Moses was, not only as every good 
man is God's servant, but because with his sceptre, with his sword, and with 
his pen, he greatly promoted the interests of God's kingdom in Israel. It was 
more his honour that he was a servant of the Lord than that he was king of a 
great kingdom ; and so he himself accounted it, Ps. cxvi. 16, " O Lord, truly 
I am thy servant." In these verses, 

First. He triumphs in God, and his relation to him. The first words of the 
psalm, "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength," are here prefixed as the scope 
and contents of the whole. Love to God is the first and great commandment 
of the law, because it is the principle of all our acceptable praise and obedi- 
ence; and this use we should make of all the mercies God bestows upon us, 
our hearts should thereby be enlarged in love to him. This he requires, and 
will accept; and we are very ungrateful if we grudge him so poor a return. 
An interest in the person loved is the lover's delight; this string therefore he 
touches, and on this he harps with a great deal of pleasure; ver. 2, The Lord, 
Jehovah, is my God ; and then, he is my rock, my fortress, all that which 1 
need and can desire in my present distress; for there is that in God which is 
suited to all the exigences and occasions of his people that trust in him. He 
is my rock, and strength, and fortress; that is, 1. I have found him so in 
the greatest dangers and difficulties. 2. I have chosen him to be so, disclaiming 
all others, and depending upon him alone to protect me. Those that truly love 
God may thus triumph in him as theirs ; and may with confidence call upon 
him, ver. 3. This farther use we should make of our deliverances, we must 
not only love God the better, but love prayer the better. Call upon him as 
long as we live, especially in time of trouble, with an assurance that so we 
shall be saved ; for thus it is written, that "whosoever shall call upon the 
name of the Lord shall be saved," Acts ii. 21. 

Secondly. He sets himself to greaten the deliverances God had wrought for 
him, that he might be the more affected in his returns of praise. It is good for 
us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy, which magnify the pow er of 
God and his goodness to us in it. 

1. The more imminent and threatening the danger was out of which we 
were delivered the greater is the mercy of the deliverance. David now remem- 
bered how the forces of his enemies poured in upon him, which he calls the 
floods of Belial, shoals of the children of Belial, likely to overpower him with 
numbers. They surrounded him, compassed him about ; they surprised him, 
and by that means were very near seizing him; their snares prevented him; 
and when without were fightings within were fears and sorrows, ver. 4, 5. His 
spirit was overwhelmed, and he looked upon himself as a gone man : see 
Ps. cxvi. 2. 

2. The more earnest we have been with God for deliverance, and the more 
direct answer it is to our prayers, the more we are obliged to be thankful- 
David's deliverances were so, ver. 6. David was found a praying man, and 
God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as 
he did. Though distress drive us to prayer, God will not therefore be deaf to 
us ; nay, being a God of pity, he will be the more ready to succour us. 



78 PSALM XVIII. 

3, The more wonderful God's appearances are in any deliverance the 
greater it is. Such were the deliverances wrought for David, in which God's 
manifestation of his presence and glorious attributes is most magnificently 
described, ver. 7, &c. Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these 
deliverances. 1st. He appeared a God of almighty power; for he made the 
earth shake and tremble, and moved even the foundations of the hills, ver. 7, 
as of old at mount Sinai. When the men of the earth were struck with fear, 
then the earth might be said to tremble; when the great men of the earth 
were put into confusion, then the hills moved. 2nd. He shewed his anger and 
displeasure against the enemies and persecutors of his people. He was wroth, 
ver. 7. His wrath smoked, it burned, it was fire, it was devouring fire, ver. 8; 
and coals were kindled by it. Those that by their own sins make themselves as 
coals (that is, fuel) to this fire, will be consumed by it. He that "ordaineth his 
arrows against the persecutors, sendeth them forth " when he pleaseth, and 
they are sure to hit the mark, and do execution ; for those arrows are light- 
nings, ver. 14. 3rd. He shewed his readiness to plead his people's cause, and 
work deliverance for them; for "he rode upon a cherub, and did fly," for 
the maintaining of right, and the relieving his distressed servants, ver. 10. No 
opposition, no obstruction, can be given to him "who rideth upon the wings 
of the wind, who rides on the heavens for the help of his people, and in his 
excellency on the skies." 4th. He shewed his condescension, in taking cogniz- 
ance of David's case; " He bowed the heavens and came down," ver. 9; did not 
send an angel, but came himself, as one afflicted in the afflictions of his people. 
5th. He wrapped himself in darkness, and yet commanded light to shine out 
of darkness for his people, Jsa. xlv. 15. He is a God that hideth himself ; for 
"he made darkness his pavilion," ver. 11. His glory is invisible, his counsels 
are unsearchable, and his proceedings unaccountable; and so, as to us, "clouds 
and darkness are round about him. We know not the way that he takes, even 
when he is coming towards us in ways of mercy; but when his designs are 
secret they are kind; for, though he hide himself, he is the God of Israel, 
the Saviour; and, at his brightness the thick clouds pass, ver. 12, comfort 
returns, the face of affairs is changed, and that which was gloomy and threat- 
ening becomes serene and pleasant. 

4. The greater the difficulties are that lie in the way of deliverance the 
more glorious the deliverance is. For the rescuing of David, the waters were 
to be divided till the very channels were seen. The earth was to be cloven 
till the very foundations of it were discovered, ver. 15. There were waters 
deep and many, waters out of which he was to be drawn, ver. 16, as Moses, 
who from thence had his name, because he was drawn out of the water lite- 
rally, so David figuratively. His enemies were strong, and they hated him ; 
had he been left to himself, they had been too strong for him, ver. 17; and 
they were too quick for him, for they prevented him in the day of his calamity, 
ver. 18. But in the midst of his troubles the Lord was his stay, so that he did 
not sink. Note, God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in 
due time, but he will sustain them, and bear them up under their troubles in 
the meantime. 

5. That which especially magnified the deliverance was, that his comfort 
was the fruit of it, and God's favour was the root and fountain of it. 1st. It 
was an introduction to his preferment; ver. 19, "He brought me forth also" 
out of my straits "into a large place," where I had not only room to turn me, 
but room to thrive. 2nd. It was a token of God's favour to him, and that 
made it doubly sweet. " He delivered me because he delighted in me," not 
for my merit, but for his own grace and good-will: compare this with 
2 Sam. xv. 26, If he thus say. I have no delight in thee, here 1 am." We owe 
our salvation, that great deliverance, to the delight God had in the Son of 
David, in whom he has declared himself to be well pleased. 

In singing this, we must triumph in God, and trust in him. And we may 
apply it to Christ, the Son of David. The sorrows of death surrounded him ; in 
his distress he prayed, Heb. v. 7; God made the earth to shake and tremble, 
and the rocks to rend, and brought him out in his resurrection into a large 
place, because he delighted in him and his undertaking. 

20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness ; 
According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recom- 

21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord, [pensed me. 
And have not wickedly departed from my God. 

22 For ail his judgments were before me, 

And I did not put away his statutes from me. 



PSALM XVIII. 79 

23 I was also upright before him, 

And I kept myself from mine iniquity. 

24 Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me 
According to my righteousness, 

According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. 

25 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful ; 
With an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright ; 

26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure ; 

And with the froward thou wilt shew thyself fro ward. 

27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people ; 
But wilt bring down high looks. 

28 For thou wilt light my candle : 

The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. 

Here, First. David reflects with comfort upon his own integrity, and rejoiceth 
in the testimony of his conscience, that he had had his conversation in godly 
sincerity, and not with fleshly wisdom, 2 Cor. i. 12. His deliverances were an 
evidence of this, and this was the great comfort of his deliverances. His 
enemies had misrepresented him, and perhaps when his troubles continued long, 
he began to suspect himself; but, when God visibly took his part, he had both 
the credit and the comfort of his righteousness. 1. His deliverances cleared 
his innocency before men, and acquitted him from those crimes which he was 
falsely accused of. This he calls rewarding him according to his righteousness, 
ver. 20, 24; that is, determining the controversy between him and his enemies, 
according to the justice of his cause, and the cleanness of his hands from that 
sedition, treason, and rebellion with which he was charged. He had often 
appealed to God concerning his innocency ; and now God had given judgment 
upon the appeal, as he always will, according to equity. 2. They confirmed 
the testimony of his own conscience for him, which he here reviews w r ith a great 
deal of pleasure, ver. 21—23. His own heart knows and is ready to attest it, 
1st. That he had kept firm to his duty, and had not departed, not wickedly, 
not wilfully, departed from his God. They that forsake the ways of the Lord 
do in effect depart from their God, and it is a wicked thing to do so. But 
though we are conscious to ourselves of many a stumble, and many a false 
step taken ; yet, if we recover ourselves by repentance, and go on in the way of 
our duty, it shall not be construed a departure, for it is not a wicked depar- 
ture from our God. 2nd. That he had kept his eye upon the rule of God's 
commands ; ver. 22, "All his judgments were before me," and I had a respect to 
them all, despised none as little, disliked none as hard, but made it my care 
and business to conform to them all. His statutes I did not put away from 
me, out of my sight, out of my mind, but kept my eye always upon them, and 
did not as those who, because they would quit the ways of the Lord, desire not 
the knowledge of those ways. 3rd. That he had kept himself from his iniquity, 
and thereby had approved himself upright before God. Constant care to 
abstain from that sin, whatever it be, which doth most easily beset us, and to 
mortify the habit of it, will be a good evidence for us that we are upright 
before God. As David's deliverances cleared his integrity, so did the exaltation 
of Christ clear his, and for ever roll away the reproach that was cast upon 
him ; and therefore he is said to be "justified in the Spirit," 1 Tim. iii. 16. 

Secondly. He takes occasion from thence to lay down the rules of God's 
government and judgment, that we may know not only what God expects 
trom us, but what we may expect from him, ver. 25, 26. 1. Those that shew 
mercy to others (even they need mercy, and cannot depend upon the merit, 
no, not of their works of mercy, and they) shall find mercy with God, Mat. v. 7. 
2. Those that are faithful to their covenants with God, and the relations 
wherein they stand to him, shall find him all that to them which he has pro- 
mised to be. Wherever God finds an upright man he will be found an upright 
God. 3. Those that serve God with a pure conscience, shall find that the 
words of the Lord are pure words, that is, very sure to be depended on, and 
very sweet to be delighted in. 4. Those that resist God, and walk contrary to 
him, he will resist them, and walk contrary to them, Lev. xxvi. 2i, 24. 

Thirdly. From thence he speaks comfort to the humble; "Thou wilt save the 
afflicted people," that are wronged and bear it patiently. Terror to the proud; 
"Thou wilt bring down high looks," that aim high and expect great things for 
themselves, and look with scorn and disdain upon the poor and pious. And 
encouragement to himself; "Thou wilt light my candle," that is, thou wilt 



SO PSALM XVIII. 

*evive and comfort my sorrowful spirit, and not leave me melancholy; thou 
wilt recover me out of my troubles, and restore me to peace and prosperity ; 
thou wilt make my honour bright, which is now eclipsed; thou wilt guide my 
way, and make it plain before me, that I may avoid the snares laid for me ; 
thou wilt light my candle to w ; ork by, and give me an opportunity of serving 
thee and the interests of thy kingdom among men. 

Let those that walk in darkness, and labour under many discouragements, 
in singing these verses, encourage themselves that God himself will be a light 
to them. 

29 For by thee I have run through a troop ; 
And by my God have I leaped over a wall. 

30 As for God, his way is perfect : 
The word of the Lord is tried : 

He is a buckler to all those that trust in him. 

31 For who is God save the Lord ? 
Or who is a rock save our God ? 

32 It is God that girdeth me with strength, 
And maketh my way perfect. 

33 He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, 
And setteth me upon my high places. 

34 He teacheth my hands to war, 

So that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. 

35 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: 
And thy right hand hath holden me up, 

And thy gentleness hath made me great. 

36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, 
That my feet did not slip. 

37 I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them : 
Neither did I turn again till they were consumed. 

38 I have wounded them that they were not able to rise : 
They are fallen under my feet. 

39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle : 
Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against 

me. 

40 Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies ; 
That I might destroy them that hate me. 

41 They cried, but there was none to save them : 
Even unto the Lord, but he answered them not 

42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind : 
I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. 

43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people ; 
And thou hast made me the head of the heathen : 

A people whom I have not known shall serve me. 

44 As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me : 
The strangers shall submit themselves unto me. 

45 The strangers shall fade away, 

And be afraid out of their close places. 



PSALM XVIII. 81 

46 The Lord liveth ; and blessed be my rock; 
And let the God of my salvation be exalted. 

47 It is God that avenge th me, 

And subdueth the people unto me. 

48 He delivereth me from mine enemies : [me : 
Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against 
Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. 

49 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, 0 Lord, among 
And sing praises unto thy name. [the heathen, 

50 Great deliverance giveth he to his king ; 
And sheweth mercy to his anointed. 

To David, and to his seed for evermore. 




FROM SCULPTURES AT PERSEPOLIS vei\ 40. 

In these verses, 

First. David looks back with thankfulness upon the great things which God 
had done for him. He had not only wrought deliverance for him, but had 
given him victory and success, and made him triumph over those who thought 
to have triumphed over him. When we set ourselves to praise God for one 
mercy, we must be led by that to observe the many more with which we have 
been compassed about and followed all our days. Many things had contributed 
to David's advancement, and he owns the hand of God in them all, to teach us 
to do likewise, in reviewing the several steps by which we have risen to our 
prosperity. I. God had given him all his skill and understanding in military 
affairs, which he was not bred up to, nor designed for, his genius leading him 
more to music and poetry, and a contemplative life. "He teacheth my hands 
to war," ver. 34. 2. God had given him bodily strength to go through the 
business and fatigue of war ; God girded him with strength, ver. 32, 39, to that 
degree, that he could break even a bow of steel, ver. 34. What service God 
designs men for he will be sure to fit them for. 3. God had likewise given him 
great swiftness, not to flee from the enemies, but to fly upon them; ver. 33, " He 
maketh my feet like hinds' feet ; " ver. 36, " Thou hast enlarged my steps under 
me," but (whereas those that take large steps are apt to tread awry) "my feet 
did not slip." He was so swift that he pursued his enemies and overtook them, 
ver. 37. 4. God had made him very bold and daring in his enterprises, and 
given him spirit proportionable to his strength. If a troop stood in his way, 
he made nothing of running through them; if a wall, he made nothing of leap- 

F 



S2 PSALM XYIII. 

ing over it, ver. 29 ; if ramparts and bulwarks, he soon mounted them, and, by 
Divine assistance, set his feet upon the high places of the enemy, ver. 33. 
5. God had protected him, and kept him safe in the midst of the greatest 
perils. Many a time he put his life in his hand, and yet it was wonderfully 
preserved. " Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation," ver. 35, and that 
has compassed me on every side. By that I have been "delivered from the 
strivings of the people/' that aimed at my destruction, ver. 43, particularly 
from_ the violent man, ver. 48, namely, Saul, who more than once threw a 
javelin at him. 6. God had prospered and succeeded him in his designs. He 
it was that made his way perfect, ver. 32; and it was his right hand that held 
him up, ver. 35. 7. God had given him victory over his enemies, the Philis- 
tines, Moabites, Ammonites, and all that fought against Israel. Those espe- 
cially he means, yet not excluding the house of Saul, which opposed his coming 
to the crown; and the partisans of Absalom and Sheba, that would have 
deposed him. He enlargeth much upon the goodness of God to him in defeat- 
ing his enemies, attributing his victories not to his own sword or bow, or the 
valour of his mighty men, but to the favour of God. I pursued them, ver. 37, 
I wounded them, ver. 38, " for thou hast girded me with strength," ver. 39. else 
I could not have done it. All the praise is ascribed to God ; Thou hast subdued 
them under me, ver. 39. Thou hast given me their necks, ver. 40, not only to 
trample upon them, as Jos. x. 24, but to cut them off. Even those that hated 
David whom God loved, and were enemies to the Israel of God, yet in their 
distress "cried unto the Lord," but in vain, "he answered them not." How 
could they expect he should, when it was he they fought against ? And when 
he disowned them, (as he will all those that act against his people,) no other suc- 
cours could stand them in stead, " there was none to save them," ver. 41. Those 
whom God has abandoned are easily vanquished: "Then did I beat them 
small as the dust," ver. 43; but those whose cause is just he avengeth, ver. 47; 
and those whom he favours will certainly be lifted up above those that rise 
up against them, ver. 42. 8. God had raised him to the throne, and not only 
delivered him and kept him alive, but dignified him, and made him great, 
ver. 35. 4 Thy gentleness"hath increased me ;' thy discipline and instruction, so 
some. The good lessons David learned in his affliction prepared him for the 
dignity and power that were intended him ; and the lessening of him helped 
very much to greaten him. God made him not only a great conqueror, but 
a great ruler ; " Thou hast made me the head of the heathen," ver. 43. All the 
neighbour nations were tributaries to him : see 2 Sam. viii. 6, 11. In all this 
David was a type of Christ, whom the Father brought safely through his con- 
flicts with the powers of darkness, and made victorious over them, and gave 
" to be head over all things to his church, which is his body." 

Secondly. David looks up with humble and reverent adorations of the Divine 
glory and perfection. When God had by his providence magnified him, he 
endeavours with his praises to magnify God, to bless him, and exalt him, ver. 46. 
He gives honour to him, 1. As a living God : " The Lord liveth," ver. 46. We 
had our lives at first from, and we owe the continuance of them to, that God 
who has life in himself, and therefore is fitly called, the living God. The gods 
of the heathen were dead gods; the best friends we have among men are 
dying friends; but God lives, lives for ever, and will not fail those that trust 
in him, but, because he lives, they shall live also, for he is their life. 2. As a 
finishing God: "As for God," he is not only perfect himself, but "his way is 
perfect," ver. 30. He is known by his name Jehovah, Ex. vi. 3, a God perform- 
ing and perfecting what he begins, in providence as well as creation, Gen. ii. 1. 
If it was God that made David's way perfect, ver. 32, much more is his own so. 
There is no flaw in God's works, nor any fault to be found with what he doth, 
Eccl. iii. 14. And what he undertakes he will go through with, whatever 
difficulties lie in the way. W^hat God begins to build, he is able to finish. 
3. As a faithful God : "The word of the Lord is tried." I have tried it, saith 
David, and it has not failed me. All the saints in all ages have tried it, and it 
never failed any that trusted in it. It is tried as silver is tried, refined from all 
such mixture and alloy as lessen the value of men's words. David, in God's 
providences concerning him, takes notice of the performance of his promises 
to him, which, as it puts sweetness into the providence, so it puts honour upon 
the promise. 4. As the protector and defender of his people. David had 
found him so to him : He is " the God of my salvation," ver. 46, by whose power 
and grace I am and hope to be saved. But not of mine only, "He is a buckler 
to all those that trust in him," ver. 30. He shelters and protects them all; is 
both able and ready to do so. 5. As a nonsuch in all this, ver. 31. There is 
a God, and " Who is God, save Jehovah ? " That God is a rock for the support 
and shelter of his faithful worshippers, and " Who is a rock, save our God ?" 
Thus he not only gives glory to God, but encourages his own faith in him. 
Note, 1st. Whoever pretend to be deities, it is certain there is no God save 
the Lord, all others are counterfeits, Isa. xliv. 8 ; Jer. x. 10. 2nd. Whoever 



PSALM XIX. S3 

pretend to be our felicities, there is no Rock save our God ; none that we can 
depend upon to make us happy. 

Thirdly. David looks forward with a believing hope that God would still do 
him good. He promiseth himself, 1. That his enemies should be completely 
subdued, and those of them that yet remain should be made his footstool. 
That his government should be extensive, so that even a people whom he had 
not known should serve him, ver. 43. That his conquests, and consequently 
his acquests, should be easy ; " As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me," 
ver. 44; and that his enemies should be convinced that it was to no purpose to 
oppose him. Even those that are retired to their fastnesses shall not trust to 
them, but "be afraid out of their close places," having seen so much of David's 
wisdom, courage, and success. Thus the Son of David, though he sees not yet 
all things put under him, yet knows he shall reign till all opposing rule, prin- 
cipality, and power shall be quite put down. 2. That his seed should be for 
ever continued in the Messiah, who he foresaw should come from his loins, 
ver. 50. He "sheweth mercy to his Anointed," his Messiah, to David himself, 
the Anointed of the God of Jacob in the type, "and to his seed for evermore." 
" He saith not unto seeds, as of many, but to his seed, as of one, that is Christ," 
Gal. iii. 16. It is he only that shall " reign for ever, and of the increase of whose 
government and peace there shall be no end." Christ is called David, IIos. iii. 5. 
God has called him his king, Ps. ii. 6. "Great deliverance doth God give," 
and will give "to him, and to" his church and people, here called "his seed, 
for evermore." 

And in singing these verses we must give God the glory of the victories of 
Christ and his church hitherto, and all the deliverances and advancements of 
the gospel kingdom; and encourage ourselves and one another with an assur- 
ance that the church militant will shortly be triumphant, will be eternally so. 

PSALM XIX. 

There are two excellent books which the great God hath published for the instruction 
and edification of the children of men, and this psalm treats of them both, and recom- 
mends them both to our diligent study. I. The book of the creatures, in which we 
may easily read the power and godhead of the Creator, ver. 1 — 6. II. The book of the 
Scriptures, which makes known to us the will of God concerning our duty. He shews 
the excellency and usefulness of that book, ver. 7 — 11; and then teacheth us how to 
improve it, ver. 12 — 14. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 




1HE heavens declare the glory of God ; 
And the firmament sheweth his handwork. 



2 Day unto day uttereth speech, 

And night unto night sheweth knowledge. 

3 There is no speech nor language. 
Where their voice is not heard. 

4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, 
And their words to the end of the world. 

In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, 

5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. 
And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. 

6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, 
And his circuit unto the ends of it 

And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. 

From the things that are seen every day by all the world the Psalmist, in 
these verses, leads us to the consideration of the invisible things of God, whose 
being appears incontestably evident, and whose glory shines transcendently 
bright in the visible heavens, the structure and beauty of them, and the order 
and influence of the heavenly bodies. This instance of the Divine power serves 
not only to shew the folly of atheists, who see there is a heaven, and yet say 
there is no God ; who see the effect, and yet say there is no cause ; but to shew 
the folly of idolaters also, and the vanity of their imaginations who, though " the 
heavens declare the glory of God," yet gave that glory to the lights of heaven, 
which those very lights directed them to give to God only, the Father of lights. 
Now observe here, 



84 



PSALM XIX. 



First. What that is which the creatures notify to us. They are many ways 
useful and serviceable to us, but in nothing so much as in this, that they declare 
the glory of God, by shewing his handy work, ver. 1. They plainly speak 
themselves to be God's_ handy works ; for they could not exist from eternity. 
All succession and motion must have had a beginning; they could not make 
themselves, that is a contradiction; they could not be produced by a casual 
hit of atoms, that is an absurdity, fit rather to be bantered than reasoned with ; 
therefore they must have a creator, who can be no other than an eternal mind, 
infinitely wise, powerful, and good. Thus it appears they are God's works, 
the work of his fingers, Ps. viii. 2, and therefore they declare his glory. From 
the excellency of the work we may easily infer the infinite perfection of its 
great Author. From the brightness of the heavens we may collect that the 
Creator is light; their vastuess of extent speaks his immensity; their height, 
his transcendency and sovereignty; their influence upon this earth, his domi- 
nion, and providence, and universal beneficence: and all declare his almighty 
power, by which they were at first made, and continue to this day, according 
to the ordinances that were then settled. 

Secondly. What are some of those things which do notify this ? 

1. The heavens and the firmament. The vast expanse of air and ether, and 
the spheres of the planets, and fixed stars. Man has this advantage above the 

Lbjeasts in the structure of his body, that, whereas they are made to look down- 
ward, as their spirits must go, he is made erect to look upwards, because 
upwards his spirit must shortly go, and his thoughts should now rise. 

2. The constant and regular succession of day and night, ver. 2. Day unto 
day, and night unto night, speak the glory of that God who first divided 
between the light and the darkness, and has from the beginning to this day 
preserved that established order without variation, according to God's cove- 
nant with Noah, Gen. viii. 22, that "while the earth remains, day and night 
shall not cease," to which covenant of providence the covenant of grace is 
compared for its stability, Jer. xxxiii. 20 ; xxxi. 35. The counterchangin^ of 
day and night in so exact a method is a great instance of the power of God, 
and calls us to observe that, as in the kingdom of nature, so in that of provi- 
dence, he forms the light and creates the darkness, Isa. xlv. 7, and sets the one 
oyer against the other. It is likewise an instance of his goodness to man, for 
he makes the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice, Ps. lxv. 8. Not 
only glorifies himself, but gratifies us by this constant revolution; for, as the 
light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the 
evening befriend the repose of the night. # Every day and every night speaks 
the goodness of God, and, when it has finished its testimony, leaves it to the 
next day, to the next night, to say the «ame. 

3. The light and influence of the sun doth in a special manner declare the 
glory of God; for, of all the heavenly bodies, that is the most conspicuous in 
itself, and most useful to this lower world, which would be all dungeon and all 
desert without it. It is not an improbable conjecture, that David penned this 
psalm when he had the rising sun in view, and from the brightness of it took 
occasion to declare the glory of God. Concerning the sun, observe here, 
1st. The place appointed him. In the heavens God hath set a tabernacle for 
the sun. The heavenly bodies are called hosts of heaven, and therefore are 
fitly said to dwell in tents, as soldiers in their encampments. The sun is said 
to have a tabernacle set him, not only because he is in continual motion, and 
never has a fixed residence ; but because the mansion he has will, at the end 
of time, be taken down like a tent, when the heavens shall be rolled together 
like a scroll, and the sun shall be turned into darkness. 2nd. The course 
assigned him. That glorious creature was not made to be idle, but his going 
forth (at least as it appears to our eye) is from one point of the heavens, and his 
circuit from thence to the opposite point, and thence, to complete his diurnal 
revolution, to the same point again ; and this with such steadiness and con- 
stancy, that we can certainly foretell what hour and what minute the sun will 
rise at such a place any day to come. 3rd. The brightness wherein he appears. 
He " is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber," richly dressed up and 
adorned, as fine as hands can make him, looking pleasantly himself, and making 
ail about him pleasant; for "the friend of the bridegroom rejoiceth greatly 
to hear the bridegroom's voice," Jno. iii. 29. 4th. The cheerfulness wherewith 
he makes his tour. Though it seems a vast round he has to walk, and he has 
not a moment's rest, yet, in obedience to the law of his creation, and for the 
service of man, he not only doth it, but doth it with a great deal of pleasure, and 
" rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." With such satisfaction did Christ, 
the Sun of Righteousness, finish the work that was given him to do. 5th. His 
universal influence on this earth : " There is nothing hid from the heat thereof," 
no, not metals in the bowels of the earth, which the sun has an influence upon. 

Thirdly. To whom this declaration is made of the glory of God. It is made 
to all parts of the world ; ver. 3, 4, " there is no speech nor language," (that is, 



PSALM XIX. 85 
no nation, for the nations were divided after their tongues, Gen. x. 32,) " where 
their voice is not heard. Their line is gone through all the earth,' ; (the equi- 
noctial line, suppose,) "and" with it "their words to the end of the world," 
proclaiming the eternal power of the God of nature, ver. 4. The apostle 
useth this as a reason why the Jews should not be angry with him and others 
for preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, because God had already made him- 
self known to the Gentile world by the works of creation, and left not himself 
without witness among them, Rom. x. 18 ; so that they were without excuse 
if they were idolaters, Rom. i. 20, 21. And those were without blame that by 

E reaching the Gospel to them endeavoured to turn them from their idolatry. 
I God used these means to prevent their apostacy, and they proved ineffectual, 
the apostles did well to use other means to recover them from it. 'They have 
no speech or language,' (so some read it,) 'and yet their voice is heard.' All 
people may hear these natural, immortal preachers speak to them in their own 
tongue the wonderful works of God. 

And in singing these verses we must give God the glory of all the comfort 
and benefit we have by the lights of heaven, still looking above and beyond 
them to the Sun of Righteousness. 

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul : 
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the 

simple. 

8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart : 
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening 

the eyes. 

9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever : 

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether. [fine gold : 

10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much 
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. 

1 1 Moreover by them is thy servant warned : 
And in keeping of them there is great reward. 

12 Who can understand his errors ? 
Cleanse thou me from secret faults. 

13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; 
Let them not have dominion over me : 

Then shall I be upright, 

And I shall be innocent from the great transgression. 
' 14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my 
Be acceptable in thy sight, [heart, 
0 Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. 

God's glory, that is, his goodness to man, appears much in the works of 
creation, but much more in and by Divine revelation. The holy Scripture, as 
it is a rule both of our duty to God and of our expectation from him, is of much 
greater use and benefit to us than day or night, than the air we breathe in, or 
the light of the sun. The discoveries made of God by his works might have 
served if man had retained his integrity ; but to recover him out of his fallen 
state another course must be taken, that must be done by the Word of God. 
And here. 

First. The Psalmist gives an account of the excellent properties and uses 
of the Word of God, in six sentences, ver. 7—9, in each of which the name Jeho- 
vah is repeated, and no vain repetition, for the law has its authority and all its 
excellency from the lawmaker. Here are six several titles of the Word of God, 
to take in the whole of Divine revelation, precepts and promises, and especially 
the Gospel. Here are several good properties of it which prove its Divine 
original, which recommend it to our affection, and which extol it above all 
other laws whatsoever. And here are several good effects of the law upon the 
minds of men, which shew what it is designed for, what use we are to make 



86 PSALM XIX. 

of it, and how wonderful the efficacy of Divine grace is, going along with it, 
and working by it. 

1. " The law of the Lord is perfect." It is perfectly free from ail corruption, 
perfectly filled with all good, and perfectly fitted for the end for which it is 
designed. It will make the man of God perfect* 2 Tim. hi. 17. Nothing is to be 
added to it, or taken from it. It is of use to convert the sottl„ to bring us back 
to ourselves, to our God, to our duty ; for it shews us our sinfulness and misery 
in our departures from God, and the indispensable necessity of our return 
to him. 

2. " The testimony of the Lord" (which witnesseth for him to us) "is sure," 
ineontestably and inviolably sure, what we may give credit to, may rely upon, 
and may be confident it will not deceive us. it is a sure discovery of Divine 
truth, a sure direction in the way of duty. It is a sure fountain of living com- 
forts, and a sure foundation of lasting hopes. It is of use to make us wise, wise 
to salvation, 2 Tim. iii. 15. It will give us an insight into things Divine, and 
a foresight of things to come. It will employ us in the best work, and secure 
to us our true interests. It will make even the simple wise, for their souls and 
eternity, who yet are no conjurers (as we say) for this world. Those that are 
humbly simple, that is, sensible of their own folly, and willing to be taught, 
those shall be made wise by the Word of God, Ps. xxv. 9. 

3. " The statutes of the Lord," (enacted by his authority, and binding to all, 
wherever they come,) they " are right," exactly agreeing with the eternal rules 
and principles of good and evil; that is, with the right reason of man, and the 
right counsels of God. All God's precepts concerning all things are right, 
Ps. cxix. 128, just as they should be, and they will set us to rights if we receive 
them, and submit to them ; and, because they are right, they rejoice the heart. 
The law, as we see it in the hands of Christ, gives cause for joy ; and when it 
is written in our hearts it lays a foundation for lasting joy, by restoring us to 
our right mind. 

4..." The commandment of the Lord is pure." It is clear without darkness, it 
is clean without dross and defilement ; it is itself purified from all alloy, and is 
purifying to those that receive and embrace it; it is the ordinary means which 
the Spirit usethin "enlightening the eyes ;" it brings us to a sight and sense of 
our sin and misery, and directs us in the way of duty. 

5. " The fear of the Lord," that is, true religion and godliness prescribed in 
the Word, reigning in the heart, and practised in the life, "is clean," clean 
itself, and it will make us clean, Jno. xv. 3 ; it will cleanse our way, Ps. cxix. 9; 
and it " endureth for ever," that is, it is of perpetual obligation, and can never 
be repealed. The ceremonial law is long since done away, but the law concern- 
ing the fear of God is ever the same. Time will not alter the nature of moral 
good and evil. 

6. " The judgments of the Lord," all his precepts, which are framed in infinite 
wisdom, they "are true." They are grounded upon the most sacred and unques- 
tionable truths ; they are righteous, all consonant to natural equity ; and they 
are so altogether, there is no unrighteousness in any of them, but they are all 
of a piece. 

Secondly. He expresseth the great value he had for the Word of God, and the 
great advantage he had and hoped to have by it, ver. 10, 11. 

1. See how highly he prized the commandments of God. It is the character 
of ail good people that they prefer their religion and the Word of God, 1st. Far 
before all the wealth of the world. It is more desirable than gold, than fine 
gold, than much fine gold. Gold is of the earth, earthly ; but grace is the image 
of the heavenly. Gold is only for the body, and the concerns of time; but 
srace is for the soul, and the concerns of eternity. 2nd. Far before all the 
pleasures and delights of sense. The Word of God, received by faith, is sweet 
to the soul, "sweeter than honey, and the honeycomb." The pleasures of 
sense are the delight of brutes, and therefore debase the great soul of man ; 
the pleasures of religion are the delight of angels, and exalt the soul. The 
pleasures of sense are deceitful, will soon surfeit, and yet never satisfy ; but 
those of religion are substantial and satisfying, and there is no danger of 
exceeding in them. 

2. See what use he made of the precepts of God's Word; "By them is thy 
-servant warned." The Word of God is a word of warning to the children of 
men ; it warns us of the duty we are to do, the dangers we are to avoid, and 
the deluge we are to prepare for, Eze. iii. 17 ; xxxiii. 7 ; it warns the wicked 
not to go on in his wicked way, and warns the righteous not to turn from his 
good way. And all that are indeed God's servants take this warning. 

3. See what advantages he promised himseif by his obedience to God's pre- 
cepts ; " In keeping of them there is great reward." Those that make conscience 
of their duty will not only be no losers by it, but unspeakable gainers. There 
is a reward not only after keeping, but in keeping, God's commandments ; a 
present great reward of obedience in obedience. Religion is health and honour, 



PSALM XIX. 87 

it is peace and pleasure; it will make our comforts sweet, and our crosses 
easy ; life truly valuable, and death itself truly desirable. 

Thirdly. He draws some good inferences from this pious meditation upon the 
excellency of the Word of God. Such thoughts as these should excite in us 
devout affections, and then they are to good purpose. 

1. He takes occasion from hence to make a penitent reflection upon his sins; 
for " by the law is the knowledge of sin." Is the commandment thus holy, just, 
and good? then "who can understand his errors?" 1 cannot, whoever can. 
From the rectitude of the Divine law he learns to call his sins his errors ; if the 
commandment be true and righteous, every transgression of the commandment 
is an error, as grounded upon a mistake ; every wicked practice takes rise from 
some corrupt principle, it is a deviation from the rule we are to work by, the 
way we are to walk in. From the extent, and strictness, and spiritual nature 
of the Divine law, he learns that his sins are so many that he cannot under- 
stand the number of them; and so exceeding sinful that he cannot understand 
the heinousness and malignity of them. We are guilty of many sins, which, 
through our carelessness and partiality to ourselves, we are not aware of; 
many we have been guilty of which we have forgotten ; so that, when we have 
been never so particular in the confession of sin, we must conclude with an et 
ccetera, — ' and such like :' for God knows a great deal more evil by us than we 
do by ourselves. In many things we all offend, and who can tell how often 
he offends? It is well we are under grace, and not under the law, else we were 
undone. 

2. He takes occasion from hence to pray against sin. All the discoveries of 
sin made us by the law should drive us to the throne of grace, there to pray, 
as David doth here, 

m 1st. For mercy to pardon. Finding himself unable to instance in all the par- 
ticulars of his transgressions, he cries out, " Lord, cleanse me from my secret 
faults;" not secret to God, so none are; nor only such as are secret to the 
world, but such as were hid from his own observation of himself. The best of 
men have reason to suspect themselves guilty of many secret faults, and to pray 
to God to cleanse them from that guilt, and not to lay it to their charge ; for 
even our sins of infirmity and inadvertency, and our secret sins, would be our 
ruin, if God should deal with us according to the desert of them. Even secret 
faults are defiling, and render us unfit for communion with God; but when 
they are pardoned we are cleansed from them, 1 Jno. i. 7. 

2nd. For grace to help in time of need. Having prayed that his sins of in- 
firmity mi^ht be pardoned, he prays that presumptuous sins might be prevented, 
ver. 13. All that truly repent of their sins, and have them pardoned, are in care 
not to relapse into sin, nor to return again to folly, as appears by their prayers, 
which concur with David's here; where observe, First. His petition; "Keep 
me from "ever being guilty of a wilful, "presumptuous sin." We ought to pray 
that we may be kept from sins of infirmity, but especially from presumptuous 
sins, which most offend God, and wound conscience; which wither our com- 
forts and shock our hopes. However, let none such have dominion over me, 
let me not be at the command of any such sin, nor be captive by it. Secondly. 
His plea; "So shall I be upright," that is, I shall appear upright; I shall 
preserve the evidence and comfort of my uprightness; "and I shall be innocent 
from the great transgression," so he calls a presumptuous sin, because no sacri- 
fice was accepted for it, Num. xv. 28 — 30. _ Note, 1st. Presumptuous sins are 
very heinous and dangerous. Those that sin against the habitual convictions 
and actual admonitions of their own consciences, in contempt and defiance of 
the law and its sanctions, that sin with a high hand, they sin presumptuously, 
and it is a great transgression. 2nd. Even good men ought to be jealous of 
themselves, and afraid of sinning presumptuously, yea, though through the 
grace of God they have hitherto been kept from them. Let none be high- 
minded, but fear. 3rd. Being so much exposed, we have great need to pray to 
God, when we are pushing forward towards a presumptuous sin, to keep us 
back from it, either by his providence preventing the temptation, or by his 
grace giving us victory over it. 

3. He takes occasion humbly to beg the Divine acceptance of those his pious 
thoughts and affections, ver. 14. Observe the connexion of this with what goes 
before : he prays to God to keep him from sin, and then begs he would accept 
his performances; for, if we favour our sins, we cannot expect Gpd should 
favour us or our services, Ps. lxvi. 18. Observe, 1st. What his services were; 
the words of his mouth, and the meditations of his heart, that is, his holy affec- 
tions offered up to God. The pious meditations of the heart must not be 
smothered, but expressed in the words of our mouth, for God's glory and the 
edification of others ; and the words of our mouth in prayer and praise must 
not be formal, but arising from the meditation of the heart, Ps. xlv. 1. 2nd. 
What was his care concerning these services, that they might be acceptable 



88 PSALM XX. 

with God, else what do they avail us? Gracious souls have all they aim at if 
they be accepted ot God, for that is their bliss. 3rd. What encouragement he 
had to hope for this ; because God was his strength and his redeemer. If we 
seek assistance from God, as our strength, in our religious duties, we may 
hope to find acceptance with God of our duties ; for by his strength we have 
power with him. 

In singing this we should get our hearts much affected with the excellency of 
the Word of God and delivered into it, and much affected with the evil of sin, 
the danger we are in of it, and the danger we are in by it, and fetch in help from 
Heaven against it. 

PSALM XX. 

It is the will of God that prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving should be made, in 
a special manner, for kings and all in authority. This psalm is a prayer, and the next 
a thanksgiving, for the king. David was a martial prince, much in war. Either this 
psalm was penned upon occasion of some particular expedition of his, or in general, as 
a form to be used in the daily service of the church for him. In this psalm we may 
observe, I. What it is they beg of God for the king, ver. 1 — i. II. With what assur- 
ance they beg it. The people triumph, ver. 5 ; the prince, ver. 6 ; both together, 
ver. 7, 8 ; and so he concludes with a prayer to God for audience, ver. 9. In this 
David may well be looked upon as a type of Christ, to whose kingdom, and its interests 
among men, the church was in every age a hearty well-wisher. 

To the chief ^Musician, A Psalm of David. 

THE Lord hear thee in the clay of trouble ; 
The name of the God of Jacob defend thee 

2 Send thee help from the sanctuary. 
And strengthen thee out of Zion. 

3 Remember all thy offerings, 

And accept thy burnt sacrifice ; Selah. 

4 Grant thee according to thine own heart, 
And fulfil all thy counsel. 

5 We will rejoice in thy salvation, 

And in the name of our God we will set up our banners ; 
The Lord fulfil all thy petitions 

This prayer for David is entitled, a Psalm of David; nor was it any absurdity 
at all for him, who was divinely inspired, to draw up a directory, or form of 
prayer, to be used in the congregation for himself and those in authority under 
him ; nay, it is very proper for those who desire the prayers of their friends to 
tell them particularly what they would have to be asked of God for them. 
Note, Even great and good men, and those that know never so well how to 
pray for themselves, yet must not despise, but earnestly desire, the prayers of 
others for them, even those that are their inferiors in all respects. Paul often 
begged of his friends to pray for him. Magistrates, and those in power, ought 
to esteem and encourage praying people, to reckon them their strength, 
Zee. xii. 5, 10, and to do what they can for them, that they may have an interest 
in their prayers, and may do nothing to forfeit it. Now observe here, 

First. What it is that they are taught to ask of God for the king. 

1. That God would answer his prayers. " The Lord hear thee^in the day of 
trouble," ver. 1, and " the Lord fulfil all thy petitions," ver. 5. Note, 1st. Even 
the greatest of men may be much in trouble. It was often a day of trouble 
with David himself, of disappointment and distress, of treading down, and of 
perplexity. Neither the crown on his head nor the grace in his heart would 
exempt him from trouble. 2nd. Even the greatest of men must be much in 
prayer. David, though a man of business, a man of war, yet was constant to 
his devotions. Though he had prophets and priests, and many good people 
among his subjects, to pray for him, yet he did not think that excused him from 
praying for himself. Let none expect benefit by the prayers of the church, or 
of their ministers or friends for them, who are capable of praying for them- 
selves, and yet neglect it. The prayers of others for us must be desired, not to 
supersede, but to second our own for ourselves. Happy the people that have 
praying princes, to whose prayers they may thus say, Amen. 



PSALM XX. 89 

2. That God would protect his person, and preserve his life in the perils of 
war. ** The name of the God of Jacob defend thee," and set thee out of the reach 
of the enemies. 1st. Let God by his providence keep thee safe, even the God 
who preserved Jacob in the days of his trouble. David had mighty men for his 
guards, but he commits himself, and his people commit him, to the care of the 
Almighty God. 2nd. Let God by his grace keep thee easy from the fear of 
evil; Pr. xviii. 10, " The name of the Lord is a strong tower," into which the 
righteous run by faith, and are safe ; let David be enabled to shelter himself in 
that strong tower, as he has done many a time. 

3. That God would enable him to go on in his undertakings for the public 
good ; that in the dav of battle he would " send him help out of the sanctuary, 
and strength out of Zion;" not from common providence, but from the ark of 
the covenant, and the peculiar favour God bears to his chosen people Israel; 
that he would help him in performance of the promises, and in answer to the 
prayers made in the sanctuary. Mercies out of the sanctuary are the sweetest 
mercies, such as are the token of God's peculiar love ; the blessing of God even 
our own God. "Strength out of Zion" is spiritual strength, strength in the 
soul, in the inward man, and that is it we should most desire both for ourselves 
and others, in services and sufferings. 

4. That God would testify his gracious acceptance of the sacrifices he offered 
with his prayers, according to the law of that time, before he went out on this 
dangerous expedition. " The Lord remember all thy offerings, and accept thy 
burnt sacrifices," ver. 3, or, * turn them to ashes;' that is, the Lord give thee 
the victory and success which thou didst by prayer with sacrifices ask of 
him, and thereby give as full proof of his acceptance of the sacrifice, as 
ever he did by kindling it with fire from heaven. By this we may now know 
that God accepts our spiritual sacrifices, if by his Spirit he kindles in our 
souls a holy fire of pious and Divine affection, and with that makes our 
hearts burn within us. 

5. That God would crown all his enterprises and noble designs for the public 
welfare with the desired success; ver. 4, "The Lord grant thee according to 
thine own heart." This they might in faith pray for, because they knew David 
was "a man after God's own heart," and would design nothing but what was 
pleasing to him. Those who make it their business to glorify God, may expect 
that God will, one way or other, gratify them ; and they who walk in his counsel 
may promise themselves that he will fulfil theirs. " Thou shalt devise a thing 
and it shall be established unto thee." 

Secondly. What confidence they had of an answer of peace to these petitions 
for themselves and their good king ; ver. 5, " We will rejoice in thy salvation." 
We that are subjects will rejoice in the preservation and prosperity of our 
prince ; or rather. 'In thy salvation, O God,' in thy power and promise to save, 
'will w 7 e rejoice; that is it we depend upon now, and which in the issue we 
shall have occasion greatly to rejoice in. Those that have their eye still upon 
the salvation of the Lord shall have their hearts filled with the joy of that 
salvation. M In the name of our God will we set up our banners." 1. We will 
wage war in his name, we will see that our cause be good, and make his glory 
our end in every expedition ; we will ask counsel at his mouth, and take him 
along with us; we will follow his conduct, implore his aid, and depend upon it, 
and refer the issue to him. David went against Goliath, in the name of the 
Lord of hosts, 1 Sam. xvii. 45. 2. We will celebrate our victories in his name. 
When we lift up our banners in triumph, and set up our trophies, it shall be 
in the name of our God; he shall have all the glory of our success, and no 
instrument shall have any part of the honour that is due to him. 

In singing this we ought to offer up to God our hearty good wishes for the 
good government we are under, and to the prosperity of it. But we may look 
farther ; these prayers for David are prophecies concerning Christ the Son of 
David ; and in him they were abundantly answered : he undertook the work of 
our redemption, and made war upon the powers of darkness; in the day of 
trouble, when his soul was exceeding sorrowful, the Lord heard him, heard 
him in that he feared, Heb. v. 7 ; sent him help out of the sanctuary, sent an 
angel from heaven to strengthen him, took cognizance of his offering, when he 
made his soul an offering for sin, and accepted his burnt sacrifice, turned it to 
ashes ; the fire that should have fastened upon the sinner, fastening upon the 
sacrifice, with which God was well pleased. And he granted him according to 
his own heart, made him to see of the travail of his soul to his satisfaction, 
prospered his good pleasure in his hand, fulfilled all his petitions for himself 
and us, for him the Father heareth always, and his intercession is ever pre- 
vailing. 

6 Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed ; 
He will hear him from his holy heaven 
With the saving strength of his right hand. 



90 



PSALM XX. 



7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses : 

But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. 

8 They are brought down and fallen : 
But we are risen, and stand upright. 

9 Save, Lord : 

Let the king hear us when w^e call. 

Here is. First. Holy David himself triumphing in the interest he had in the 
prayers of good people : ver. 6, " Now know I" (I that pen the psalm know it,) 
"that the Lord saveth his anointed," because he hath stirred up the hearts of 
the seed of Jacob to pray for him. Note, It bodes well to any prince and people, 
and may justly be taken as a happy presage, when God pours upon them a spirit 
of prayer. If he see us seeking him, he will be found of us ; if he cause us to 
hope in his word, he will establish his word to us. Now so many that have 
an interest in heaven are praying for him, he doubts not but thatGod will hear 
him, and grant him an answer of peace ; which will, 1. Take its rise from above. 
He will hear him from his holy heaven, of which the sanctuary was a type, 
Heb. ix. 23; from the throne he hath prepared in heaven, of which themercy- 
seat was a type. 2. It shall take its effect here below. He will hear him with 
the saving strength of his right hand ; that is, he will give a real answer to his 
prayer, and the prayers of his friends for him, not by letter, or by word of 
mouth, but, which is much better, by his right nand, by "the saving strength 
of his right hand." He will make it to appear he hears him by what he doth 
for him. 

Secondly. His people triumphing in God, and their relation to him, and his 
revelation of himself to them, by which they distinguish themselves from those 
that live without God in the world. 1. See the difference between worldly people 
and godly people in their confidences, ver. 7. The children of this w r orld trust 
in second causes, and think all is well if those do but smile upon them. They 
"trust in chariots and in horses;" and the more of them they can bring into the 
field the more sure they are of success in their Avars. Probably David has here 
an eye to the Syrians, whose forces consisted much of chariots and horsemen, 
as we find in the history of David's victories over them, 2 Sam. viii. 4; x. 18. 
But, say the Israelites, we neither have chariots and horses to trust to, nor do 
we want them, nor if w r e had them would we build our hopes of success upon 
that; but we will remember, and rely upon, the name of the Lord our God, 
upon the relation w r e stand in to him as the Lord our God, and the knowledge 
we have of him by his name, that is, all that whereby he makes himself known ; 
this we will remember, and upon every remembrance of it will be encouraged. 
Note, Those who make God and his name their praise may make God and his 
name their trust. 2. See the difference in the issue of their confidences, and 
by that we are to judge of the wisdom of the choice. Things are as they prove : 
see who will be ashamed of their confidence and who not ; ver. 8, They that 
trust in their chariots and horses are brought down and fallen; and their 
chariots and horses were so far from saving them that they helped to sink them, 
and made them the easier and the richer prey to the conqueror, 2 Sam. viii. 4. 
But we that trust in the name of the Lord our God, not only' stand upright 
and keep our ground, but are risen and have got ground against the enemy, 
and have triumphed over them. Note, A believing, obedient trust in God 
and his name, is the surest way both to preferment and to establishment, to 
rise and to stand upright; and'this will stand us in stead when creature con- 
fidences fail those that depend upon them. 

Thirdly. They conclude their prayer for the king with an Hosanna ; Save 
now we beseech thee, O Lord! ver. 9. As we read this verse it may be taken 
as a prayer that God would not only bless the king, "Save, Lord," give him 
success, but that he would make him a blessing to them, " Let the king hear us, 
when we call "to him for justice and mercy. Those that would have good 
of their magistrates must thus pray for them; for they, as all other creatures, 
are that to us, and no more, that God makes them to be. Or it may refer to 
the Messiah, that King, that King of kings; Let him hear us w r hen we call; let 
him come to us, according to the promise, in the time appointed ; let him, as the 

Sreat Master of requests, receive all our petitions, and present them to his 
'ather. But many interpreters give another reading of this verse, by altering 
the pause ; " Lord, save the king, and hear us when we call ;" and so it is a sum- 
mary of the whole psalm, and is taken into our English Liturgy, * O Lord, save 
the king, and mercifully hear us when w r e call upon thee.' 

In singing these verses, we should encourage ourselves to trust in God, and 
stir up ourselves to pray earnestly, as we are in duty bound, for those in autho- 
rity over us, that under them we may lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all 
goaliness and honesty. 



PSALM XXL 



01 



As the foregoing psalm was a prayer for the king, that God would protect and prosper 
him, so this is a thanksgiving for the success God had blessed him with. Those whom 
we have prayed for we ought to give thanks for, and particularly for kings in whose 
prosperity we share. They are here taught, I. To congratulate his victories, and the 
honour he had achieved, ver. 1 — 6. II. To confide in the power of God for the com- 
pleting of the ruin of the enemies of his kingdom, ver. 7 — 13. And in this there is an 
eye to the Messiah, the prince and the glory of his kingdom ; for to him divers pas- 
sages in this psalm are more applicable than to David himself. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 

THE king shall joy in thy strength, 0 Lord ; 
And in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice ! 

2 Thou hast given him his heart's desire, 

And hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. 

3 For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness : 
Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. 

4 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, 
Even length of days for ever and ever. 

5 His glory is great in thy salvation : 
Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. 

6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever : [nance. 
Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy counte- 

David here speaks for himself in the first place, professing that his joy was 
in God's strength, and in his salvation, and not in the strength or success of his 
armies. He also directs his subjects herein to rejoice with him, and to give 
God all the glory of the victories he had obtained; and all with an eye to 
Christ, of whose triumphs over the powers of darkness David's victories were 
but shadows. 

First. They here congratulate the king's joys, and concur with him in them, 
ver. 1. The king doth rejoice; he useth to rejoice in thy strength, and so do 
we : what pleaseth the king pleaseth us, 2 Sam. iii. 36. Happy the people the 
character of whose king it is that he makes God's strength his confidence, and 
God's salvation his joy; that is pleased with all the advancements of God's 
kingdom, and trusts God to bear him out in all he doth for the service of it. 
Our Lord Jesus in his great undertaking relied upon help from Heaven, and 
pleased himself with the prospect of that great salvation which he was thereby 
to work out. 

Secondly. They give God all the praise of those things which were the matter 
of their king's rejoicing. 

1. That God had heard his prayers; ver. 2, " Thou hast given him his heart's 
desire," (and there is no prayer accepted but what is the heart's desire,) the 
very thing they begged of God for him, Ps. xx. 4. Note, God's gracious returns 
of prayer do in a special manner require our humble returns of praise. When 
God gives to Christ the heathen for his inheritance, gives him to see his seed, 
and accepts his intercession for all believers, he gives him his heart's desire. 

2. That God had surprised him with favours, and much outdone his expecta- 
tions ; ver. 3, " Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness." All our 
blessings are blessings of goodness; and are owing not at all to any merit of 
ours, but purely and only to God's goodness. But the psalmist here reckons 
it in a special manner obliging, that these blessings were given in a preventing 
way. This fixed his eye, enlarged his soul, and endeared his God, as one 
expresseth it. When God's blessings come sooner, and prove richer, than we 
imagine,— when they are given before we prayed for them, before we were 
ready for them, nay, when we feared the contrary,— then it may be truly said, 
that he prevented us with them. Nothing indeed prevented Christ; but to 
mankind never was any favour more preventing than our redemption by Christ, 
and all the blessed fruits of his mediation. 

3. That God had advanced him to the highest honour, and the most extensive 
power ; " Thou hast set a crown of pure gold upon his head," and kept it there 
when his enemies attempted to throw it oil'. Note, Crowns are at God's dis- 
pose; no head wears them but God sets them there; whether in judgment 
to his land, or for mercy, the event will shew. On the head of Christ God 
never set a crown of gold, but of thorns first and then of glory. 



92 PSALM XXL 

4. That God had assured him of the perpetuity of his kingdom, and therein 
had done more for him than he was able either to ask or think, ver. 4. When 
he went forth upon a perilous expedition he asked his life of thee, which he 
then put into his hand, and thou not only gavest him that, but withal gayest 
him length of days for ever and ever; didst not only prolong his life far beyond 
his expectation, but didst assure him of a blessed immortality in a future state, 
and of the continuance of his kingdom in the Messiah, that should come of his 
loins. See how God's grants often exceed our petitions and hopes, and infer 
from thence how rich he is in mercy to those that call upon him. See also, and 
rejoice, in the length of the days of Christ's kingdom. He was dead indeed, that 
we might live through him ; but he is alive, and lives for evermore ; and of the 
increase of his government and peace there shall be no end ; and because he 
thus lives we shall thus live also. 

5. That God had advanced him to the highest honour and dignity ; ver. 5, 
"His glory is great," far transcending that of all the neighbouring princes, "in 
the salvation" thou hast wrought for him and wrought by him. The glory 
w r hich every good man is ambitious of, is to see the salvation of the Lord ; 
"Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him," as a burthen which he must 
bear, as a charge which he must account for. Jesus Christ "received from God 
the Father honour and glory," 2 Pet. i. 17 ; the glory which he had with him 
before the worlds were, Jno. xvii. 5. And on him is laid the charge of an 
universal government, and to him all power in heaven and earth is committed. 

6. That God had given him the satisfaction of being the author of all bliss 
to mankind, ver. 6. 4 Thou hast set him to be blessings for ever.' so the margin 
reads it; thou hast made him to be a universal, everlasting blessing to the 
world, in whom the families of the earth are and shall be blessed ; and so 
"thou hast made him exceeding glad," with the countenance thou hast given 
to his undertaking, and to him in the prosecution of it. See how the Spirit 
of prophecy gradually riseth here to that which is peculiar to Christ, for none 
but he is blessed for ever, much less a blessing for ever ; to that eminency that 
the expression speaks. And of him it is said, that " God made him full of joy 
with his countenance." 

And, in singing this, we should rejoice in his joy, and triumph in his 
exaltation. 

7 For the king trusteth in the Lord, [be moved. 
And through the mercy of the most High he shall not 

8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies : 
Thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee 

9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of 

thine anger : 

The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, 

And the fire shall devour them. 
10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, 

And their seed from among the children of men. 
J 1 For they intended evil against thee : 

They imagined a mischievous device, 

Which they are not able to perform. 

12 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, 
When thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy 

strings against the face of them. 

13 Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength : 
So will we sing and praise thy power. 

The psalmist, having taught his people to look back with joy and praise 
on what God had done for him and them, here teacheth them to look forward 
with faith, and hope, and prayer upon what God would farther do for them. 
"The king rejoiceth in God,* 5 ver. 1, and therefore we will be thankful ; "The 
king trusteth in God," ver. 7, therefore will we be encouraged. The joy and 
confidence of Christ our King is the ground of all our joy and confidence. 



PSALM XXII. 93 

First. They are confident of the stability of David's kingdom ; " Through the 
mercy of the Most High," and not through his own merit or strength, "he shall 
not be moved." His prosperous state shall not be disturbed; his faith and 
hope in God, which is the stay of his spirit, shall not be shaken. " The mercy 
of the Most High," the Divine goodness, power, and dominion, is enough to 
secure our happiness, and therefore our trust in that mercy should be enough 
to silence all our fears. God being at Christ's right hand in his suffering, 
Ps. xvi. 8, and he being at God's right hand in his glory, we maybe sure he 
shall not, he cannot, be moved, but continueth ever. 

Secondly. They are confident of the destruction of all the impenitent, im- 
placable enemies of David's kingdom. The success with which God had 
blessed David's arms hitherto was an earnest of the rest which God would 
give him from all his enemies round about, and a type of the total overthrow 
of all Christ's enemies, that would not have him to reign over them. Observe, 
1. The description of his enemies. They are such as hate him, ver. 8. They 
hated David because God had set him apart for himself; hated Christ because 
they hated the light ; but both were hated without any just < cause, and in both 
pod was hated, Jno. xv. 23, 25. 2. The designs of his enemies; ver. II, " They 
intended evil against thee, and imagined a mischievous device." They pre- 
tended to fight against David only, but their enmity was against God himself. 
They that aimed to unking David, aimed in effect to ungod Jehovah. What 
is devised and designed against religion, and against the instruments God 
raiseth up to support and advance it, is very evil and mischievous ; and God 
takes it as devised and designed against himself, and will so reckon for it. 

3. The disappointment of them. They devise what they are not able to per- 
form, ver. 11. . Their malice is impotent, and they imagine a vain thing, Ps. li. 1. 

4. The discovery of them ; ver. 8, " Thy hand shall find them out," though 
never so artfully disguised by the pretences and professions of friendship ; 
though mingled with the faithful subjects of this kingdom, and hardly to be 
distinguished from them; though flying from justice, and absconding m their 
close places, yet thy hand shall find them out wherever they are. There is no 
escaping God's avenging eye, no going out of the reach of his hand ; rocks and 
mountains will be no better shelter at last than fig leaves were at first. 5. The 
destruction of them. It will be an utter destruction, Lu. xix. 27 ; they shall 
be swallowed up and devoured, ver. 9. Hell, the portion of all Christ's enemies, 
is the complete misery both of body and soul. Their fruit and their seed shall 
be destroyed, ver. 10. The enemies of God's kingdom in every age shall fall 
under the same doom ; and the w r hole generation of them will at last be rooted 
out, and all opposing rule, principality and power, shall be put down. The 
arrows of God's wrath shall confound chem, and put them to flight, being 
levelled at the face of them, ver. 12 ; that will be the lot of daring enemies that 
face God. The lire of God's wrath will consume them, ver. 9; they shall not 
only be cast into a furnace of fire, {Mat. xiii. 42,) but he shall make them them- 
selves as a fiery oven or furnace ; they shall be their own tormentors,— the 
reflections and terrors of their own consciences will be their hell. Those that 
might have had Christ to rule and save them, but rejected him, and fought 
against him, even the remembrance of that will be enough to make them, to 
eternity, a fiery oven to themselves. It is the worm that dies not. 

Thirdly. In this confidence they beg of God that he would still appear for 
his anointed, ver. 13; that he would act for him in his own strength, by the 
immediate operations of his power as Lord of hosts, and Father of spirits ; 
making little use of means and instruments. And, 1. Hereby he would exalt 
himself, and glorify his own name. We have but little strength, and are not 
so active for thee as we should be, which is our shame. Lord, take the work 
into thine own hands ; do it without us, and it will be thy glory. 2. Hereupon 
they would exalt him; "So will we sing and praise thy power" the more 
triumphantly. The less God has of our service when a deliverance is in the 
working, the more he must have of our praises when it is wrought without us. 



PSALM XXII. 

The Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, testifies in this psalm, as clearly and fully 
as anywhere else in all the Old Testament, " the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that 
should follow, ' 1 Pet. i. 11 ; of him, no doubt, David here speaks, and not of himself, 
or of any other man. Much of it is expressly applied to Christ in the New Testament, 
all of it may be applied to him, and some of it must be understood of him only. The 
providences of God concerning David were so very extraordinary, that we may suppose 
there were some wise and good men who then could not but look upon him as a figure 
of him that was to come. But the composure of his psalms especially, in which he 
found himself wonderfully carried out by the spirit of prophecy, far beyond his own 
thought and intention, was, we may suppose, an abundant satisfaction to himself, that 



94 



PSALM XXII. 



he was not only a father of the Messiah, but a figure of him. In this psalm he speaks, 
I. Of the humiliation of Christ, ver. 1 — 21 ; where David, as a type of Christ, complains 
of the very calamitous condition he was in upon many accounts : 1. He complains, and 
mixeth comforts with his complaints. Complains, ver. 1, 2 ; but comforts himself, 
ver. 3 — 5. Complains again, ver. 6 — 8; but comforts himself again, ver. 9, 10. 2. He 
complains, and mixeth prayers with his complaints. Complains of the power and rage 
of his enemies, ver. 12, 13, 16, 18 ; of his own bodily weakness and decay, ver. 14, 15, 17 ; 
but prays that God would not be far from him, ver. 11, 19; that he would save and 
deliver him, ver. 19 — 21. II. Of the exaltation of Christ, that his undertaking should 
be for the glory of God, ver. 22 — 25 ; for the salvation and joy of his people, ver. 26 — 29 ; 
and for the perpetuating of his own kingdom, ver. 30, 31. In singing this psalm, we 
must keep our thoughts fixed upon Christ, and be so affected with his sufferings as to 
experience the fellowship of them, and so affected with his grace as to experience the 
power and influence of it. 

To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. 

MY God, ray God, why hast thou forsaken me ? 
Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the 
words of my roaring ? 

2 0 my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not ; 
And in the night season, and am not silent. 

3 But thou a?*t holy, 

0 thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. 

4 Our fathers trusted in thee : 

They trusted, and thou didst deliver thera. 

5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered : 
They trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 

6 But I am a worm, and no man ; 

A reproach of men, and despised of the people. 

7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn : 

They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 

8 He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him : 
Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. 

9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb : 

Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's 
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb : [breasts. 
Thou art my God from my mother's belly. 

Some think they find Christ in the title of this psalm "upon Aijeleth Shahar" 
-—'the hind of the morning.' Christ is as the swift hind upon the mountains of 
spices, Cant. viii. 14; as the loving hind, and the pleasant roe, to all believers, 
Pr. v. 19; giveth goodly words, like Naphtali, who is compared to a hind let 
loose, Gen. xlix. 21. He is the hind of the morning, marked out by the counsels 
of God from eternity, to be run down by those dogs that compassed him, ver. 16. 
But others think it notes only the tune to which the psalm was set. In these 
verses we have, 

First. A sad complaint of God's withdrawings, ver. 1, 2. This may be applied 
to David, or any other child of God, in the want of the tokens of his favour, and 
pressed with the burthen of his displeasure, roaring under it, as one over- 
whelmed with grief and terror, and crying earnestly for relief, and in this case 
apprehending himself forsaken of God, unhelped, unheard, yet calling him again 
and again, My God, and continuing to cry day and night to him, and earnestly 
desiring his gracious returns. Note, 1. Spiritual desertions are the saints' 
sorest afflictions. When their evidences are clouded, Divine consolations sus- 
pended, their communion with God interrupted, and the terrors of God set 
themselves in array against them, how sad are their spirits, and how sapless all 
their comforts ! 2. Even their complaint of these burthens is a good sign of 
spiritual life, and spiritual senses exercised. To cry out, My God, why am I 
sick? why am I poor? would give cause to suspect discontent and worldliness. 



PSALM XXII. 95 

But, "why hast thou forsaken me?" is the language of a heart binding up its 
happiness in God's favour. 3. When we are lamenting God's withdrawings, 
yet still we must call him our God, and continue to call upon him as ours. 
When we want the faith of assurance, we must live by a faith of adherence : 
however it be, yet God is good, and he is mine ; and though he slay me, yet will 
I trust in him ; though he do not answer me presently, I will continue praying 
and waiting; though he be silent, I will not be silent. 

But it must be applied to Christ; for in the first words of this complaint he 
poured out his soul before God when he was upon the cross, Mat. xxvi. 46. 
Probably, he proceeded to the following words, and, some think, repeated the 
whole psalm, if not aloud, because they cavilled at the first words, yet to him- 
self. Note, 1st. Christ in his sufferings cried earnestly to his Father for his 
savour and presence with him. He cried in the daytime upon the cross, and " in 
the night season," when he was in his agony in the garden, he offered up " strong 
crying and tears to him that was able to save him," and with some fear too, 
Heb. v. 7. 2nd. Yet God forsook him, was far from helping him, and did not hear 
him, and this was it which he complains of more than all his sufferings. God 
delivered him into the hands of his enemies ; it was by his determinate counsel 
that he was crucified and slain, and he did not give in sensible comforts ; but 
Christ having made himself sin for us, in conformity thereunto, the Father laid 
him under the present impressions of his wrath and displeasure against sin. " It 
pleased the Lord to bruise him, and to put him to grief," Isa. liii. 10. But even 
then he kept fast hold of his relation to his Father as his God, by whom he was 
now employed, whom he was now serving, and with whom he should shortly be 
glorified. 

Secondly. Encouragement taken in reference hereunto, ver. 3—5. Though 
God did not hear him, did not help him, yet, 1. He will think well of God. 
"But thou art holy;" not unjust, or untrue, or unkind in any of thy dispensa- 
tions ; though thou dost not presently come in to the relief of thine afflicted 
people, yet thou lovest them, art true to thy covenant with them, and dost not 
countenance the iniquity of their persecutors, Hab. i. 13; and, as thou art 
infinitely pure and upright thyself, so thou delightest in the services ot thine 
upright people. " Thou inhabitest tne praises of Israel ; " that is, thou art pleased 
to manifest thy glory, and grace, and special presence with thy people, in the 
sanctuary where they attend thee with their praises; there thou art always ready 
to receive their homage, and of the tabernacle of meeting hast said, " This is my 
rest for ever." This speaks God's wonderful condescension to his faithful wor- 
shippers, that, though he is attended with the praises of angels, yet he is pleased 
to inhabit the praises of Israel. And it may comfort us in all our complaints 
that, though God seem for a while to turn a deaf ear to them, yet he is so pleased 
with his people's praises that he will in due time give them cause to change 
their note. Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him." Our Lord Jesus in his 
sufferings had an eye to the holiness of God, to preserve and advance the honour 
of that, and of his grace in inhabiting the praises of Israel, notwithstanding the 
iniquities of their holy things. 2. He will take comfort from the experiences 
which the saints in former ages had of the benefit of faith and prayer ; ver. 4, 5, 
" Our fathers trusted in thee ; cried unto thee, and thou didst deliver them ;" 
therefore thou wilt in due time deliver me, for never any that hoped in thee were 
made ashamed of their hope ; never any that sought thee sought thee in vain. 
And thou art still the same in thyself, and the same to thy people that ever thou 
wast. They were our fathers, and thy people are beloved for the fathers' sakes, 
Rom. xi. 28. The entail of the covenant is designed for the support of the seed 
of the faithful; he that was our fathers' God must be ours, and therefore will 
be ours. Our Lord Jesus in his sufferings supported himself with this, that 
all the fathers who were types of him in his sufferings, Noah, Joseph, David, 
Jonah, and others, were in due time delivered, and were types of his exaltation 
too . therefore he knows he also shall not be confounded, Isa. 1. 7. 

Thirdly. The complaint renewed of another grievance, and that is the con- 
tempt and reproach of men. This complaint is nothing so bitter as that before, 
God's withdrawings ; but, as that touches a gracious soul, so this a generous 
soul, in a very tender part, ver. 6—8. Our fathers were honoured ; the patriarchs 
in their day, first or last, appeared great in the eye of the world, Abraham, 
Moses, David ; but Christ is a worm, and no man. It was great condescension 
that he became man, a step downwards that is and will be the wonder of 
angels ; yet as if it were too much, too great to be a man, he becomes a worm, 
and no man. He was Adam, * a mean man,' and Enosh, ( a man of sorrow ;' but lo 
Jsh, ' not a considerable man ;' for he took upon him the form of a servant, and 
his visage was marred more than any man's, Isa. Hi. 14. Man at the best is a 
worm, but he became a worm and no man ; and if he had not made himself a 
worm he could not have been trampled upon as he was. The word signifies 
such a worm as was used in dyeing scarlet or purple, whence some make it an 
allusion to his bloody sufferings. See what abuses w T ere put upon him : 1. He 
was reproached as an ill man, as a blasphemer, a sabbath breaker, a w T inebibber, 
a false prophet, an enemy to Caesar, a confederate w T ith the prince of the devils. 



96 PSALM XXII. 

a false prophet, an enemy to Caesar, a confederate with the prince of the devils. 
2. He was despised of the people as a mean contemptible man, not worth taking 
notice of; his country in an ill name, his relations poor mechanics, his followers 
none of the rulers or the Pharisees, but the mob. 3. He was ridiculed as a 
foolish man, and one that not only deceived others, but himself too. They that 
saw him hanging on the cross laughed him to scorn. So far were they from 
pitying him, or concerning themselves for him, that they added to his afflictions 
with all the gestures and expressions of insolence, upbraiding him with his fall ; 
they make mouths at him, make merry over him, and make a jest of his suffer- 
ings ; they shoot out the lip, they shake their head, saying^ This was he that said 
he trusted God would deliver him; now let him deliver him. David was some- 
times taunted for his confidence in God ; but in the sufferings of Christ this 
was literally and exactly fulfilled, those very gestures were used by those that 
reviled him, Mat. xxvii. 39, they wagged their heads ; nay, and so far did their 
malice make them forget themselves, that they used the very words, ver. 43, 
" He trusted in God; let him deliver him." Our Lord Jesus, having undertaken 
to satisfy for the dishonour we had done to God by our sins, did it by submitting 
to the highest instance of ignominy and disgrace that could be. 

Fourthly. Encouragement taken as to this also; ver. 9, 10, Men despise me, 
"but thou art he that took me out of the womb." David, and other good men, 
have often, for direction to us, encouraged themselves with this, that God was 
not only the God of their fathers, as before, ver. 1, but the God of their infancy, 
who began betimes to take care of them, as soon as they had a being, and there- 
fore they hope will never cast them off. He that did so well for us in that help- 
less, useless state, will not leave us w r hen he has reared us, and nursed us up 
into some capacity of serving him. See the early instances of God's providen- 
tial care for us, 1. In the birth. He took us also out of the womb, else we had 
died there, or been stifled in the birth. Every man's particular time begins 
with this pregnant proof of God's providence, as time in general began with the 
creation, that pregnant proof of his being. 2. At the breast. " Then didst thou 
make me hope ; " that is, thou didst that for me in providing sustenance for me, 
and protecting me from the dangers to w hich 1 was exposed, which encourages 
me to hope in thee all my days. The blessings of the breasts, as they crown the 
blessings of the womb, so they are earnests of the blessings of our whole lives ; 
sure he that fed us then, will never starve us, Job iii. 12. 3. In our early dedi- 
cation to him. " I was cast upon thee from the womb," which perhaps refers 
to his circumcision on the eighth day ; he was then by his parents committed 
and given up to God as his God in covenant,— for circumcision was a seal of the 
covenant, — and this encouraged him to trust in God. Those have reason to 
think themselves safe who were so soon, so solemnly, gathered under the wings 
of the Divine majesty. 4. In the experience we have had of God's goodness to 
us all along ever since, drawn out in a constant, uninterrupted series of preser- 
vations and supplies. " Thou art my God," providing for me, and watching 
over me for good, "from my mothers belly ;" that is, from my coming into the 
world, unto this day. And it, as soon as we became capable of exercising reason, 
we put our confidence in God, and committed ourselves and our way to Mm, we 
need not doubt but he will always remember the kindness of our youth, and the 
love of our espousals, Jer. ii. 2. This is applicable to our Lord Jesus, over 
whose incarnation and birth the Divine providence watched with a peculiar 
care, when he was born in a stable, laid in a manger, and immediately exposed 
to the malice of Herod, and forced to flee into Egypt ; "when he was a child, 
God loved him and called him thence," Hos. xi. 1, and the remembrance of this 
comforted him in his sufferings. Men reproached him, and discouraged his 
confidence in God ; but God had honoured him, and encouraged his confidence 
in him. 

11 Be not far from me ; for trouble is near ; 
For there is none to help. 

12 Many bulls have compassed me : 

Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 

13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, 
As a ravening and a roaring lion. 

14 I am poured out like water, 

And all my bones are out of joint : 

Sly heart is like wax ; 

It is melted in the midst of my bowels. 



PSALM XXII. 



99 



15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd ; 
And my tongue cleave th to my jaws ; 

And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 

1 6 For dogs have compassed me : 

The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me : 
They pierced my hands and my feet. 




DOGS OP PALESTINE. 

17 1 may tell all my bones : 
They look and stare upon me. 

18 They part my garments among them, 
And cast lots upon my vesture. 

1 9 But be not thou far from me, 0 Lord : 
0 my strength, haste thee to help me. 

20 Deliver my soul from the sword , 

My darling from the power of the dog. 

21 Save me from the lion's mouth : 

For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. 

In these verses we have Christ suffering, and Christ praying, by which we are 
directed to look for crosses and to look up to God under them. 

First. Here is Christ suffering. David indeed was often in trouble, and beset 
with enemies ; but many of the particulars here instanced in are such as were 
never true of David, and therefore must be appropriated to Christ in the depth 
of his humiliation. 

1. He is here deserted by his friends. " Trouble" and distress "is near, and 
there is none to help," none to uphold, ver. 11. He trod the winepress alone; 
for all his disciples forsook him and fled. It is God's honour to help when all 
other helps and succours fail. 

2. He is here insulted and surrounded by his enemies, such as were of a higher 
rank, who, for their strength and fury, are compared to bulls, strong bulls of 
Bashan, ver. 12, fat and fed to the full, haughty and sour; such were the chief 
priests and elders that persecuted Christ ; and others of a lower rank, who are 
compared to dogs, ver. 16, filthy and greedy, and unwearied in running him 
down. There is an assembly of the wicked plotting against him, ver. 16, for the 

Gr 



98 



PSALM XXII. 



chief priests sat in council to consult of ways and means to take Christ. These 
enemies were numerous and unanimous ; many, and those of different and 
clashing interests among themselves, as Herod and Pilate, yet have agreed to 
compass me. They have carried their plot far, and seem to have gained 
their point, for they have beset me round, ver. 12 ; they have inclosed me, 
ver. 16. They are formidable and threatening; ver. 13, "they gaped upon me 
with their mouths," to show me that they would swallow me up ; and this 
with as much strength and fierceness as a roaring ravening lion leaps upon his 
prey. 

3. He is here crucified. The very manner of his death is described, though 
never in use among the Jews ; " They pierced my hands and my feet, ver. 16, 
which were nailed to the accursed tree, and the whole body left so to hang, the 
effect of which must needs be the most exquisite pain and torture. There is no 
one passage in all the Old Testament which the Jews have so industriously 
corrupted as this, because it is such an eminent prediction of the death of 
Christ, and was so exactly fulfilled. _ 

4. He is here dying, ver. 14, IS; dying in pain and anguish, because he was to 
satisfy for sin, which brought in pain, and for which we must otherwise have 
lain in everlasting anguish. Here is, ist. The dissolution of the whole frame of 
his body ; "I am poured out like water," weak as water, and yielding to the 
power of death, emptying himself of all the supports of his human nature. 
2nd. The dislocation of his bones. Care was taken that not one of them should 
be broken, Jno. xix. 36, but they were all out of joint, by the violent stretching 
of his body upon the cross, as upon a rack. Or, it may note the fear that seized 
him in his agony in the garden, when he began to be sore amazed, the effect ot 
which perhaps was ; (as sometimes it has been, of great fear, Dan. v. 6,) that 
"the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." 
His bones were put out of joint that he might put the whole creation into joint 
again, which sin had put out of j oint, and might make our broken bones to rejoice. 
3rd. The colliquation of his spirits ; " My heart is like wax," melted to receive 
the impressions of God's wrath against the sins he undertook to satisfy for ; 
melting away like the vitals of a dying man ; which, as it satisfied for the hard- 
ness of our hearts, so the consideration of it should help to soften them. AY hen 
Job speaks of his inward trouble, he saith, "The Almighty makes my heart 
soft,"' Job xxiii. 16; and see Ps. lxviii. 2. 4th. The failing of his natural force; 
" My strength is dried up," so that he became parched and brittle " like a pot- 
sherd," the radical moisture being wasted by the fire of Divine wrath preying 
upon his spirits. Who then can stand before God's anger ? or who knows the 
power of it ? " If this were done in the green tree, what shall be done in the 
dry?" 5th. The clamminess of his mouth, a usual symptom of approaching 
death ; " My tongue cleaveth to my jaws." This was fulfilled both in his thirst 
upon the cross, Jno. xix. 28, and in his silence under his sufferings ; for, as a sheep 
before the shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth, nor objected against 
anything done to him. 6th. His giving up the ghost ; " Thou hast brought 
me to the dust of death;" that is, I am just ready to drop into the grave; for 
nothing less would satisfy Divine justice. The life of the sinner was forfeited, 
and therefore the life of the sacrifice must be the ransom for it. The sen- 
tence of death passed upon Adam was thus expressed, " Unto dust thou shalt 
return ; " and therefore Christ, having an eye to that sentence in his obedience 
to death, here useth a like expression, " Thou hast brought me to the dust of 
death." 

5. He was stripped. The shame of nakedness was the immediate consequence 
of sin ; and therefore our Lord Jesus was stripped of his clothes when he was 
crucified, that he might clothe us with the robe of his righteousness, and that 
the shame of our nakedness might not appear. Now here we are told, 1st. How 
his body looked when it was thus stripped ; " I may tell all my bones," ver. 17. 
His blessed body was lean and emaciated with labour, grief and fasting, during 
the whole course of his ministry, which made him look as if he was near fifty 
years old when he was yet but thirty-three, as we find, Jno. viii. 57. His wrinkles 
now witnessed for him that he was far from being what he was called, "a 
gluttonous man, and a winebibber." Or, his bones might be numbered, because 
his body was distended upon the cross, which made it easy to count his ribs: 
& They look and stare upon me," that is, my bones do, being distorted, and 
having no flesh to cover them, as Job saith, Job xvi. 8, "My leanness rising up 
in me, beareth witness to my face." Or, the standers-by, the passers-by, are 
amazed to see my bones start out thus, and, instead of pitying me, are pleased 
even with such a rueful spectacle. 2nd. What they did with his clothes, which 
they took from him ; ver. 18, " They part my garments among them." to every 
soldier a part, "and upon my vesture," the seamless coat, "do they cast lots." 
This very circumstance was exactly fulfilled, Jno. xix. 23, 24 ; and though it was 
no great instance of Christ's suffering, yet it is a great instance of the fulfilling 
of the Scripture in him. Thus it was written, and therefore thus it behoved 
Christ to suffer. Let this therefore confirm our faith in him as the true 



PSALM XXII. 



99 



Messiah, and inflame our love to him, as the best of friends, who loved us, and 
suffered all this for us. 

Secondly. Here is Christ praying, and with that supporting himself under the 
burthen of his sufferings. Christ in his agony prayed, prayed earnestly, prayed 
that the cup might pass from him. When the prince of this world with his 
terrors set upon him, gaped upon him as a roaring lion, he fell upon the ground 
and prayed ; and of that David's praying here was a type. He calls God his 
strength, ver. 19. "When we cannot rejoice in God as our song, yet let us stay 
ourselves upon him as our strength ; and take the comfort of spiritual supports 
w r hen we cannot come at spiritual delights. He prays, 1. That God would be 
with him, and not set himself at a distance from him ; " Be not thou far from 
me," ver. 11 ; and again, ver. 19, Whoever stands aloof from my sore, Lord, do 
not thou. The nearness of trouble should quicken us to draw near to God, and 
then we may hope that he w r ill draw near to us. 2. That he would help him, and 
make haste to help him; help him to bear up under his troubles, that he might 
not fail nor be discouraged, that he might neither shrink from his undertaking 
nor sink under it; and the Father heard him in that he feared, Heb. v. 7, and 
enabled him to go through with his work. 3. That he would deliver him, and 
save him, ver. 20, 21. 1st. Observe what the jewel is which he is in care for; 
The safety of my soul, my darling : let that be redeemed from the power of the 
grave, Ps. xliv. 15 ; Father, into thy hands I commit that, to be conveyed safe 
to paradise. The psalmist here calls his soul his darling, his only one, so the 
word is : My soul is my only one. I have but one soul to take care of, and 
therefore the greater is my shame if I neglect it, and the greater will the loss be 
if I let it perish. Being my only one it ought to be my darling, for the eternal 
welfare of which I ought to be deeply concerned. I do not use my soul as my 
darling unless I take care to preserve it from every thing that would hurt it, 
and to provide all necessaries for it, and be entirely tender of its welfare. 
2nd. Observe wmat the danger is from which he prays to be delivered ; from 
the sword, the flaming sword of Divine wrath, which turns every w r ay. This he 
dreaded more than any thing, Gen. iii. 24. God's anger was the wormwood and 
the gall in the bitter cup that was put into his hands : O deliver my soul from 
that ; Lord, though I lose my life, let me not lose thy love. Save me from the 
power of the dog, and from the lion's mouth. This seems to be meant of Satan, 
that old enemy, that bruised the heel of the seed of the woman, the prince of 
this world, with whom he was to engage in close combat, and whom he saw 
coming, Jno. xiv. 30. Lord, save me from being overpowered by his terrors. He 
pleads, " Thou hast" formerly "heard me from the horns of the unicorn," that 
is, saved me from him in answer to my prayer. Which may refer to the victory 
Christ had obtained over Satan, and his temptations, Mat. iv., when the devil 
left him for a season, Lu. iv. 13, but now returned in another manner to attack 
him with his terrors. Lord, thou gavest me the victory then, give it me now, 
that I may spoil principalities and powers, and cast out the prince of this world. 
Has God delivered us from the horns of the unicorn, that we be not tossed? Let 
that encourage us to hope that we shall be delivered from the lion's mouth, that 
we be not torn. He that has delivered doth and will. This prayer of Christ 
no doubt was answered, for the Father heard him always ; and, though he did 
not deliver him from death, yet he suffered him not to see corruption, but the 
third day raised him out of the dust of death, which was a greater instance of 
God's favour to him than if he had helped him down from the cross ; for that 
would have baulked his undertaking, whereas his resurrection crowned it. 

In singing this we should meditate on the sufferings and resurrection of 
Christ, till we experience in our own souls the power of his resurrection, and 
the fellowship of his sufferings. 

22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren : 

In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. 

23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him ; 
All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him , 
And fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. 

24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of 

the afflicted ; 
Neither hath he hid his face from him ; 
But when he cried unto him, he heard. 

25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation : 
I will pay my vows before them that fear him. 



100 



PSALM XXII. 



26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied : 
They shall praise the Lord that seek him : 
Your heart shall live for ever. 

27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto 



And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before 

28 For the kingdom is the Lord's : 

And he is the. governor among the nations. 

29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship : 
All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him : 
And none can keep alive his own soul. 

BOA seed shall serve him ; 

It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. 
3 1 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness 

Unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. 

The same that began the psalm complaining, who was no other than Christ in 
his humiliation, ends it here triumphing, and it can be no other than Christ in 
his exaltation. And, as the first words of the complaint were used by Christ 
himself upon the cross, so the first words of the triumph are expressly applied 
to him, Heb. ii. 12, and are made his own words : " I will declare thy name unto 
my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." The cer- 
tain prospect which Christ had of the joy set before him not only gave him a 
satisfactory answer to his prayers, but turned his complaints into praises. He 
saw of the travail of his soul and was well satisfied; witness that triumphant 
word wherewith he breathed his last, " It is finished." Five things are here 
spoken of, the view of which was the satisfaction and triumph of Christ in his 
sufferings. 

First. That he should have a church in the world, and those that were given 
him from eternity should, in the fulness of time, be gathered in to him. This is 
implied here, that he should see his seed, Isa. liii. 10. It pleased him to think, 
1. That by the declaring of God's name, that is, by the preaching of the ever- 
lasting Gospel in its plainness and purity, many should be effectually called to 
him and to God by him. And for this end ministers should be employed to 
publish this doctrine to the world, who should be so much his messengers and 
his voice, that their doing it should be accounted his doing it ; their word is his, 
and by them he declares God's name. 2. That those who are thus called in 
should be brought into a very near and dear relation to him, as his brethren ; 
for he is not only not ashamed, but greatly well pleased to call them so ; not the 
believing Jews only, his countrymen, but those of the Gentiles also, who became 
fellow heirs, and of the same body, Heb. ii. 11. Christ is our elder brother, who 
takes care of us, and makes provision for us, and expects that our desire should 
be towards him, and that we be willing he should rule over us. 3. That these 
brethren of his should be incorporated into a congregation, a great congrega- 
tion. Such is the universal church, the whole family that is named from him, 
into which all the children of God that were scattered abroad are collected, and 
in which they are united, Jno. xi. 52; JEph. i. 10. And that they should also be 
incorporated into lesser societies, members of that great body, many religious 
assemblies for Divine worship, on which the face of Christianity should appear, 
and in which the interests of it should be supported and advanced. 4. That 
these should be accounted the seed of Jacob and Israel, ver. 23 ; that on them, 
though Gentiles, the blessing of Abraham might come, Gal. iii. 14 ; and to them 
might pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenant, and the service of God, as 
much as ever it did to Israel according to the flesh, Rom. ix. 4; Heb. viii. 10. 
The Gospel church is called the Israel of God, Gal. vi. 6. 

Secondly. That God should be greatly honoured and glorified in him by that 
church, flis Fathers glory was that which he had in his eye throughout his 
whole undertaking, Jno. xvii. 4, particularly in his sufferings, which he entered 
upon with this solemn request, '^Father, glorify thy name," Jno. xii. 27, 28. He 
foresees with pleasure, 

1. That God would be glorified by the church that should be gathered to him; 
and for that end they should be called and gathered in, that they might be unto 



the Lord : 



[thee. 



PSALM XXII. 



101 



God for a name and a praise. Christ by his ministers will declare God's name 
to his brethren, as God's mouth to them ; and then by them, as the mouth of the 
congregation to <^od, will God's name be praised. All that fear the Lord will 
praise him, ver. 23, even every Israelite indeed : see Ps. cxviii. 2—4; exxxv. 19, 20. 
The business of Christians, particularly in their solemn religious assemblies, 
is to praise and glorify God, with a holy awe and reverence of his majesty; 
and therefore tbey that are here called upon to praise God are called upon to 
fear him. 

2. That God would be glorified in the Redeemer, and in his undertaking. 
Therefore Christ is said to praise God in the church, not only because he is the 
Master of the assemblies in which God is praised, and the Mediator of all the 
praises that are offered up to God, but because he is the matter of the church's 
praise : see Eph. iii, 21. All our praises must centre in the work of redemption, 
and a great leal of reason we have to be thankful, 1st. That Jesus Christ was 
owned by his Father in his undertaking, notwithstanding the apprehension he 
was sometimes under that his Father had forsaken him ; ver. 24, " For he hath 
not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted" one, that is, of the 
suffering Redeemer; but has graciously accepted it as a full satisfaction for sin, 
and a valuable consideration on which to ground the grant of eternal life to all 
believers. Though it was offered to us poor sinners, he did not despise or abhor 
it for our sakes, nor did he turn his face from him that offered it, as Saul was 
angry with his own son, because he interceded for David, whom he looked upon 
as his enemy. But when he cried unto him, when his blood cried for peace and 
pardon for us, he heard him. This, as it is the matter of our rejoicing, ought 
to be the matter of our thanksgiving. Those who have thought their prayers 
slighted and unheard, yet, if they continue to pray and wait, will find they have 
not sought in vain. 2nd. That he himself will go on with his undertaking and 
complete it. Christ saith, " I will pay my vows," ver. 25. Having engaged to 
bring many sons to glory, he will perform his engagement to the utmost, and 
will lose none. 

Thirdly. That all humble gracious souls should have a full satisfaction and 
happiness in him, ver. 26. It comforted the Lord Jesus in his sufferings, that in 
and through him all true believers should have everlasting consolation. 1. The 
poor in spirit shall be rich in blessings, spiritual blessings ; the hungry shall be 
filled with good things. Christ's sacrifice being accepted, the saints shall feast, 
upon the sacrifice, as under the law upon the peace offerings, and so partake 
of the altar. " The meek shall eat and be satisfied," eat of the bread of life, 
feed with an appetite upon the doctrine of Christ's mediation ; which is meat 
and drink to the soul that knows its own nature and case. They that hunger 
and thirst after righteousness in Christ shall have all they can desire to satisfy 
them, and make them easy, and shall not labour as they have done for that 
which satisfieth not. 2. They that are much in praying shall be much in thanks- 
giving. "They shall praise the Lord that seek him," because through Christ 
they are sure of finding him ; in the hopes of which they have reason to praise 
him, even while they are seeking him. And the more earnest they are in seeking 
him, the more will their hearts be enlarged in his praises when they have found 
him. 3. The souls that are devoted to him shall be for ever happy with him ; 
"Your heart shall live for ever." Yours that are meek, that are satisfied in 
Christ, that continue to seek God, whatever becomes of your bodies, your hearts 
shall live for ever ; the graces and comforts you have shall be perfected in ever- 
lasting life. Christ has said, "Because I live, you shall live also," Jno. xiv. 19 ; 
and therefore that life shall be as sure, and as long as his. 

Fourthly. That the church of Christ, and with it the kingdom of God among 
men, should extend itself to all corners of the earth, and should take in all sorts 
of people. 

1. That it should reach far, ver. 27, 28. That whereas the Jews had long been 
the only professing people of God, now "all the ends of the world should" 
come into the church, and, the partition wall being taken down, the Gentiles 
should be taken in. It is here prophesied, 1st. That they should be converted; 
They shall "remember and turn to the Lord." Note, Serious reflection is the 
first step, and a good step it is towards true conversion. We must consider and 
turn. The prodigal came first to himself, and then to his father. 2nd. That 
then they should be admitted into communion with God, and with the assem- 
blies that serve him; "They shall worship before thee," for "in every place 
incense shall be offered to God," Mai. i. 11 ; Isa. lxvi. 23. Those that turn to 
pod will make conscience of worshipping before him. And good reason there 
is why all the kindreds of the nations should do homage to God, for, ver. 28, 
"The kingdom is the Lord's;" his, and his only, is the universal monarchy. 
First. The kingdom of nature is the Lord Jehovah's, and his providence rules 
among the nations, and upon that account we are bound to worship him; so 
that the design of the Christian religion is to revive natural religion, and the 
principles and laws of it. Christ d.ed to bring us to God, the God that made 
we had revolted, and reduce us to our native allegiance. 



102 



PSALM XXIII. 



Secondly. The kingdom of grace is the Lord Christ's, and he, as Mediator, 
is appointed governor among the nations ; head over all things to his church. 
Let every tongue therefore confess that he is Lord. 

2. That it should include many of different ranks, ver. 29 : high and low, rich 
and poor, bond and free, meet in Christ. 1st. Christ shall have the homage of 
many of the great ones. " They that be fat upon earth/' that live in pomp and 
power, they "shall eat and worship;" even they that fare deliriously, when 
they have eaten and are full, shall bless the Lord their God for their plenty 
and prosperity. 2nd. The poor also shall receive his Gospel. Those that go 
down to the dust, that sit in the dust, Ps. cxiii. 7, that can scarce keep life and 
soul together, they shall bow before the Lord Jesus, who reckons it his honour 
to be the poor man's King, Ps. lxxii. 12 ; and whose protection doth in a special 
manner draw their allegiance. Or this may be understood in general of dying 
men, whether poor or rich. See then what is our condition : we are going down 
to the dust, to which we are sentenced, and where shortly we must make our 
bed : nor can we keep alive our own souls, we cannot secure our own natural 
life long ; nor can we be the authors of our own spiritual and eternal life. It is, 
therefore, our great interest, as well as duty, to bow before the Lord Jesus, 
to give up ourselves to him to be his subjects, and worshippers; for this is the 
only way, and it is a sure way. to secure our happiness, when we go down to the 
dust. Seeing we cannot keep alive our own souls, it is our wisdom by an 
obedient faith to commit our souls to Jesus Christ, who is able to save them, 
and keep them alive for ever. 

Fifthly. That the church of Christ, and with it the kingdom of God among 
men, shall continue to the end through all the ages of time. Mankind is kept 
up in a succession of generations ; so that there is always a generation passing 
away, and a generation coming up. Now, as Christ shall have honour from that 
which is passing away, and leaving the world, ver. 29, they that go down to the 
dust shall bow before nimj and it is good to die bowing before Christ. Blessed 
are the dead who thus die m the Lord ; so he shall have honour from that w inch 
is rising up and setting out in the world, ver. 30. Observe, 

1. Their application to Christ; "A seed shall serve him," that is, shall keep 
up the solemn worship of him, and profess and practise obedience to him as 
their Master and Lord. Note, God will have a church in the world to the end 
of time ; and, in order to that, there shall be a succession of professing Chris- 
tians, and Gospel ministers, from generation to generation. "A seed shall 
serve him," that is, there shall be a remnant more or less to whom shall pertain 
the service of God, and to whom God will give grace to serve him. Perhaps 
not the seed of the same persons, for grace doth not run in a blood ; he doth 
not say their seed, but a seed. Perhaps but few, yet enough to preserve the 
entail. 

2. Christ's acknowledgment of them; "They shall be accounted to him for 
a generation," that is, he will be the same to them that he was to those who 
went before them. His kindness to his friends shall not die with them, but 
shall be drawn out to their heirs and successors: and instead of the fathers shall 
be the children, whom all shall acknowledge to be u a seed that the Lord hath 
blessed," Isa. lxi. 9; lxv. 23. The generation of the righteous God will graciously 
own as his treasure, his children. 

3. Their agency for him; ver. 31, "They shall come," shall rise up in their 
day, not only to keep up the virtue of the generation that is past, and to do the 
work of their own generation ; but to serve the honour of Christ, and the 
welfare of souls in the generations to come. They shall transmit to them the 
Gospel of Christ (that sacred depositum) pure and entire, even "to a people 
that shall be born" hereafter; to them they shall declare two things : 1st. That 
there is an everlasting righteousness, which Jesus Christ hath brought in. This 
righteousness of his, and not any of our own, they shall declare to_ be the 
foundation of all our hopes, and the fountain of all our joys : see Rom. i. 16 ? 17. 
2nd. That the work of our redemption by Christ is the Lord's own doing, 
Ps. cxviii. 23 ; and no contrivance of ours. This we must declare to our 
children, "that God has done this." It is his wisdom in a mystery, it is his arm 
revealed. 

In singing this, we must triumph in the name of Christ, as above every name; 
must give him honour ourselves ; rejoice in the honours others do himj and in 
the assurance we have that there shall be a people praising him on earth when 
we are praising him in heaven. 



PSALM XXIII. 

Many of David's psalms are full of complaints, but this is full of comforts, and the 
expressions of delight in God's great goodness and dependence upon him. It is a 
psalm which has been sung by good Christians, and will be while the world stands, 



PSALM XXIII. 



103 



with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. I. The psalmist here claims relation to 
God as his shepherd, ver. 1. II. He recounts his experience of the kind things God 
had done for him, as his shepherd, ver. 2, 3, 5. III. From hence he infers, that he 
should want no good, ver. 1 ; that he needed to fear no evil, ver. 4 ; that he would 
never leave or forsake him in a way of mercy, and therefore he resolves never to leave 
or forsake God in the way of duty, ver. 6 ; and in this certainly he has an eye, not only 
to the blessings of God's providence, which made his outward condition prosperous, 
but to the communications of God's grace, received by a lively faith, and returned in a 
warm devotion, which fills his soul with joy unspeakable ; and, as in the foregoing 
psalm he represented Christ dying for his sheep, so here he represents Christians 
receiving the benefit of all the care and tenderness of that great and good Shepherd. 

A Psaim of David. 

THE Lord is my shepherd ; 
I shall not want. 

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures : 
He leadeth me beside the still waters. 

3 He restoreth my soul : [name's sake. 
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his 

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
I will fear no evil : for thou art with me ; [death, 
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine 
Thou amintest my head with oil ; [enemies : 
My cup runneth over. 

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days 

of my life : 

And I will dvell in the house of the Lord for ever. 

From three very comiortable premises, David in this psalm draws three very 
comfortable conclusions, and teaches us to do so too. We are saved by hope, 
and therefore that hope yiU not make us ashamed, because it is well grounded. 
It is the duty of Christians to encourage themselves in the Lord their God; 
and we are here directed to take that encouragement, both from the relation 
wherein he stands to us, anl. from the experience we have had of his goodness 
according to that relation. 

First. From God's being H s Shepherd he infers that he shall not want any 
thing that is good for him, vei i. See here, 

1. The great care that God t-kes of believers. He is their Shepherd, and they 
may call hira so. Time was wfen David was himself a shepherd, he was taken 
from following the ewes great vith young, Ps. lxxviii. 70 ; and so he knew by 
experience the cares and tende. affections of a good shepherd towards his 
flock; he remembered what neeothey had of a shepherd, and what a kindness 
it was to them to have one that \ a s skilful and faithful: he once ventured his 
life to rescue a lamb. By this, therefore, he illustrates God's care of his people ; 
and to this our Saviour seems to r*f e r, when he saith, " I am the Shepherd of 
the sheep ; the good Shepherd," Jnc x . 11. He that is the Shepherd of Israel, 
that is, of the whole church in gene a l, p s . lxxx. 1, is the Shepherd of every 
particular believer; the meanest is n>t below his cognizance, Isa. xl. 11. He 
takes them into his fold, and then taks care of them : protects them, and pro- 
vides for them with more care and con^ancy than a shepherd can, that makes 
it his business to keep the rlock. If Go^ be as a Shepherd to us, we must be as 
sheep, inoffensive, meek and quiet, silen before the shearers, nay, and before 
the butcher too, useful and sociable ; we trust know the Shepherd's voice, and 
follow him. 

2. The great confidence which believer. have in God. If "the Lord is my 
Shepherd," my feeder, I may conclude, " T shall not want'' anything that is 
really necessary and good for me. If D^id penned this psalm before his 
coming to the crown, though destined to he had as much reason to fear 
wanting as any man. Once he sent his mei a begging for him to Nabal, and 
another time went himself a begging to Ahimdech ; and yet, when he considers 
that God is his Shepherd, he can boldly say, <k " shall not want." Let not those 
fear starving that are at God's finding, and hae him for their feeder. More is 



104 PSALM XXIII. 

implied than is expressed ; not only " I shall not want," but I shall be supplied 
with whatever I need; and if I have not everv thing I desire, I mav conclude 
it is either not fit for me, or not good for me, or I shall have it in due time. 

Secondly. From his performing the office of a good Shepherd to him. he 
infers that he needs not fear any evil in the greatest dangers and difficulties 
he could be in, ver. 2—4. He experienceth the benefit of God's presence with 
him, and care of him now, and therefore expects the benefit of them when he 
most needs it. See here, 

1. The comforts of a living saint. God is his Shepherd, and he is to him 
a God all-sufficient to all intents and purposes ; David found him so, and so 
have we. See the happiness of the saints as the sheep of God's pasture. 

1st. They are well placed, well laid: "He maketh me to lie down in green 
pastures." "We have the supports and comforts of this life from God's good 
hand ; our daily bread from him as our Father. The greatest abundance is but 
a dry pasture to a wicked man, who relisheth that only in it which pleaseth the 
senses; but to a godly man, who tasteth the goodness of God in all his enjoy- 
ments, and by faith relisheth that, though he has but little of the world, it is to 
him a green pasture, Ps. xxxvii. 16; Pr. xv. 16, 17. God's ordinances are the 
green pastures, in which food is provided for all believers; the word of life is 
the nourishment of the new man. It is milk for babes, pasture for the sheep ; 
never barren, never eaten bare, never parched, but always a green pasture for 
faith to feed in. God makes his saints to lie down, that'is, he gives them quiet 
and contentment in their own minds, whatever their lot is ; their souls dvell at 
ease in him, and that makes every pasture green. Are we blessed with the 
green pastures of the ordinances, let us not think it enough to pass through 
them, but let us lie down in them, abide in them ; This is my rest for ever. It is 
by a constancy of the means of grace that the soul is fed. 

2nd. They are well guided, well led. The Shepherd of Israel guiieth Joseph 
like a flock ; and every believer is under the same conduct : " H^ ieadeth me 
beside the still waters." Those that feed oa God's goodness, nrust follow his 
direction: he leads them by his providence, by his Word, by his Spirit, disposeth 
their affairs for the best according to his counsel; disposeth their affections 
and actions according to his command; directs their eye, th#r way, and their 
heart into his love. The still waters by which he leads thfm yield them not 
only a pleasant prospect, but many a cooling draught, many a reviving cordial, 
when they are thirsty and weary. God provides for his people, not only food 
and rest, but refreshment also and pleasure. The consolations of God, the 
joys of the Holy Ghost, are these still waters by whicl the saints are led; 
streams which flow from the fountain of living waters, md make glad the city 
of our God. God leads his people, not to the standin/ waters which corrupt 
and gather filth, not to the troubled sea, nor to the japid, rolling floods, but 
to the silent, purling waters; for the still but running waters agree best with 
those spirits that flow out towards God, and yet doit silently. This Divine 
conduct they are under is stripped of its metaphor ; ver. 3, " He Ieadeth me in 
the paths of righteousness," that is, in the way of m duty, in that he instructs 
me by his word, and directs me by conscience and providence. These are the 
paths* in which all the saints desire to be led and^ept, and never to turn aside 
out of them; and those only are led by the still.waters of comfort that walk 
in the paths of righteousness. The way of dut^is the truly pleasant way: it 
is the work of righteousness that is peace, h these paths we cannot walk, 
unless God both lead us into them and lead us i* them. 

3rd. They are well helped when any thing ai£ them ; He restoreth my soul." 
that is, First. He reduceth me when I wander. No creature will lose itself 
sooner than a sheep, so apt it is to go astray,and then so unapt to find the way 
back. The best saints are sensible of ther/ proneness to "go astray like lost 
sheep ;" Ps. cxix. 176. They miss their wa/> and turn aside into bypaths; but 
when God shews them their error, gives tb*ni repentance, and brings them back 
to their duty again, he restoreth the sou 7 ; and if he did not do so they would 
wander endlessly, and be undone. Wftn after one sin David's heart smote 
him, and after another Nathan was sentto tell him, Thou art the man," God 
restored his soul. Though God may s/ffer his people to fall into sin, he will 
not suffer them to lie still in it. Secj-dly. He recovereth me when I am sick, 
and revives me when I am faint: an^so restores the soul which was ready to 
depart. He is the Lord our God thA healeth us, Ex. xv. 26 ; many a time we 
had fainted unless we had believed/ and it was the good Shepherd that kept 
us from fainting. / . . . ■ 

2. See here the courage of a dyin/ saint, ver. 4. Having had such experience 
of God's goodness to me all my a>ys ; in six troubles and in seven. I will never 
distrust him, no, not in the last eternity. The rather, because all he has done 
for me hitherto was not for an/ merit or desert of mine, but purely for his 
name's sake ; in pursuance of h/ word, in performance of his promise, and for 
the glory of his own attribute ^nd relations to his people. That name, 
therefore, shall still be my str/hg tower, and shall assure me that he that has 



PSALM XXIII. 



105 



led me and fed me all my life long will not leave me at last. Here is, 

1st. Imminent danger supposed ; " Though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death;" that is, though I am in peril of death, though in the midst 
of dangers, deep as a valley, dark as a shadow, and dreadful as death itself,— or, 
rather, though I am under the arrests of death, have received the sentence 
of death within myself, and have all the reason in the world to look upon myself 
as a dying man,— yet I am easy. Those that are sick, those that are old, have 
reason to look upon themselves as "in the valley of the shadow of death." Here 
is one word indeed which sounds terrible,— it is death ; which we must all count 
upon,— there is no discharge in that war. But even in the supposition of the 
distress, there are four words which lessen the terror. It is death indeed that 
is before us ; but, First. It is but the shadow of death, there is no substantial 
evil in it ; the shadow of a serpent will not sting, nor the shadow of a sword 
kill. Secondly. It is the valley of the shadow, deep indeed, and dark, and 
dirty, but the valleys are fruitful ; and so is death itself fruitful of comforts to 
God's people. Thirdly. It is but a walk in this valley, a gentle, pleasant walk. 
The wicked are chased out of the world, and their souls are required; but the 
saints take a walk to another world as cheerfully as they take their leave of 
this. Fourthly. It is a walk through it ; they shall not be lost in this valley, but 
get safe to the mountain of spices on the other side it. 

2nd. This danger made light of and triumphed over upon good grounds. 
Death is a king of terrors, but not to the sheep of Christ ; they tremble at it 
no more than sheep do that "are appointed for the slaughter." Even in "the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil," none of these things move 
me. Note, A child of God may meet the messengers of death, and receive its 
summons with a holy security and serenity of mind. The sucking child may 
play upon the hole of this asp ; and the weaned child, that through grace is 
weaned from this world, may put his hand upon this cockatrice's den, bidding 
a holy defiance to death, as Paul, " O death, where is thy sting?" And there is 
ground enough for this confidence, First. Because there is no evil in it to a child 
of God. Death cannot separate us from the love of God, and therefore it can do 
us no real harm ; it kills the body, but cannot touch the soul. And what need 
it be dreadful, when there is nothing in it hurtful? Secondly. Because the 
saints have God's gracious presence with them in their dying moments. He is 
then at their right hand, and therefore w r hat need they be moved? The good 
Shepherd will not only conduct, but convey his sheep through this valley, 
where they are in danger of being set upon by the beasts of prey, the evening 
wolves ; he will not only convey them, but comfort them then when they most 
need comfort. His presence shall comfort them, "Thou art with me;" his 
Word and Spirit shall comfort them ; his rod and staff, alluding to the shepherd's 
crook, or the rod under which the sheep passed when they w r ere counted, 
Lev. xxvii. 32; or the staff with which the shepherds drove away the dogs 
that would scatter or worry the sheep. It is a comfort to the saints when they 
come to die that God takes cognizance of them, he knows them that are his ; 
that he will rebuke the enemy ; that he will guide them with his rod, and sustain 
them with his staff. The Gospel is called the rod of Christ's strength, Ps. ex. 2: 
and there is enough in that to comfort the saints when they come to die, and 
underneath them are the everlasting arms. 

Thirdly. From the good gifts of God's bounty to him now he infers the 
constancy and perpetuity of his mercy, ver. 5, 6. Where w r e may observe, 

1. How highly he magnifies God's gracious vouchsafements to him ; ver. 5, 
" Thou hast prepared a table before me ;" thou hast provided for me all things 
pertaining both to life and godliness ; all things requisite both for body and 
soul, for time and eternity. Such a bountiful benefactor is God to all his 

Eeople ; and it becomes them abundantly to utter his great goodness, as David 
ere, who acknowledgeth, 1st. That he had food convenient, a table spread, 
a cup filled, meat for his hunger, drink for his thirst. 2nd. That he had it 
carefully and readily provided for him. His table was not spread with any 
thing that came next to hand, but prepared, and prepared before him. 3rd. 
That he was not stinted, was not straitened, but had abundance ; " My cup 
runs over;" enough for myself and my friends too. 4th. That he had not only 
for necessity, but for ornament and delight. " Thou anointest my head with 
oil." Samuel anointed him king, which was a certain pledge of farther favour ; 
but this is rather an instance of the plenty with which God had blessed him ; 
or an allusion to the extraordinary entertainment of special friends, whose 
heads they anointed with oil, Lu. vii. 46. Kay, some think, he still looks upon 
himself as a sheep, but such a one as the poor man's ewe lamb, 2 Sam. xii. 3, 
that did "eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom." 
Not only thus nobly, but thus tenderly, are the children of God looked after. 
Plentiful provision is made for their bodies, for their souls, for the life that 
now is, and for that Avhich is to come. If Providence do not bestow upon us 
thus plentifully for our natural life, it is our own fault if it be not made up to 
us in spiritual blessings. 



106 PSALM XXIV. 

2. How confidently he counts upon the continuance of God's favours, ver. 6. 
He had said, ver. 1, J shall not want," but now he speaks more positively, more 
comprehensively : " Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days 
of my life." His hope riseth, and his faith is strengthened by being acted. 
Observe, 1st. What he promiseth himself. " Goodness and mercy;" that is, all 
the streams of it flowing from the fountain ; pardoning mercy, protecting 
mercy, sustaining, supplying mercy. 2nd. The manner of the conveyance of it. 
It " shall follow me, : ' as the water out of the rock followed the camp of Israel 
through the wilderness ; it shall follow them into all places and all conditions, 
shall be always ready to them. 3rd. The continuance of it. It shall follow 
me all my life long, even to the last : for whom God loves he loves to the end. 
4th. The constancy of it. "All the days of my life," as duly as the day comes ; 
it shall be new every morning, Lam. iii. 22, 23 ; like the manna that was given 
to the Israelites daily. 5th. The certainty of it. " Surely" it shall. It is as sure 
as the promise of the God of truth can make it ; and we know whom we have 
believed. 6th. Here is a prospect of the perfection of bliss in the future state, 
so some take the latter clause. Goodness and mercy having followed me all 
the days of my life on this earth, when that is ended, 1 shall remove to a better 
world, to " dwell in the house of the Lord for ever," in our Father's house 
above, where there are many mansions. 'With what I have, 1 am pleased much; 
with what I hope for, more.' All this, and heaven too! Then we serve a 
good Master. 

3. How resolutely he determines to cleave to God and to his duty. We read 
the last clause as David's covenant with God ; " I will dwell in the house of the 
Lord for ever," that is, as long as I live, and I will praise him while i have 
any being. We must dwell in his house as servants that desire to have their 
ears bored to his door-post, to serve him for ever. If God's goodness to us be 
like the morning light, which shines more and more to the perfect day. let not 
ours to him be like the morning cloud and the early dew that passetli away. 
Those that would be satisfied with the fatness of God's house must keep close 
to the duties of it. 

PSALM XXIY. 

This psalm is concerning the kingdom of Jesus Christ. I. His providential kingdom, 
by which he rules the world, 1, 2. II. The kingdom of grace, by which he rules in his 
church. 1. Concerning the subjects of that kingdom; their character, ver. 3, 4, 6 ; 
their charter, ver. 5. 2. Concerning the king of that kingdom, and a summons to 
all to give him admission, ver. 7 — 10. It is supposed that the psalm was penned 
upon occasion of David's bringing up the ark to the place prepared for it ; and that 
the intention of it was to lead the people above the pomp of external ceremonies to 
a holy life and faith in Christ, of whom the ark was a type. 

A Psalm of David. 

THE earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof ; 
The world, and they that dwell therein. 
2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, 
And established it upon the floods. 

Here is, First. God's absolute propriety in this part of the creation, where 
our lot is cast, ver. 1. \V r e are not to think that "the heavens, even the heavens" 
only, "are the Lord's," and the numerous and bright inhabitants of the upper 
world; and that this earth, being so small and inconsiderable a part of the 
creation, and at such a distance from the royal palace above, is neglected, and 
that he claims no interest in it. No, even the earth is his, and this lower 
world ; and though he has prepared the throne of his glory in the heavens, 
yet his kingdom ruleth over all; and even the worms of this earth are not 
below r his cognizance, nor from under his dominion. 

1 . When God gave the earth to the children of men, he still reserved to him- 
self the property, and only let it out to them as tenants or usufructuaries. 
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" the mines that are lodged 
in the bowels of it, even the richest; the fruits it produceth; all the beasts of 
the forest, and the cattle upon a thousand hills ; our lands and houses, and all 
the improvements that are made of this earth by the skill and industry of man ; 
they are all his. These indeed, in the kingdom of grace, are justly looked upon 
as emptiness, for they are vanity of vanities, nothing to a soul : mit in the king- 
dom of providence they are fulness. "The earth is full of God's riches, so is 
the great and wide sea also." All the parts and regions of the earth are the 
Lord's, all under his eye, all in his hand, so that wherever a child of God ^roes 
he may comfort himself with this, that he doth not go off his father's ground. 



PSALM XXIV. 107 

That which falls to our share of the earth and its products is but lent to us ; 
it is the Lord's ; what is our own against all the world is not so against his 
claims. That which is most remote from us, as that which passeth through 
the paths of the sea, or is hid in the bottom of it, is the Lord's ; and he knows 
where to find it. 

2. The habitable part of this earth is his in a special manner; Pr. viii. 31, 
" The world, and they that dwell therein." We ourselves are not our own, — our 
bodies, our souls, are not ; " All souls are mine," saith God ; for he is the former 
of our bodies, and the father of our spirits. Our tongues are not our own ; 
they are to be at his service. Even those of the children of men are his that 
know him not, nor own their relation to him. Now this comes in here to shew 
that, though God is graciously pleased to accept the devotions and services 
of his peculiar chosen people, ver. 3 — 5, it is not because he needs them, or can 
be benefited by them, for the earth is his, and all in it, Ex. xix. 5 ; Ps. 1. 12. 
It is likewise to be applied to the dominion Christ hath as Mediator over the 
utmost parts of the earth, which are given him for his possession. "The Father 
loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand,— power over all flesh." 
The apostle quotes this scripture twice together, in his discourse about things 
offered to idols, 1 Cor. x. 26, 28. If it be sold in the shambles, eat it, and ask 
no questions, " for the earth is the Lord's ; " it is God's good creature, and you 
have a right to it ; but if one tell you, it was offered to an idol, forbear, "for 
the earth is the Lord's," and there is enough beside. This is a good reason 
why we should be content with our allotment in this world, and not envy 
others theirs ; " the earth is the Lord's," and may he not do what he will w 7 itn 
his own, and give to some more of it, to others less, as it pleaseth him ? 

Secondly. The ground of this propriety. The earth is his by an indisputable 
title; "for he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the 
floods," ver. 2. It is his; for, 1. He made it, formed it, founded it, and fitted 
it for the use of man. The matter his ; for he made it out of nothing. The 
form his ; for he made it according to the eternal counsels and ideas of his own 
mind. He made it himself ; he made it for himself ; so that he is sole, entire, 
and absolute owner ; and none can let us a title to any part of it but by, from, 
and under him: see Ps. lxxxix. 11, 12. 2. He made it so as no one else could. 
It is the creature of Omnipotence ; for it is founded upon the seas, upon the 
floods ; a weak and unstable foundation, one would think, to build the earth 
upon ; and yet, if Almighty Power pleaseth, it shall serve to bear the weight 
of this earth. The waters which at first covered the earth, and rendered it 
unfit to be a habitation for man, were ordered under it, that the dry land might 
appear, and so they are as a foundation to it : see Ps. civ. 8, 9. 3. He continues 
it ; he hath established it, fixed it, so that, though one generation passeth and 
another cometh, the earth abideth, Eccl. i. 4; and his providence is a con- 
tinued creation, Ps. cxix. 90. The founding of the earth upon the floods should 
mind us how slippery and uncertain all earthly things are. Their foundation 
is not only sand, but water ; it is therefore our folly to build upon them. 

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? 
Or who shall stand in his holy place ? 

4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart ; 

Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn 
deceitfully. 

5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, 
And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 

6 This is the generation of them that seek him, 
That seek thy face, 0 Jacob. Selah. 

From this world, and the fulness thereof, the psalmist's meditations rise 
of a sudden to the great things of another world, the foundation of which is 
not on the seas, nor on the floods. The things of this world God hath given 
to the children of men, and we are much indebted to his providence for them ; 
but they will not make a portion for us. And. therefore, 
First. Here is an inquiry after better things,' ver. 3. This earth is God's foot- 

I stool ; but, if we had never so much of it, we must be here but a while, must 

I shortly go hence, and " Who then shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? " 

j vV ho shall go to heaven hereafter, and, as an earnest of that, shall have com- 
munion with God in holy ordinances now? A soul that knows and considers 

1 Its own nature, original, and immortality, when it has viewed the earth and the 
fulness thereof, will sit down unsatisfied. There is not found among all the 



108 



PSALM XXIV. 



creatures a help meet for man, and therefore it will think of ascending towards 
God, towards heaven ; will ask, what shall I do to rise to that high place, that 
hill where the Lord dwells, and manifests himself, that I may be acquainted 
with him ; and to abide in that happy, holy place where he meets his people, 
and makes them holy and happy? What shall I do that I may be of those 
whom God owns for his peculiar people, and who are his in another manner 
than the earth is his and its fulness ? This question is much the same with 
that Ps. xv. 1. The hill of Zion, on which the temple was built, typified the 
church both visible and invisible. When the people attended the ark to its holy 
place, David puts them in mind that these were but patterns of heavenly 
things, and therefore by them they should be led to consider the heavenly 
things themselves. 

Secondly. An answer to this inquiry. In which we have, 

1. The property of God's peculiar people, who shall have communion with 
him in grace and glory. 

1st. 1 hey are such as keep themselves from all the gross acts of sin. They 
have clean hands ; not spotted with the pollutions of the w r orld and the flesh. 
None that were ceremonially unclean might enter into the mountain of the 
temple, which signified that cleanness of conversation which is required in all 
those that have fellowship with God. The hands lifted up in prayer must be 
pure hands; no blot of unjust gain cleaving to them, nor any thing else that 
aefiles the man, and is offensive to the holy God. 

2nd. They are such as make conscience of being really, that is, of being 
inwardly, as good as they seem to be outwardly. They have pure hearts. 
And w r e make nothing of our religion if we do not make heart- work of it. It 
is not that our hands be clean before men, but we must also w r ash our hearts 
from wickedness, and not allow ourselves in any secret heart-impurities, which 
are open before the eye of God. Yet in vain do those pretend to have pure 
and good hearts whose hands are defiled with the acts of sin. That is a pure 
heart wmich is sincere and without guile in covenanting with God; which is 
carefully guarded, that the wicked one. the unclean spirit, touch it not ; which 
is purified by faith, and conformed to the image and will of God : see Mat. v. 8. 

3rd. They are such as do not set their affections upon the things of this 
world ; that do not lift up their souls unto vanity ; whose hearts are not 
carried out inordinately towards the wealth of the world, the praise of men, 
or the delights of sense ; who do not choose these things for their portion, nor 
reach forth after them, because they believe them to be vanity, uncertain, and 
unsatisfying. 

4th. They are such as deal honestly both with God and man. In their cove- 
nant with God, and their contracts with men, they have not sworn deceitfully, 
not broken their promises, violated their engagements, or taken any false oath. 
Those that have no regard to the obligations of truth, or the honour of God's 
name, are unfit for a place in God's holy hill. 

5th. They are a praying people; ver. 6, " This is the generation of them that 
seek him." In every age there is a remnant of such as these, men of this 
character, that are " accounted to the Lord for a generation," Ps. xxii. 30 ; and 
they are such as " seek God, that seek thy face, O Jacob ! " First. They join 
themselves to God to seek him; not only in earnest prayer, but in serious 
endeavour to obtain his favour, and keep themselves in his love ; that having 
made it the top of their happiness, make it the top of their ambition, to be 
accepted of him, and therefore take care and take pains to approve themselves 
to him. It is to the hill of the Lord that we must ascend ; and, the way being 
uphill, we have need to put forth ourselves to the utmost as those that seek 
diligently. Secondly. They join themselves to the people of God ; to seek God 
with them. Being brought into communion with God, they come into the com- 
munion of saints ; conforming to the patterns of the saints that are gone before, 
so some understand this. They seek God's face as Jacob, so some, who was 
therefore sirnamed Israel, because he wrestled with God and prevailed, — 
sought him and found him. And associating with the saints of their own day, 
they shall court the favour of God's church, Rev. iii. 9 ; shall be glad of an 
acquaintance with God's people, Zee. viii. 23 : shall incorporate themselves 
with them; and, when they " subscribe with their hand to the Lord," shall 
" call themselves by the name of Jacob," Isa. xliv. 5. As soon as ever Paul 
was converted, he joined himself to the disciples, Acts ix. 26. They shall seek 
God's face in Jacob, (so some,) that is, in the assemblies of his people; 'Thy 
face, O God of Jacob,' so our margin supplies it. and makes it easy. As all 
believers are the spiritual seed of Abraham, so all that strive in prayer are the 
spiritual seed of Jacob ; to whorii God never said, Seek ye me in vain. 

2. The privileges of God's peculiar people, ver. 5. They shall be made truly 
and for ever happy. 1st. They shall be blessed. They "shall receive the 
blessing from the Lord,'' all the fruits and gifts of God's favour according to 
his promise; and those whom God blesseth they are blessed indeed; for it is 



PSALM XXIV. 



109 



his prerogative to command the blessing. 2nd. They shall be justified and 
sanctified. These are the spiritual blessings in heavenly things, which they 
shall receive, even righteousness, the very thing they hunger ana thirst after, 
Mat. v. 6. Righteousness is blessedness, and it is from God only that we must 
expect it : for we have no righteousness of our own. They shall receive the 
reward or their righteousness, so some ; " the crown of righteousness, which 
the righteous Judge shall give," 2 Tim. iv. 8. 3rd. They shall be saved ; for 
God himself will be the God of their salvation. Note, Where God gives 
righteousness, he certainly designs salvation. Those that are made meet for 
heaven shall be brought safe to heaven, and then they wili find what they have 
been seeking to their endless satisfaction. 

7 Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates ; 

And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors : 
And the King of glory shall come in. 

8 Who is this King of glory ? 
The Lord strong and mighty, 
The Lord mighty in battle. 

9 Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates ; 

Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors ; 
And the King of glory shall come in. 
10 Who is this King of glory ? 

The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah. 

What is spoken once is spoken a second time in these verses ; such repeti- 
tions are usual in songs, and have a great deal of beauty in them. Here is, 
1. Entrance once and again demanded for the King of glory. The doors and 
gates are to be thrown open, thrown wide open, to give him admission ; for, 
behold, he stands at the door and knocks, ready to come in. 2. Inquiry once 
and again made concerning this mighty Prince, in whose name entrance is 
demanded; "Who is thisKing of glory?'] as when any knock at our door it 
is common to ask, Who is there? 3. Satisfaction once and again given con- 
cerning the royal person that makes the demand. It is "the Lord strong and 
mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, the Lord of hosts," ver. 8, 10. Now, 

First. This splendid entry here described ; it is probable, refers to the solemn 
bringing in of the ark into the tent David pitched for it, or the temple Solomon 
built for it ; for when David prepared materials for the building of it it was pro- 
per enough for him to prepare a psalm for the dedication of it. The porters are 
called upon to open the doors, and they are called everlasting doors, because 
much more durable than the door of the tabernacle, which was but a curtain. 
They are taught to ask, " Who is this King of glory ? " and they that bare the ark 
thus to answer j and very fitly, becaitse the ark was the symbol or token of God's 
presence, Jos. iii. 11. Or it may be taken as a poetical figure, designed to repre- 
sent the thing the more affectingly. God in his word and ordinances is thus 
to be welcomed by us, 1. With great readiness. The doors and gates must be 
thrown open to him. Let the word of the Lord come into the innermost and 
uppermost place in our souls; and if we had six hundred necks we should bow 
them all to the authority of it. 2. With all reverence : remembering how great 
a God he is with whom we have to do, in all our approaches to him. 

Secondly. Doubtless it points at Christ, of whom the ark with the mercy- 
seat was a type. 

1. We may apply it to the ascension of Christ into heaven, and the welcome 
given to him there. When he had finished his work on earth, he ascended in the 
clouds of heaven, Dan. vii. 13, 14. The gates of heaven must then be opened 
to him ; those doors that may be truly called everlasting, which had been shut 
against us to keep the way of the tree of life, Gen. in. 24. Our Redeemer 
found them shut;, but, having by his blood made atonement for sin, and gained 
a title to enter into the holy place, Heb. ix. 12, as one having authority he 
demanded entrance, not for himself only, but for us ; for as the forerunner 
he is for us entered, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. The 
keys, not # only of hell and death, but of heaven and life, must be put into his 
hand. His approach being very magnificent, the angels are brought in asking, 
" Who is this King of glory ? " for angels keep the gates of the new Jerusalem, 
Rev. xxi. 12. When the first begotten was brought into the upper world, the 
angels were to worship him, Heb. i. 6; and, accordingly, they here ask with 
wonder, Who he is ? this that cometh with dyed garments from Bozrah, 



110 



PSALM XXV. 



Jsa. lxiii. 1—3; for he appears in that world as a Lamb that had been slain. It 
is answered, That he is strong and mighty ; mighty in battle to save his people, 
and subdue his and their enemies. 

2. We may apply it to Christ's entrance into the souls of men by his "Word 
and Spirit, that they may be his temples. Christ's presence in them is like 
that of the ark in the temple, it sanctities them; Behold, he stands at the door, 
and knocks, Rev. hi. 20. It is required that the gates and doors of the heart 
be opened to him ; not only as admission is given to a guest, but as possession 
is delivered to the rightful owner, after the title has been contested. This is the 
Gospel call and demand, that we let Jesus Christ, the King of glory, come 
into our souls, and welcome him with hosannas, " Blessed is he that cometh." 
That we may do this aright, we are concerned to ask, " Who this King of glory 
is?" to acquaint ourselves with him, whom we are to believe in, and to love 
above all. And the answer is ready : he is Jehovah, and will be Jehovah our 
righteousness, an all-sufficient Saviour to us, if we give him entrance and 
entertainment. He is strong and mighty, and the Lord of hosts ; and therefore 
it is at our peril if we deny him entrance, for he is able to avenge the affront ; 
he can force his way, and can break those in pieces with his iron rod that will 
not submit to his golden sceptre. 

In singing this, let our hearts cheerfully answer to this call, as it is in the 
first words of the next psalm, " Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul." 



PSALM XXY. 

This psalm is fall of devout affection to God ; the outgoings of holy desires towards his 
favour and grace, and the lively actings of faith in his promises. We may learn out 
of it, I. What it is to pray, ver. 1, 15. II. What we must pray for : the pardon of sin, 
ver. 6, 7, 18; direction in the way of duty, ver. 4, 5; the favour of God, ver. 15; 
deliverance out of our troubles, ver. 17, 18; preservation from our enemies, ver. 20,21; 
and the salvation of the church of God, ver. 22. III. What we may plead in prayer: 
our confidence in God, ver. 2, 3, 5, 20, 21; our distress, and the malice of our enemies, 
ver. 17, 19 ; our sincerity, ver. 21. IV. What precious promises we have to encourage 
us in prayer : of guidance and instruction, ver. 8, 9, 12 ; the benefit of the covenant, 
ver. 10; and the pleasure of communion with God, ver. 13, 14. It is easy to apply the 
several passages of this psalm to ourselves in the singing of it ; for we have often 
troubles, and always sins, to complain of at the throne of grace. 

A Psalm of David. 

ITNTO thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul 
J 2 O niy God, I trust in thee : 
Let me not be ashamed, 
Let not mine enemies triumph over me. 

3 Yea, let none that wait on thee, be ashamed : 

Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause 

4 Shew me thy ways, O Lord ; 
Teach me thy paths. 

5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me : 
For thou art the God of my salvation ; 
On thee do I wait all the day. 

6 Eemember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving- 
For they have been ever of old. [kindnesses ; 

7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgres- 
According to thy mercy remember thou me [sions : 
For thy goodness sake, O Lord. 

Here is. First. David's professions of desire towards God, and dependence 
on him. He often begins his psalms with such professions; not to move God, 
but to move himself, and to engage himself to answer those professions. 

1. He professeth his desire towards God; "Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up 



PSALM XX Y. Ill 

my soul,'* ver. 1 . In the foregoing psalm, ver. 4, it was made the character of 
a good man, that he has not lifted up his soul to vanity ; and a call was given 
to the everlasting gates to lift up their heads for the King of glory to come in, 
ver. 1. To which character, to which call, David here answers, Lord, I lift up 
my soul ; not to vanity, but to thee. Note, In worshipping God, we must lift 
up our souls to him. Prayer is the ascent of the soul to God ; God must be 
eyed, and the soul employed; sursum corda,— up with your hearts,' was 
anciently used as a call to devotion. With a holy contempt of the world, and 
the things of it, by a fixed thought, and active faith, we must set God before us, 
and let out our desires towards him as the fountain of our happiness. 

2. He professeth his dependence upon God; and begs for the benefit and 
comfort of that dependence, ver. 2, " O my God, I trust in thee." His con- 
science witnessed for him, that he had no confidence in himself, or in any 
creature ; and that he had no diffidence of God, or of his power or promise. 
He pleaseth himself with this profession of faith in God ; having put his trust 
in God, he is easy, is well satisfied, and quiet from the fear of evil. And he 
pleads it with God, whose honour it is to help those that honour him, by 
trusting in him. What men put a confidence in is either their joy or their 
shame, according as it proves. Now David here, under the direction of faith, 
pravs earnestly, 1st. That shame might not be his lot. Let me not be ashamed 
of my confidence in thee; let me not be shaken from it by any prevailing fears, 
and iet me not be in the issue disappointed of what I depend upon thee for; 
but, Lord, keep what I have committed unto thee. Note, If we make our con- 
fidence in God our stay, it shall not be our shame ; and if we triumph in him, 
our enemies shall not triumph over us, as they would if we should now sink 
under our fears, or should in the issue come short of our hopes. 2nd. That it 
might not be the lot of any other that trusted in God. All the saints have 
obtained a like precious faith ; and, therefore, doubtless, it will be alike suc- 
cessful in the issue. And thus the communion of saints is kept up, even by 
their praying one for another. True saints will make supplication for all 
saints. It is certain, none that by a believing attendance wait on God, and 
by a believing hope wait for him, shall be made ashamed of it. 3rd. That it 
might be the lot of the transgressors ; "Let them be ashamed that transgress 
without cause," or vainly, as the word is. First. Upon no provocation. They 
revolt from God and their duty, from David and his government, so some, 
without any occasion given them; not being able to pretend any iniquity they 
have found in God, or that in any thing he hath wearied them. The weaker the 
temptation is by which men are drawn to sin, the stronger the corruption is 
by which they are driven to it. Those are the worst transgressors that sin for 
sinning sake. Secondly. , To no purpose. They know their attempts against 
God are fruitless ; they imagine a vain thing, and therefore they will soon be 
ashamed of them. 

3. He begs direction from God in the way of his duty, ver. 4, 5. Once again 
he here prays to God to teach him. He was a knowing man himself, but the 
most intelligent, the most observant, both need and desire to be taught of God ; 
from him we must be ever learning. Observe, 1st. What he desired to learn; 
" Teach me," not fine words or fine notions, but "teach me thy ways, thy paths, 
thy truth." The ways in which thou walkest towards me, which are all mercy 
and truth, ver. 10; and the ways in which thou wouldst have me to walk 
towards thee. Those are best learned who understand their duty, and know 
the good things they should do, Eccl. ii. 3. Thy paths and thy truth are the 
same; Divine laws are all founded upon Divine truths. The way of God's 
precepts is the way of truth, Ps. cxix. 30 ; Christ is both the way and the 
truth, and therefore we must learn Christ. 2nd. What he desires of God in 
order to this. First. That he would enlighten his understanding concerning 
his duty ; Shew me thy way, and so teach me. In doubtful cases we should 
pray earnestly that God would make it plain to us what he would have us to 
do. Secondly. That he would incline his will to it, and strengthen him in it; 
Lead me, and so teach me. Not only as we lead one that is dimsighted, to keep 
him from missing his way, but as we lead one that is sick, and feeble, and faint, 
to help him forward in the way, and to keep him from fainting and falling. 
We go no farther in the way to heaven than God is pleased to lead us, and to 
hold us up. 3rd. What he pleads, First. His great expectation from God; 
" Thou art the God of my salvation." Note, Those that choose the salvation 
of God as their end, and make him the God of their salvation, may come boldly 
to him for direction in the way that leads to that end ; if God save us, he will 
teach us, and lead us. He that gives salvation will give instruction. Secondly. 
His constant attendance on God; " On thee do I wait all the day." Whence 
should a servant expect direction what to do but from his own master, on 
whom he waits all the day? If we sincerely desire to know our duty, with 
a resolution to do it, we need not question but that God will direct us in it. 

4. He appeals to God's infinite mercy, and casts himself upon that, not pre- 
tending to any merit of his own; ver. 6 " Remember, O Lord, thy tender 



112 



PSALM XXV. 



mercies," and for the sake of those mercies lead me and teach me, "for they 
have been ever of old; "that is, 1st. Thou always wast a merciful God; it is 
thy name, i> is thy nature and property to shew mercy. 2nd. Thy counsels and 
designs of jnercy were from everlasting; the vessels of mercy were before all 
worlds oiiained to glory. 3rd. The instances of thy mercy to the church in 
general, and to me in particular, were early and ancient, and constant hitherto ; 
they began of old, and never ceased. Thou hast taught me from my youth up, 
teach me now. 

5. He is in a special manner earnest for the pardon of his sins ; ver. 7, Oh 
" remember not the sins of my youth." _ Lord, remember thy mercies, ver. 6 ; 
which speak for me, and not my sins which speak against me. Here is, 1st. An 
implicit confession of sin ; he instanceth particularly in the sins of his youth. 
Note, Our youthful faults and follies should be matter of our repentance and 
humiliation long after ; because time doth not wear out the guilt of sin. Old 
people should mourn for the sinful mirth, and be in pain for the sinful pleasures 
of their youth. He aggravates his sins ; calling them his transgressions ; and 
the more holy, just, and good the law is, which sin is the transgression of, the 
more exceeding sinful it ought to appear to us. 2nd. An express petition for 
mercy. First That he might be acquitted from guilt ; " Remember not the 
sins of my youth," that is, remember them not against me ; lay them not to my 
charge, enter not into judgment with me lor them. When God pardons sin, 
he is said to remember it no more, which notes a plenary remission ; he forgives, 
and forgets. Secondly. That he might be accepted in God's sight ; " Remember 
thou me ;" think on me for good, and come in seasonably for my succour. We 
need desire no more to make us happy than for God to remember us witJi 
favour; his plea is, "according to thy mercy, and for thy goodness' sake." 
Note, It is God's goodness and not ours, his mercy and not our own merit, 
that must be our plea for the pardon of sin, and all the good we stand in need of. 
This plea we must always rely upon, as those that are sensible of our poverty 
and unworthiness, and as those that are satisfied of the riches of God's mercy 
and grace. 

8 Good and upright is the Lord : 

Therefore will he teach sinners in the way 

0 The meek will he guide in judgment : 
And the meek will he teach his way. 

10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth 
Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. 

1 1 For thy name's sake, 0 Lord, pardon mine iniquity ; 
For it is great. 

12 What man is he that feareth the Lord ? 

Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. 

13 His soul shall dwell at ease ; 

And his seed shall inherit the earth. 

14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ; 
And he will shew them his covenant. 

God's promises are here mixed with David's prayers. Many petitions there 
were in the former part of the psalm, and many in the latter ; and here, in the 
middle of the psalm, he meditates upon the promises, and by a lively faith sucks 
and is satisfied from these breasts of consolation ; for the promises of God are 
not only the best foundation of prayer, telling us what to pray for, and encou- 
raging our faith and hope in prayer, but they are a present answer to prayer. 
Let the prayer be made according to the promise, and then the promise may be 
read as a return to the prayer ; and we are to believe the prayer is heard, 
because the promise will be performed. But in the midst of the promises we 
find one petition which seems to come in somewhat abruptly, and should have 
followed upon ver. 7 ; it is that, ver. 11, " Pardon my iniquity." But prayers for 
the pardon of sin are never impertinent; we mingle sin with all our actions, 
and therefore should mingle such prayers with all our devotions. He enforces 
this petition with a double plea. The former is very natural; "For thy name's 
sake, pardon mine iniquity," because thou hast proclaimed thy name gracious 
and merciful, pardoning iniquity ; for thy glory's sake, for thy promise's sake, for 
thine own sake, Isa. xliii. 25. But the latter is very surprising ; " Pardon mine 



PSALM XXV. 113 

iniquity, for it is great;" and the greater it is, the more will Divine mercy be 
magnified in the forgiveness of it. It is the glory of a great God to forgive 
great sins, to forgive iniquity, transgression and sin, Ex. xxxiv. 7. It is great; 
and therefore I am undone, for ever undone, if infinite mercy do not interpose 
for the pardon of it. It is great, that is, I see it so. The more we see of the 
heinousness of our sins, the better qualified we are to find mercy with God. 
When we confess sin, we must aggravate it. Let us now take a view of the 
great and precious promises which we have in these verses, and observe, 

First. To whom these promises do belong, and who may expect the benefit 
of them. We are all sinners ; and can we nope for any advantage by them ? 
Yes: ver. 8, He will teach sinners, though they be sinners; for Christ came 
into 'the world to save sinners, and in order to that to teach sinners, to call 
sinners to repentance. These promises are sure to those who, though they 
have been sinners, have gone astray, yet now keep God's word. To such, 
1. As "keep his covenant and his testimonies," ver. 10; that is, that take his 
precepts for their rule, and his promises for their portion ; that, having taken 
God to be to them a God, live upon that, and, having given up themselves to 
be to him a people, live up to that. Though tlirough the infirmity of the flesh 
they sometimes break the command, yet by a sincere repentance, when at any 
time they do amiss, and a constant adherence by faith to God as their God, 
they keep the covenant, and do not break that. 2. To such as fear him, ver. 12; 
and again, ver. 14; that stand in awe of his majesty, and worship him with 
reverence, submit to his authority, and obey him with cheerfulness, dread his 
wrath, and are afraid of offending him. 

Secondly. Upon what these promises are grounded, and what encouragement 
we have to build upon them. Here are two things which ratify and confirm 
all the promises : 

1. The perfections of God's nature. We value the promise by the character 
of him that makes it. We may therefore depend upon God's promises, for 
" good and upright is the Lord," and therefore he will be as good as his word ; 
so kind, that he cannot deceive us, so true, that he cannot break his promise; 
"Faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do it." He was good in 
making the promise, and therefore will be upright in performing it. 

2. The agreeableness of all he saith and doth with the perfections of his 
nature; ver. 10, 44 All the paths of the Lord," that is, all his promises and all 
his providences, " are mercy and truth;" that is, they are like himself, good 
and upright. All God's dealings with his people are according to the mercy 
of his purposes, and the truth of his promises. All he doth comes from love, 
covenant love ; and they may see in it his mercy displayed, and his word ful- 
filled. What a mighty satisfaction may this be to good people, that, whatever 
afflictions they are exercised with, " all the paths of the Lord are mercy and 
truth ; " and so it will appear when they come to their journey's end. 

Thirdly. What these promises are. 

1. That God will instruct and direct them in the way of their duty. This is 
most insisted upon, because it is an answer to David's prayers, ver. 4, 5, "Shew 
me thy ways, and lead me." We should fix our thoughts, and act our faith, 
most on those promises which suit our present case. 1st. " He will teach sinners 
in the way," because they are sinners, and therefore need teaching. When they 
see themselves sinners, and desire teaching, then he will teach them the way of 
reconciliation to God, the way to a well-grounded peace of conscience, and the 
way to eternal life. He doth by his Gospel make known this way to all; and 
by his Spirit open the understanding, and guide penitent sinners that inquire 
after it. The devil leads men blindfold to hell; but God enlightens men's eves, 
sets things before them in a true light, and so leads them to heaven. 2nd. " The 
meek will he guide, the meek will he teach," that is, those that are humble and 
low in their own eyes, that are distrustful of themselves, desirous to be taught, 
and honestly resolved to follow the Divine conduct ; " Speak, Lord, for thy 
servant hears." These he will guide in judgment, that is, by the rule of the 
written word. He will guide them in that which is practical, which relates to 
sin and duty, so as that they may keep conscience void of offence ; and he will 
do it judiciously, so some, that is, he will suit his conduct to their ease. He 
will teach sinners with wisdom, tenderness, and compassion, and as they are 
able to bear. He will teach them his way. All good people make God's way 
their way, and desire to be taught that; and those that do so shall be taught 
and led in that way. 3rd. " Him that feareth the Lord he will teach in the 
way that he shall choose," either in the way that God shall choose, or that the 
good man shall choose. It comes all to one, for he that fears the Lord chooseth 
the things that please him. If we choose the right way, he that directed our 
choice will direct our steps, and will lead us in it. If we choose wisely, God 
will give us grace to walk wisely. 

2. That God will make them easy; ver. 13, "His soul shall dw T ell at ease;'' 
* shall lodge in goodness,' marg. Those that devote themselves to the fear of 
God, and give up themselves to be taught of God, it is their own fault if they 

H 



in PSALM XXV. 

be not easy. The soul that is sanctified by the grace of God, and much more 
that is comforted by the peace of God, dwells at ease. Even when the body is 
sick and lies in pain, yet the soul may dwell at ease in God, may return to him 
and repose in him as its rest. Many things occur to make us uneasy • but there 
is enough in the covenant of grace to balance them all, and to make us easy 

3. That he will give to them and theirs as much of this world as is good for 
them.^ " His seed shall inherit the earth." Next to our care concerning our 
souls is our care concerning our seed, and God has a blessing in store for the 
generation of the upright. They that fear God shall inherit the earth shall 
have a competency in it, and the comfort of it ; and their children shall fare the 
better for their prayers, when they are gone. 

4. That God will admit them into the secret of communion with himself* 
ver. 14, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." They under- 
stand his word ; for "if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine 
whether it be of God,'\7?io. vii. 17. They that receive the truth in the love of it and 
experience the power of it, best understand the mystery of it. They know the 
meaning of his providence, and what God is doing with them better than others 
"Shall I hide from Abraham the things that 1 do?" Gen. xviii. 17. He calls 
them not servants, but friends, as he called Abraham. They know by experi- 
ence the blessings of the covenant, and the pleasure of that fellowship which 
gracious souls have " with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." This 
honour have all his saints. 

15 Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord ; 
For he shall pluck my feet out of the net. 

1 6 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me ; 
For I am desolate and afflicted. 

.17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged : 
0 bring thou me out of my distresses. 

1 8 Look upon mine affliction and my pain ; 
And forgive all my sins. 

1 9 Consider mine enemies ; for they are many ; 
And they hate me with cruel hatred. 

20 0 keep my soul, and deliver me : 

Let me not be ashamed ; for I put my trust in thee. 

21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me ; 
For I wait on thee. 

22 Redeem Israel, 0 God, out of all his troubles. 

David, encouraged by the promises he had been meditating upon, here renews 
his addresses to God, and concludes the psalm as he began, with the professions 
of dependence upon God, and desire towards him. 

First. He lays open before God the calamitous condition he was in. His 
feet were in the net, held fast, and entangled, so that he could not extricate 
himself out of his difficulties, ver. 15 ; he was desolate and afflicted, ver. Id; and 
it is common tor those that are afflicted to be desolate. Their friends desert 
them then, and they are themselves disposed to sit alone, and keep silence, 
Lam. iii. 26. David calls himself desolate and solitary, because he depended 
not upon his servants and soldiers, but relied as entirely upon God as if he had 
no prospect at all of help and succour from any creature. Being in distress, in 
many distresses, the troubles of his heart were enlarged, ver. 17, that is, he grew 
more and more melancholy, and troubled in mind. Sense of sin afflicted him 
more than any thing else : that was it that broke and wounded his spirit, and 
made his outward trouble lie heavy upon him. He was in affliction and pain, 
ver. 18. His enemies that persecuted him were many and malicious (they 
hated him) and very barbarous ; it was with a cruel hatred that they hated 
him, ver. 19. Such were Christ's enemies, and the persecutors of his church. 

Secondly. He expresseth the dependence he had upon God in these distresses ; 
ver. 15, " Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord." Idolaters were for gods that 
they could see with their bodily eyes ; and they had their eyes ever towards 
their idols, Isa. xvii. 7, 8; but it is an eye of faith that we must have towards 
God who is a spirit, Zee. ix. 1. Our meditation of him must be sweet, and we 
must always set him before us. In all our ways we must acknowledge him, 



PSALM XXVI. 115 

and do all to his glory. Thus we must live a life of communion with God, not 
only in ordinances, but in providences, not only in the acts of devotion, but in 
the w r hole course of our conversation. David had the comfort of this in his 
affliction ; for, because his eyes were ever toward the Lord, he doubted not 
but he would pluck his feet out of the net, that he would deliver him from the 
corruptions of his own heart, so some ; from the designs of his enemies against 
him, so others. Those that have their eye ever towards God shall not have 
their feet long in the net. He repeats his profession of dependence upon God, 
ver. 20, " Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in thee ;" and of expecta- 
tion from him, "I wait on thee," ver. 21; and, "it is good" thus "to hope, and 
quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord." 
Thirdly. He prays earnestly to God for relief and succour. 

1. For himself. See how he begs, 1st. For the remission of sin; ver. 18, 
" Forgive all my sins." Those were his heaviest burthens, and which brought 
upon him all his other burthens. He had begged, ver. 7, for the pardon of the 
sins of his youth, and, ver. 11, for the pardon of some one particular iniquity 
that was remarkably great, which some think was his sin in the matter of 
Uriah; but here he prays, Lord, forgive all, take away all iniquity. It is 
observable that, as to his affliction, he asks for no more than God's regard to 
it, "Look upon my affliction and my pain," and do with it as thou pteasest; 
but, as to his sin, he asks for no less than a pardon, " Forgive all my sins." 
When at any time we are in trouble, we should be more concerned about our 
sins to get them pardoned, than about our afflictions to get them removed. 
Yet he prays, 2nd. For the redress of his grievances. His mind was troubled 
for God s withdrawings from him, and under the sense he had of his displea- 
sure against him for his sin ; and therefore he prays, ver. 16, " Turn thee unto 
me;" and if God turn to us no matter who turns from us. His condition was 
troubled, and in reference to that he prays, " O bring thou me out of my 
distresses." I see no way of deliverance open ; but thou canst either find one 
or make one. His enemies were spiteful; and in reference to that he prays, 
O keep my soul from falling into their hands, or else deliver me out of their 
hands. 

Four things he mentions by way of plea to enforce these petitions; and 
refers himself and them to God's consideration: 1. He pleads God's mercy; 
" Have mercy upon me." Men of the greatest merits were undone, if they had 
not to do with a God of infinite mercies. 2. He pleads his own misery, the 
distress he was in, his affliction and pain, especially the troubles of his heart ; all 
which made him the proper object of Divine mercy. 3. He pleads the iniquity 
of his enemies : Lord, consider them, how cruel they are, and deliver me out 
of their hands. 4. He pleads his own integrity, ver. 21. Though he had owned 
himself guilty before God, and had confessed his sins against him, yet, as to his 
enemies, he had the testimony of his conscience that he had done them no 
wrong, which was his comfort when they hated him with cruel hatred ; and he 
prays that this might preserve him. This intimates that he did not expect to be 
safe any longer than he continued in his integrity and uprightness ; and that 
while he did continue in it, he did not doubt of being safe. Sincerity will be 
our best security in the worst of times. Integrity and uprightness will be a 
man's preservation more than the wealth and honour of the world can be. 
This will preserve us to the heavenly kingdom. We should therefore pray to 
God to preserve us in our integrity, and then be assured that that w r ill pre- 
serve us. 

2. For the church of God; ver. 22, "Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his 
troubles." David was now in trouble himself, but he thinks it not strange, 
since trouble is the lot of all God's Israel, and why should any one member 
fare better than the whole body? David's troubles were enlarged, and very 
earnest he was with God to deliver him, yet he forgets not the distresses of 
God's church ; for when we have never so much business of our own at the 
throne of grace we must still remember to pray for the public. Good men 
have little comfort in their own safety, while the church is in distress and 
danger. This prayer is a prophecy that God would at length give David rest, 
and therewith give Israel rest from all their enemies round about. It is a 
prophecy of the sending of the Messiah in due time to redeem Israel from his 
iniquities, Ps. cxxx. 8 ; and so to redeem them from their troubles ; and of the 
happiness of the future state. In heaven, and in heaven only, will God's Israel 
be perfectly redeemed from all troubles. 



PSALM XXYI. 

Holy David is in this psalm putting himself upon a solemn trial, not by God and his 
country, but by God and his own conscience, to both which he appeals touching his 
integrity, ver. 1, 2. And for the proof of it he allegeth, I. His constant regard to God 
and his grace, ver. 3. II. His rooted antipathy to sin and sinners, ver. 4, a. III. His 



116 



PSALM XXYI. 



sincere affection to the ordinances of God, and his care about them, ver. 6 — 8. Having 
thus proved his integrity, 1. He deprecates the doom of the wicked, ver. 9, 10. 2. He 
casts himself upon the mercy and grace of God, with a resolution to hold fast his 
integrity, and his hope in God, ver. 11, 12. In singing this psalm, we must teach and 
admonish ourselves and one another, what we must be and do that we may have the 
favour of God, and comfort in our own consciences, and comfort ourselves with it as 
David doth, if we can say that in any measure we have through grace answered these 
characters. The learned Amyraldus, in his argument of this psalm, suggests that 
David is here by the spirit of prophecy carried out to speak of himself as a type of 
Christ, of whom what he here saith of his spotless innocency was fully and eminently 
true, and of him only, and to him we may apply it in singing this psalm. " We are 
complete in him." 

A Psalm of David. 

JUDGE me, 0 Lord ; 
For I have walked in mine integrity : [slide. 
I have trusted also in the Lord ; therefore I shall not 
2 Examine me, 0 Lord, and prove me ; 

Try my reins and my heart. 
8 For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes : 
And I have walked in thy truth. 

4 I have not sat with vain persons, 
Neither will I go in with dissemblers. 

5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers ; 
And will not sit with the wicked. 

It is probable that David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul 
and his party, who, to give some colour to their unjust rage, represented him as 
a very ill man, and falsely accused him of many high crimes and misdemeanours ; 
dressed him up in the skins of wild beasts, that they might bait him. Innocency 
itself is no fence to the name, though it is to the bosom, against the darts of 
calumny. Herein he was a type of Christ, who was made a reproach of men, 
and foretold to his followers that thev also must have all manner of evil said 
against them falsely. Now see what David doth in this case. 

3?irst. He appeals to God's righteous sentence; ver. 1, "Judge me, O God;" 
that is, be thou judge between me and my accusers, between the persecutor 
and the poor prisoner, bring me off with honour and put them to shame that 
belie me. Saul, who was himself supreme judge in Israel, was his adversary; so 
that in a controversy with him he could appeal to no other but God himself. 
As to his offences against God, he prays, Lord, enter not into judgment with 
me," Ps. cxliii. 2; Remember not my transgressions," Ps. xxv. 7. There he 
appeals to God's mercy ; but as to his offences against Saul, he appeals to God's 
justice, and begs of him to judge for him, as Ps. xliii. 1. Or thus : he cannot 
justify himself against the charge of sin, he owns his iniquity is great, and he 
is undone if God in his infinite mercy do not forgive him; but he can justify 
himself against the charge of hypocrisy, and has reason to hope that, according 
to the tenor of the covenant of grace, he is one of those that may expect to find 
favour with God. Thus holy Job often owns he has sinned, and yet he holds fast 
his integrity. Note, It is a comfort to those who are falsely accused that there 
is a righteous God, who, sooner or later, will clear up their innocency ; and a 
comfort to all that are sincere in religion that God himself is a witness to his 
sincerity. 

Secondly. He submits to his unerring search ; ver. 2, " Examine me, O Lord, 
and prove me," as gold is proved whether it be standard. God knows every 
man's true character, for he knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, and 
sees through every disguise. David prays, Lord, examine me, which speaks 
him greatly well-pleased that God did know him ; and truly desirous that he 
would discover him to himself, and discover him to all the world. So sincere 
was he in his devotion to his God, and his loyalty to his prince, (in both which 
he was suspected to be a pretender,) that he wished he had a window in his 
bosom, that who would might look into his heart. 

Thirdly. He solemnly protests his sincerity ; ver. 1, " I have walked in mine 
integrity," that is, my conversation has agreed w r ith my profession, and one part 
of it has been of a piece with another. It is in vain to boast of our integrity, 
unless we can make it out that by the grace of God we have walked in our 
integrity, and that our conversation in the world has been in simplicity and 
godly sincerity. He produceth here several proofs of his integrity, which 



PSALM XXVI. 117 

encouraged him to trust in the Lord, as his righteous judge, who would 
patronize and plead his righteous cause, with an assurance that he should come 
off with reputation, "therefore I shall not slide;" that they should not prevail 
who consulted to cast him down from his excellency, to shake his faith, blemish 
his name, and prevent his coming to the croAvn, Ps. Ixii. 4. They that are sincere 
in religion may trust in God that they shall not slide, that is, that they shall 
not apostatise from their religion. 

1. He had a constant regard to God and to his grace, ver. 3. 1st. He aimed 
at God's favour as his end, and chief good. First. " Thy lovingkindness is 
before mine eyes." This will be a good evidence of our sincerity, if what we 
do in religion, we do from a principle of love to God, and good thoughts of him 
as the best of beings, and the best of friends and benefactors ; and from a grate- 
ful sense of God's goodness to us in particular, which we have had experience 
of all our days. If we set God's lovingkindness before us as our pattern, to 
which we endeavour to conform ourselves, being followers of him that is good 
in his goodness, 1 Pet. iii. 13; if we set it before us as our great engagement 
and encouragement to our duty, and are afraid of doing any thing to forfeit 
God's favour, and in care by all means to keep ourselves in his love; this will 
not only be a good evidence of our integrity, but will have a great influence 
upon our perseverance in it. Secondly. He governed himself by the word of 
God as his rule. "I have walked in thy truth;" that is, according to thy law, 
for thy law is truth. Note, Those only may expect the benefit of God's loving- 
kindness that live up to his truths, and his laws that are grounded upon them. 
Some understand it of his conforming himself to God's example in truth and 
faithfulness, as well as in goodness and lovingkindness. Those certainly walk 
well that are followers of God as dear children. 

2. He had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, nor with the 
workers of those works, ver. 4, 5. t By this it appeared he was truly loyal to his 
prince, that he never associated with those that were disaffected to his govern- 
ment, with any of those sons of Belial that despised him, 1 Sam. x. 27. He was 
in none of their cabals, nor joined with them in any of their intrigues ; he cursed 
not the king, no, not in his heart. And this also was an evidence of his faith- 
fulness to his God, that he never associated with those that he had any reason 
to think were disaffected to religion, or were open enemies or false friends to 
its interests. Note, Great care to avoid bad company is both a good evidence 
of our integrity, and a good means to preserve us in it. Now observe here, 
1st. That this part of his protestation looks both backward upon the care he 
had hitherto taken in this matter, and forward upon the care he would still 
take ; I have not sat with them, and I will not go in with them. Note, Our 
good practices hitherto are then evidences of our integrity when they are 
accompanied with resolutions, in God's strength, to persevere in them to the end, 
and not to draw back; and our good resolutions for the future we may then 
take the comfort of when they are the continuation of our good practices 
hitherto. 2nd. That David shunned the company not only of wicked persons, 
but of vain persons,_ that were wholly addicted to mirth and gaiety, and had 
nothing solid or serious in them. The company of such may perhaps be the 
more pernicious of the two to a good man, because he will not be so ready to 
stand upon his guard against the contagion of vanity as against that of down- 
right wickedness. 3rd. That the company of dissemblers is as dangerous com- 
pany as any other, and as much to be shunned in prudence as well as piety. 
Evil-doers pretend friendship to those whom they would decoy into their 
snares ; but they dissemble : when they speak fair, believe them not. 4th. Though 
sometimes he could not avoid being in the company of bad people, yet he would 
not go in with them; that is, he would not choose such for his companions, nor 
seek an opportunity of acquaintance and converse with them. He might fall in 
with them, but he would not by appointment and assignation go in with them; 
or, if he happened to be with them, he would not sit with them ; that is, he 
would not continue with them; he would be in their company no longer than 
his business made it necessary; he would not concur with them, not say as they 
said, nor do as they did, as they that sit in the seat of the scornful, Ps. i. 1. He 
would not sit in counsel with them upon ways and means to do mischief; not sit 
in judgment with them to condemn the generation of the righteous. 5th. We 
must not only in our practice avoid Dad company, but in our principles and 
affections we must have an aversion to it. David here saith, Not only I have 
shunned it, but I have hated it, Ps. cxxxix. 21. 6th. The congregation of evil- 
doers, the club, the confederacy of them, is in a special manner hateful to good 
people. ' 1 have hated the church of the malignant,' — ecclesiam malignant iiim, 
so the Vulgar Latin reads it. As good men in consort make one another better, 
and are enabled to do so much the more good, so bad men in combination make 
one another ^orse and do so much the more mischief. In all this David was 
both a type of Christ, — who, though he received sinners, and ate with them, to 
instruct them, and do them good, yet otherwise was " holy, harmless, undeliled, 



118 PSALM XXVI. 

and separate from sinners," particularly from the Pharisees, those dissemblers,— 
and an example to Christians, when they join themselves to Christ, to save 
themselves from this untoward generation, Acts ii. 40. 

6 I will wash mine hands in innocency : 
So will I compass thine altar, 0 Lord : 

7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, 
And tell of all thy wondrous works. 

8 Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, 
And the place where thine honour dwelleth. 

9 Gather not my soul with sinners, 
Nor my life with bloody men : 

10 In whose hands is mischief, 

And their right hand is full of bribes. 

11 But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity : 
Redeem me, and be merciful unto me. 

12 My foot standeth in an even place : 

In the congregations will I bless the Lord. 

In these verses, 

First. David produceth a farther evidence of his integrity, which was the 
sincere affection he had to the ordinances of God, and the constant care he took 
about them, and the pleasure he took in them. Hypocrites and dissemblers may 
indeed be found attending on God's ordinances, — the proud Pharisee went 
up to the temple to pray with the penitent publican, — but it is a good sign 
of sincerity if we attend upon them as David here tells us he did, ver. 6 — 8. 

1. He was very careful and conscientious in his preparation for holy ordi- 
nances: " I will wash mine hands in innucency." He not only refrained from 
the society of sinners, but kept himself c lean from the pollutions of sin, and this 
with an eye to the place he had among those that compassed God's altar. I will 
wash, and so will I compass the altar, knowing that otherwise 1 shall not be 
welcome. This is like that, 1 Cor. xi. 28, " Let a man examine himself, and so let 
him eat," so prepared. This notes, 1st. Habitual preparation. " I will wash my 
hands in innocency ;" that is, 1 will carefully watch against all sin, and keep my 
conscience pure from those dead works which defile it, and forbid my drawing 
nigh to God: see Ps. xxiv. 3, 4. 2nd. Actual preparation. It alludes to the 
ceremony of the priests washing when they went in to minister, Ex. xxx. 20,21. 
Though David was no priest, yet, as every worshipper ought, he would look to 
the substance of that which the priests were enjoined the shadow of. In our 
preparations for solemn ordinances, we must not only be able to clear ourselves 
from the charge of reigning infidelity and hypocrisy, and to protest our inno- 
cency of that, (which w r as signified by washing the hands, Deu. xxi. 6,) but we 
must take pains to cleanse ourselves from the spots of remaining iniquity, by 
renewing our repentance, and making a fresh application of the blood of Christ 
to our consciences, for the purifying and pacifying of them. He that is washed, 
that is in a justified state, has need thus to wash his feet, Jno. xiii. 10, to wash 
his hands, to wash them in innocency. He that is penitent, is pene innocens, — 
'almost innocent,' and he that is pardoned is so far innocent that his sins shall 
not be mentioned against him. 

2. He was very diligent and serious in his attendance upon them : " I will 
compass thine altar," alluding to the custom of the priests, who, while the sacri- 
fice was in offering, walked round the altar ; and probably the offerers likewise 
did so at some distance, noting a diligent regard to what was done, and a dutiful 
attendance on the service. I will compass it ; that is, 1 will be among the crowds 
that do compass it, among the thickest of them. David, a man of honour, a man 
of business, a man of war, yet thought it not below him to attend with the mul- 
titude on God's altars, and could find time for that attendance. Note, 1st. Ail 
God's people will be sure to wait on God's altar, in obedience to his commands, 
and in pursuance of his favour. Christ is our altar, not as the altar in the 
Jewish church, w r hich was fed by them, but an altar that we eat of, and live 
upon, Heb. xiii. 10. 2nd. It is a pleasant sight to see God's altar compassed, 
and to see ourselves among them that compass it. 

3. In all his attendance on God's ordinances he aimed at the glory of God, and 
was much in the thankful praise and adoration of him. He had an eye to the 



PSALM XXVI. 



119 



place of worship as the place where God's honour dwelt, ver. 8. and therefore 
made it his business there to honour God, and to give him the glory due to his 
name, to " publish with the voice of thanksgiving all God's wondrous works." 
God's gracious works, which call for our thanksgiving, are all wondrous works, 
which call for our admiration. We ought to publish them, and tell of them for 
his glory, and the excitement of others to praise him ; and we ought to do it 
(t with the voice of thanksgiving," as those that are sensible of our obligations, 
by all ways possible to acknowledge with gratitude the favours we have re- 
ceived from God. 

4. He did this with delight, and from a principle of true affection to God and 
his institutions. Touching this, he appeals to God, " Lord," thou knowest how 
dearly " I have loved the habitation of thy house," ver. 8 ; that is, the tabernacle 
where thou art pleased to manifest thy residence among thy people, and receive 
their homage; "the place where thine honour dwells/' David was sometimes 
forced by persecution into the countries of idolaters, and was hindered from 
attending God's altars, which perhaps his persecutors that laid him under that 
restraint did themselves upbraid him with as his crime : see 1 Sam. xx. 27. But, 
Lord, saith he, though I cannot come to the habitation of thine house, I love it ; 
my heart is there, and it is my greatest trouble that I am not there. Note, All 
that truly love God truly love the ordinances of God, and therefore love them, 
because in them he manifests his honour, and they have an opportunity of 
honouring him. Our Lord Jesus loved his Father's honour, and made it his 
business to glorify him. He loved the habitation of his house, that is, his church 
among men ; loved it, and gave himself for it, that he might build and consecrate 
it. And those who love communion with God, and delight in approaching to 
him, as the thing^ itself is a constant pleasure, so it is to them a comfortable 
evidence of their integrity, and a comfortable earnest of their endless felicity. 

Secondly. David, having given proofs of his integrity, doth, with an humble 
confidence towards God, (such as they have whose hearts condemn them not,) 
earnestly pray that he might not fall under the doom of the wicked ; ver. 9, 10, 
"Gather not my soul with sinners." Here, 1. David describes these smners, 
whom he looked upon to be in a miserable condition, so miserable that he could 
not wish the worst enemy he had in the world to be in a worse. They are 
bloody men, that thirst after blood, and lie under a great deal of the guilt of 
blood. They do mischief, and mischief is always in their hands. Though they 
get by their wickedness, for their right hand is full of bribes, which they have 
taken to pervert justice, yet that will make their case never the better ; for 
" what is a man profited if he gain the world and lose his soul ?" 2. He dreads 
having his lot with them. He never loved them, nor associated with them in 
this world, and therefore could in faith pray that he might not have his lot with 
them in the other world. Our souls must shortly be gathered to return to God 
that gave them and will call for them again : see Job xxxiv. 14. It concerns us 
to consider whether our souls will then be gathered with saints or with sinners; 
whether bound in the bundle of life with the Lord for ever, as the souls of 
the faithful are, 1 Sam. xxv. 29, or bound in the bundle of tares for the fire, 
Mat. xiii. 30. Death gathers us to our people ; those that are our people while 
we live, whom we choose to associate with, and with whom we cast in our lot, 
to those death will gather us, and with them we must take our lot to eternity. 
Balaam desired to die the death of the righteous, David dreaded dying the death 
of the wicked ; so that both sides are of that mind, which, if we be of, and will 
live up to it, we are happy for ever. Those that will not be companions with 
sinners in their mirth, nor eat of their dainties, may in faith pray not to be 
companions with them in their misery, nor to drink of their cup, their cup of 
trembling. 

Thirdly. David, with a holy, humble confidence, commits himself to the grace 
of God, ver. 11, 12. 1. He promiseth that, by the grace of God, he would perse- 
vere inhis duty; "As for me," whatever others do, "I will walk in mine in- 
tegrity." Note 5> When the testimony of our consciences for us, that we have 
walked in our integrity, is comfortalde to us, that should confirm our resolu- 
tions to continue^ therein. 2. He prays for the Divine grace both to enable him 
to do so and to give him the comfort of it. Redeem me out of the hands of my 
enemies and be merciful to me, living and dying. Be we never so confident of 
our integrity, yet still we must rely upon God's mercy, and the great redemption 
Christ has wrought out, and pray for the benefit of them. 3. He pleaseth 
himself with his steadiness. " My foot stands in an even place," where 1 shall 
not stunible, and whence I shall not fall. This he speaks as one that found his 
resolutions fixed for God and godliness, not to be shaken by the temptations of 
the world ; and his comforts firm in God and his grace, not to be disturbed by 
the crosses and troubles of the world. 4. He promiseth himself that he should 
yet have occasion to praise the Lord ; that he should be furnished with matter 
for praise ; that he should have a heart for praises; and that, though he was now 
perhaps banished from public ordinances, yet he should again have an oppor- 
tunity of blessing God in the congregation* of his people. Those that hate the 



120 



PSALM XXVII. 



congregation of evil-doers shall be joined to the congregation of the righteous, 
and join with them in praising God, and it is pleasant doing that in good com- 
pany; the more the better : it is the liker to heaven. 

PSALM XXVII. 

Some think David penned this psalm before his coming to the throne, when he was in 
the midst of his troubles, and perhaps upon occasion of the death of his parents ; but 
the Jews think he penned it when he was old, upon occasion of that wonderful deliver- 
ance he had from the sword of the giant, when Abishai succoured him, 2 Sam. xxi. 16, i7 ; 
and his people thereupon resolved he should never venture his life again in battle, 
lest he " should quench the light of Israel." Perhaps it was not penned upon any 
particular occasion, but it is very expressive of the pious and devout affections with 
which gracious souls are carried out towards God at all times, especially in times of 
trouble. Here is, I. The courage and holy bravery of his faith, ver. 1—3. II. The 
complacency he took in communion with God, and the benefit he experienced by it, 
ver. 4 — 6. III. His desire towards God, and his favour and grace, ver. 7 — 9, 11, 12. 
IV. His expectations from God, and the encouragement he gives to others to hope 
in him, ver. 10, 13, 14 ; and let our hearts be thus affected in singing this psalm. 

A Psalm of David. 

THE Lord is my light and my salvation ; 
Whom shall I fear ? 
The Lord is the strength of my life ; 
Of whom shall I be afraid ? 

2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came 

upon me to eat up my flesh, 
They stumbled and fell. 

3 Though an host should encamp against me, 
My heart shall not fear : 

Though war should rise against me, 
In this tvill I be confident. 

4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, 

That will I seek after ; [of my life, 

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days 
To behold the beauty of the Lord, 
And to enquire in his temple [pavilion : 

5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his 
In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me ; 

He shall set me up upon a rock. 

6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine ene- 

mies round about me : 
Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy : 
I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. 

We may observe here, 

First. With what a lively faith David triumphs in God, glories in his holy 
name, and in the interest he had in him. 1. "The Lord is my light." David's 
subjects called him "the light of Israel/' 2 Sam. xxi. 17, and he was indeed a burn- 
ing and a shining light ; but he owns that he shone as the moon doth with a 
borrowed light : what light God darted upon him, reflected upon them; "The 
Lord is my light." God is a true light to his people to shew them the way when 
they are in doubt ; to comfort and rejoice their hearts when they are in sorrow. 
It is in his light that they now walk on in their way, and in his light they hope 
to see light for ever. 2. He is " my salvation/' in whom I am safe, and by whom 



PSALM XXVII. 



121 



I shall be saved. 3. He is " the strength of my life ;" not only the protector of 
my exposed life, who keeps me from being slain, but the strength of my frail, 
weak life, who keeps me from fainting, sinking, and dying away. God, that is 
a believer's life, is the strength of his life, not only by whom, but in whom, he 
lives and moves. In God therefore let us strengthen ourselves. 

Secondly. With what an undaunted courage he triumphs over his enemies. 
No fortitude like that of faith. If God be for him. who can be against him ? 
"Whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid?" If Omnipotence be his 
guard, he has no cause to fear; if he knows it to be so, he has no disposition to 
tear. If God be his light, he fears no shades; if God be his salvation, he fears 
no colours. He triumphs over his enemies that were already routed; ver. 2, 
his enemies came upon him to eat up his flesh, aiming at no less, and assured of 
that ; but they fell : not, he smote them, and they fell, but they stumbled and 
fell ; they were so confounded and weakened that they could not go on with 
their enterprise. Thus they that came to take Christ, with a word's speaking 
were made to stagger and fall to the ground, Jno. xviii. 6. The ruin of some of 
the enemies of God's people is an earnest of the complete conquest of them all ; 
and therefore, these being fallen, he is fearless of the rest. Though they be 
numerous, a host of them ; though they be daring, and their attempts threat- 
ning ; though they encamp against me, an army against one man ; though they 
wage war upon me, yet my heart shall not fear. Hosts cannot hurt us if the 
Lord of hosts protect us ; nay, in this assurance that God is for me, " 1 will be 
confident." Two things he will be confident of: 1. That he shall be safe. Jf 
God is my salvation, "in the time of trouble he shall hide me;" that is, he shall 
set me out of danger, and above the fear of it. God will not only find out a 
shelter for his people in distress, as he did, Jer. xxxvi. 26, but he will himself be 
their hiding-place, Ps. xxxii. 7. His providence shall, it may be, keep them 
safe ; however, his grace shall make them easy. His name is the strong tower 
into which by faith they run, Pr. xviii. 10 ; "he shall hide me," not in the strong- 
holds of En-gedi, 1 Sam. xxiii. 29, but " m the secret of his tabernacle." The 
gracious presence of God with him, his power, his promise, his readiness to hear 
prayer, the witness of his Spirit in the hearts of his people, these are the secrets 
of his tabernacle j and in these the saints find cause for that holy security and 
serenity of mind in which they dwell at ease. This sets them upon a rock which 
will not sink under them, but on which they find firm footing for their hopes ; 
nay, it sets them up upon a rock on high, where the raging, threatening billows 
of a stormy sea cannot touch them. It is a rock that is higher than we, 
Ps. lxi. 2. 2. That he shall be victorious ; ver. 6, " Now shali my head be lifted 
up above mine enemies," not only so as that they cannot reach it with their 
darts, but so as that I shall be exalted to bear rule over them. David here by 
faith in the promise of God triumphs before the victory, and is as sure not only 
of the laurel, but of the crown, as if it were already upon his head. 

Thirdly. With what a gracious earnestness he prays for a constant com- 
munion with God in holy ordinances, ver. 4. It greatly encouraged his 
confidence in God, that he was conscious to himself of an entire affection to 
God and to his ordinances, and that he was in his element when in the way 
of his duty, and in the way of increasing his acquaintance with him. If our 
hearts can witness for us that we delight in God above any creature, that may 
encourage us to depend upon him ; for it is a sign we are of those whom he 
protects as his own. Or it may be taken thus : he desired to dwell in the house 
of the Lord, that there he might be safe from the enemies that surrounded 
him. Finding himself surrounded by threatening hosts, he doth not say, " One 
thing have I desired" in order to my safety, that I may have my army aug- 
mented to such a number, or that I may be master of such a city, or such 
a castle; but "that I may dwell in the house of the Lord," and then I am well. 
Observe, 

1. What it is he desires : To "dwell in the house of the Lord." In the courts 
of God's house the priests had their lodgings, and David wished he had been 
one of them. As disdainfully as some look upon God's ministers, one of the 
greatest and best of kings that ever was would gladly have taken his lot, 
have taken his lodging, among them. Or rather, he desires that he might 
duly and constantly attend on the public service of God, with other faithful 
Israelites, according as the duty of every day required. And therefore he 
longed to see an end of the wars in w r hich he was now engaged ; not that 
he might live at ease in his ow T n palace, but that he might have leisure and 
liberty for that constant attendance in God's courts. Thus Hezekiah, a genuine 
son of David, wished for the recovery of his health ; not that he might go up to 
the thrones of judgment, but that he might go up to the house of the Lord, 
Isa. xxxviii, 22. ISote, All God's children desire to dwell in God's house; 
where should they dwell else ? not to sojourn there as a wayfaring man that 
turns aside to tarry but for a night, or to dwell there for a time only, as the 
servant that abideth not in the house for ever, but to dwell there all the days 
of their life; for there the Son abideth ever. Do we hope that praising 



122 PSALM XXVII. 

pod will be the blessedness of our eternity? surely then we ought to make 
it the business of our time. 

2. How earnestly he covets this : This is the "one thing I have desired of 
the Lord," and which " I will seek after." If he were to ask but one thing 
of God, this should be it ; for this he had at heart more than any thing. He 
desired it as a good thing ; he desired it of the Lord as his gift, and a token 
of his favour. And, having fixed his desire upon this as the one thing needful, 
he sought after it, that is he continued to pray for it, and contrived his affairs 
so as that he might have this liberty and opportunity. Note, They that truly 
desire communion with God will set themselves with all diligence to seek after 
it, Pr. xviii. l. 

3. What he had in his eye in it : He would dwell in God's house ; not for the 
plenty of good entertainment that was there in the feasts upon the sacrifices, — 
not for the music and good singing that was there, — but " to behold the beauty 
of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." He desired to attend in God's 
courts, 1st. That he might have the pleasure of meditating upon God. He 
knew something of the beauty of the Lord; the infinite and transcendent 
amiableness of the Divine Being and perfections : his holiness is his beauty, 
Ps. ex. 3; his goodness is his beauty, Zee. ix. 17; the harmony of all his attri- 
butes is the beauty of his nature. With an eye of faith and holy love we with 
pleasure behold this beauty, and observe more and more in it that is amiable, 
that is admirable. When, with fixedness of thought and a holy flame of devout 
affections, we contemplate God's glorious excellences, and entertain ourselves 
with the tokens of his peculiar favour to us, this is that view of the beauty of 
the Lord which David here covets ; and it is to be had in his ordinances, for 
there he manifests himself. 2nd. That he might have the satisfaction of being 
instructed in his duty ; for concerning this he would inquire in God's temple, 
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" For the sake of these two things he 
desired that one thing, " to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his 
life for blessed are they that do so, they will be still praising him, Ps. lxxxiv. 4, 
both in speaking to him and in hearing' from him. Mary's sitting at Christ's 
feet to hear his word, Christ calls the one thing needful and the good part. 

4. What advantage he promised himself by it, could he but have a place in 
God's house : 1st. There he should be quiet and easy ; there troubles would 
not find him, for he should be hid in secret ; there troubles would not reach 
him, for he should be set on high, ver. 5. Joash, one of David's seed, was hid 
in the house of the Lord six years, and there not only preserved from the sword, 
but reserved to the crowm, 2 Kin. xi. 3. The temple was thought a safe place 
for Nehemiah to abscond in, Neh. vi. 10 ; but the safety of believers is not in 
the walls of the temple, but in the God of the temple, and their comfort in com- 
munion with him. 2nd. There he should be pleasant and merry ; there he would 
offer sacrifices of joy, ver. 6 ; for God's work is its own w r ages. There he w T ould 
sing, yea, he w r ould sing praises to the Lord. Note, Whatever is the matter 
of our joy ought to be the matter of our praise; and when we attend upon 
God in holy ordinances we ought to be much in joy and praise. It is for the 
glory of our God that we should sing in his ways ; and whenever God lifts 
us up above our enemies, we ought to exalt him in our praises. " Thanks be to 
God, who always causeth us to triumph," 2 Cor. ii. 14. 

7 Hear, 0 Lord, when I cry with my voice : 
Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. 

8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face ; 

My heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. 

9 Hide not thy face far from me ; 
Put not thy servant away in anger : 
Thou hast been my help ; leave me not, 
Neither forsake me, 0 God of my salvation. 

10 When my father and my mother forsake me, 
Then the Lord will take me up. 

11 Teach me thy way, 0 Lord, 

And lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. 

12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies : 
For false witnesses are risen up against me, 

And such as breathe out cruelty. 



PSALM XXVII. 



123 



13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness 

of the Lord 

14 In the land of the living. Wait on the Lord : 

Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart : 
Wait, I say, on the Lord. 

David in these verses expresses, 

First. His desire towards God in many petitions. If he cannot now go up 
to the house of the Lord, yet, wherever he is, he can find a way to the throne 
of grace by prayer. 

1. He humbly bespeaks, because he firmly believes he shall have, a gracious 
audience ; " Hear, O Lord, when I cry," not only with my heart, but as one in 
earnest, with my voice " too ; and an answer of peace, which he expects, not 
from his own merit, but God's goodness. " Have mercy upon me, and answer 
me," ver. 7. If we pray and believe, God will graciously hear and answer. 

2. He takes hold of the kind invitation God had given him to this duty, ver. 8. 
It is presumption for us to come into the presence of the King of kings uncalled, 
nor can we draw near with any assurance unless he hold forth to us the golden 
sceptre. David therefore, going to pray, doth in his thoughts fasten upon 
the call God had given him to the throne of his grace, and doth as it were 
reverently touch the top of the golden sceptre, which was thereby held out 
to him. 'My heart said unto thee,' so it begins in the original, or, 'of thee, 
seek ye my face.' He first revolved that, and preached that over again, to him- 
self, (and that is the best preaching, it is hearing twice what God speaks once,) 
Thou saidst, (so it may be supplied,) seek ye my face; and then he returns what 
he had so meditated upon in this pious resolution, " Thy face, Lord, will I seek." 
Observe here, 1st. The true nature of religious worship. It is seeking the 
face of God ; this it is in God's precept, " Seek ye my face." He would have 
us seek him for himself, and make his favour our chief good. And this it is in 
the saint's purpose and desire, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek," and nothing else 
will I take up with. The opening of his hand will satisfy the desire of other 
living things, Ps. cxlv. 16, but it is only the shining of his face that will satisfy 
the desire of a living soul, Ps. iv. 6, 7. 2nd. The kind invitation of a gracious 
God to this duty ; <f Thou saidst, seek ye my face." It is not only a permission, 
but a precept : and his commanding us to seek implies a promise of finding ; 
for he is too kind to say, Seek ye me in vain. God calls us to seek his face in 
our conversion to him, and in our converse with him. He calls us by the 
whispers of his Spirit, to and with our spirits, to seek his face ; calls us by his 
Word,— by the stated returns of opportunities for his worship, and by special 
providences, merciful and afflictive. When we are foolishly making our court 
to lying vanities, God is in love to us calling us in him to seek our own mercies. 
3rd. The ready compliance of a gracious soul with this invitation. The call 
is presently returned ; " My heart answered, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." The 
call was general, " Seek ye my face ;" but, like David, Ave must apply it to our- 
selves, I will seek it. The word doth us no good when we transfer it to others, 
and d'o not ourselves accept the exhortation. The call was, " Seek ye my 
face: "the answer is express, " Thy face, Lord, will I seek;' like that, Jer. hi. 22, 
"Behold we come unto thee." A gracious heart readily echoes to the call of a 
gracious God, being made willing in the day of his power. 

3. He is very particular in his requests. 

1st. For the favour of God, that he might not be shut out from that : ver. 9, 
" Thy face, Lord, will I seek," in obedience to thy command, therefore " hide 
not thy face from me," that is, let me never want the reviving sense of thy 
favour! Love me, and let me know that thou lovest me ; " Put not thy servant 
away in anger." He owns he had deserved God's displeasure, but begs that, 
however God might correct him, he would not cast him away from his presence; 
for what is hell but that ? 

2nd. For the continuance of his presence with him ; Thou hast been my 
help," formerly, and " Thou art the God of my salvation," and therefore, 
whither shall 1 go but to thee? O "leave me not, neither forsake me;" 
withdraw not the operations of thy power from me, for then I am helpless; 
withdraw not the tokens of thy good-will to me, for then I am comfortless. 

3rd. For the benefit of a Divine conduct; ver. 11, "Teach me thy way, 

0 Lord," that is, give me to understand the meaning of thy providences 
towards me, and make them plain to me; and give me to know my duty in 
every doubtful case, that I may not mistake it, but may walk rightly, and that 

1 may not do it with hesitation, but may walk surely. It is not policy but plain- 
ness, that is, downright honesty, that will direct us into, and keep us in, the way 
of our duty. He begs to be guided in a plain path, because of his enemies ; or, 



124 



PSALM XXVIII. 



as the margin reads it, his observers. His enemies watched for his halting, 
that they might find occasion against him. Saul eyed David, 1 Sam. xviii. 9 ; 
this quickened him to pray, * Lord, lead me in a plain path," that they may 
have nothing ill, or nothing that looks ill, to lay to my charge. 

4th. For the benefit of a Divine protection; ver. 12, " Deliver me not over to 
the will of mine enemies." Lord, let them not gain their point, for it aims at my 
life, and no less ; and in such a way as that I nave no fence against them but 
thy power over their consciences; "for false witnesses are risen up against 
me," that aim farther than to take away my reputation or estate, for they 
breathe out cruelty ; it is the blood, the precious blood, they thirst after. Herein 
David was a type of Christ ; for false witnesses rose up against him, and such 
as breathed out cruelty ; but, though he was delivered into then- wicked 
hands, he was not delivered over to their will, for they could not prevent his 
exaltation. 

Secondly. He expresseth his dependence upon God, 

1. That he would help and succour him, when all other helps and succours 
failed him ; ver. 10, <£ When my father and my mother forsake me," that is, the 
nearest and dearest friends I have in the world, from whom I may expect most 
relief, and with most reason, when they either die or are at a distance from me, 
or are disabled to help me in the time of need, or are unkind to me, or unmind- 
ful of me, and will not help me; when I am as helpless as ever poor orphan 
was, that was left fatherless and motherless, then I know "the Lord will take 
me up," as a poor wandering sheep is taken up and saved from perishing. His 
time to help those that trust in him is when all other helpers fail, — when it is 
most for his honour and their comfort; with him the fatherless find mercy. 
This promise has often been fulfilled in the letter of it. Forsaken orphans have 
been taken under the special care of the Divine providence, which has raised 
up relief and friends for them, that way that one would not have expected it. 
God is a surer and better friend than our earthly parents are or can be. 

2. That in due time he should see the displays of his goodness, ver. 13. He 
believed he should "see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living," and 
if he had not done so he should have fainted under his afflictions. Even the 
best saints are subject to faint when their troubles become grievous and tedious. 
Their spirits are overwhelmed, and their flesh and heart fail; but then faith 
is a sovereign cordial. It keeps them from desponding under their burthen, and 
despairing of relief, keeps them hoping, and praying, and waiting, and keeps up 
in them good thoughts of God, and the comfortable enjoyment of themselves. 
But what was it the belief of which kept David from fainting ? " That he 
should see the goodness of the Lord," which now seemed at a distance. They 
that walk by faith in the goodness of the Lord, shall in due time walk in the 
sight of that goodness. This he hopes to see " in the land of the living," that 
is, 1st. In this world, that he should outlive his troubles, and not perish under 
them. It is his comfort, not so much that he shall see the land of the living, 
as that he shall see the goodness of God in it; for that is the comfort of all 
creature comforts to a gracious soul. 2nd. In the land of Canaan, and in 
Jerusalem, where the lively oracles were, in comparison with the heathen, 
that were dead in sin, the land of Israel might fitly be called the land of the 
living, — there God was known, and there David hoped to see his goodness: 
see 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26. Or, 3rd. In heaven. It is that land alone that may truly 
be called the land of the living, where there is no more death j this earth is the 
land of the dying. Nothing like the believing hope of eternal life, the foresights 
of that glory, and foretastes of those pleasures, to keep us from fainting under 
all the calamities of this present time. 

3. That in the meantime he should be strengthened to bear up under his 
burthens, ver. 14. "Whether he saith it to himself or to his friends, it comes all 
to one, this is that which encourageth him. " He shall strengthen thy heart," 
shall sustain the spirit, and then the spirit shall sustain the infirmity. In that 
strength, 1st. Keep close to God, and to your duty ; " Wait on the Lord," by 
faith and prayer, and an humble resignation to his will, " wait, 1 say, on the 
Lord;" whatever you do, grow not remiss in your attendance upon God. 2nd. 
Keep up your spirits in the midst of the greatest dangers and difficulties ; " Be 
of good courage." Let your hearts be fixed, trusting in God, and your minds 
stayed upon him, and then let none of these things move you. They that wait 
upon the Lord have reason to be of good courage. 



PSALM XXVIII. 

The former part of this psalm is the prayer of a saint militant, and now in distress, 1—3 ; 
to which is added the doom of God's implacable enemies, ver. 4, 5. The latter part 
of the psalm is the thanksgiving of a saint triumphant, and delivered out of his dis- 
tresses, ver. 6—8; to which is added a prophetical prayer for all God's faithful, loyal 



PSALM XXVIII. 



125 



subjects, ver. 9 ; so that it is hard to say which of these two conditions David was in 
when he penned it. Some think he was now in trouble seeking God, but at the same 
time preparing to praise him for his deliverance, and by faith giving him thanks for 
it, before it was wrought. Others think he was flow in triumph, but remembered and 
recorded, for his own and others' benefit, the prayers he made when he was in affliction, 
that the mercy might relish the better, when it appeared to be an answer to them. 

A Psalm of David. 




NTO thee will I cry, 0 Lord my rock ; be not silent to 
me : 



Lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that 
go down into the pit. 

2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, 
When I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. 

3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers 
Which speak peace to their neighbours, [of iniquity, 
But mischief is in their hearts. 

4 Give them according to their deeds, 

And according to the wickedness of their endeavours : 
Give them after the work of their hands ; 
Render to them their desert. 

5 Because they regard not the works of the Lord, 
Nor the operation of his hands, 

He shall destroy them, and not build them up. 

In these verses David is very earnest in prayer. 

First. He prays that God would graciously hear and answer him now that, in 
his distress, he called upon him, ver. 1, 2. Observe his faith in prayer ; " O Lord 
my rock;" noting his belief of God's power, He is a rock; and his dependence 
upon that power, He is my rock, on whom I build my hope. Observe his fer- 
vency in prayer, "To thee will I cry," as one in earnest, being ready to sink 
unless thou come in with seasonable succour. And observe how solicitous he 
is to obtain an answer, " Be not silent to me," as one angry at my prayers, 
Ps. lxxx. 4 ; Lord, speak to me, answer me with good words, and comfortable 
words, Zee. i. 13. Though the thing I pray for be not given in, yet let God 
speak to me joy and gladness, and make me to hear it. Lord, speak for me, in 
answer to my prayers ; plead my cause, command deliverances for me, and thus 
hear and answer the voice of my supplications. Two things he pleads : 1. The 
sad despair he should be in if God slighted him. " If thou be silent to me," and 
I have not the tokens of thy favour, "I am like them that go down into the 
pit," that is, I am a dead man, lost and undone : if God be not my friend, appear 
not to me, and appear not for me, my hope and my help is perished. Nothing 
can be so cutting, so killing, to a gracious soul, as the want of God's favour, and 
the sense of his displeasure. i I shall be like them that go down to hell,' so 
some understand it; for what is the misery of the damned but this, that God 
is for ever silent to them, and deaf to their cry? Those are in some measure 
qualified for God's favour, and may expect it, who are thus possessed with a 
dread of his wrath, and to whom his frowns are worse than death. 2. The good 
hopes he had that God would favour him, " I lift up my hands towards thy 
holy oracle:" which notes, not only an earnest desire, bat an earnest expecta- 
tion, from thence to receive an answer of peace. The most holy place, within the 
veil, is here, as elsewhere, called the oracle ; there the ark and the mercy-seat 
were, there God was said to dwell between the cherubims, and thence he spake 
to his people, Num. vii. 89. That was a type of Christ ; and it is to him that we 
must lift up our eyes and hands, for through him all good comes from God to 
lis. It was also a figure of heaven, Heb. ix. 24. And from God, as our Father 
in heaven, we are taught to expect an answer to our prayers. The Scriptures 
are called the oracles of God, and to them we must have an eye in our prayers 
and expectations. There is the word on which God hath caused and encouraged 
us to hope. 

Secondly. He deprecates the doom of wicked people, as before, Ps. xxvi. 9, 



126 



PSALM XXVIII. 



" Gather not my soul with sinners." Lord, I attend thy holy oracle ? " draw me 
not away from that with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity," ver. 3; 
that is, 1. Save me from being entangled in the snares they have laid for me. 
They natter and cajole me, and speak peace to me, but they have a design upon 
me, for mischief is in their heart; they aim to disturb me, nay, to destroy me; 
Lord, suffer me not to be drawn away and ruined by their cursed plots ; for 
they have, can have, no power, no success against me, except it be given them 
from above. 2. Save me from being infected with their sins, and from doing 
as they do ; let me not be drawn away by their fallacious arguments, or their 
allurements, from thy holy oracle, where I desire to dwell all the days of my 
life, to practise any wicked works: see Ps. cxli. 4. Lord, never leave me to 
myself to use such arts of deceit and treachery for my safety as they use for my 
ruin. Let no event of providence be an invincible temptation to me, to draw me 
either to the imitation or into the interest of wicked people. Good men dread 
the way of sinners ; the best are sensible of the danger they are in of being 
drawn aside into it; and therefore we should all pray earnestly to God for his 
grace to keep us in our integrity. 3. Save me from being involved in their 
doom ; let not me be led forth with the workers of iniquity, for I am none of 
them that speak peace while war is in their hearts. Note, Those that are 
careful not to partake with sinners in their sins have reason to hope that they 
shall not partake with them in their plagues, Rev. xviii. 4. 

Thirdly. He imprecates the just judgments of God upon the workers of 
iniquity ; ver. 4, " Give them according to their deeds." This is not the language 
of passion or revenge ; nor is it inconsistent with the duty of praying for our 
enemies. But, 1. Thus he would shew how far he was from complying with 
the workers of iniquity, and with what good reason he had begged not to be 
drawn away with them, because he was convinced that they could not be made 
more miserable than to be dealt with according to their deeds. 2. Thus he 
would express his zeal for the honour of God's justice in governing the world : 
Lord, they think all well they do, and justify themselves in their wicked prac- 
tices ; Lord, " give them after the work of their hands," and so undeceive those 
about them, who think there is no harm in what they do because it goes un- 
punished, Ps. xciv. 1,2. 3. This prayer is a prophecy that God will, sooner 
or later, render to all impenitent sinners according t*o their deserts % If what 
has been^ done amiss be not undone by repentance, there will certainly come 
a reckoning day, when God will render to every man who persists in his evil 
deeds according to them. It is a prophecy particularly of the destruction of 
destroyers. They speak peace to their neighbour, but mischief is in their 
hearts ; Lord, give them according to their deeds, let the spoilers be spoiled, 
and let them be treacherously dealt with, who have thus dealt treacherously : 
see Isa. xxxiii. 1 ; Rev. xviii. 4; xiii. 10. Observe, He foretells that God will 
reward them, not only according to their deeds, but "according to the wicked- 
ness of their endeavours;" for sinners shall be reckoned with, not only for the 
mischief they have done, but for the mischief they would have done, which they 
designed, and did what they could to effect. And if God go by this rule in 
dealing with the wicked, sure he will do so in dealing with the righteous, and 
will reward them, not only for the good they have done, but for the good they 
have endeavoured to do, though they could not compass it. 

Fourthly. He foretells their destruction for their contempt of God, and his 
hand; ver. 5, "Because they regard not the works of the Lord, and the ope- 
rations of his hands,'' by which he manifests himself, and speaks to the children 
of men, he shall destroy them in this world and in the other, and not build 
them up. Note, A stupid regardlessness of the works of God is the cause or 
the sin of sinners, and so becomes the cause of their ruin. Why do men ques- 
tion the being or attributes of God, but because they do not duly regard his 
handy works which declare his glory, and in which the^ invisible things of him 
are clearly seen? "Why do men forget God, and live without him, nay, affront 
God, and live in rebellion against him, but because they consider not the instances 
of that wrath of his, which is " revealed from heaven against all ungodliness 
and unrighteousness of men?" Why do the enemies of God"s people hate and 
persecute them, and devise mischief against them, but because they regard not 
the works God has wrought for his church, by which he has made it appear how 
dear it is to him ? see Isa. v. 12. 

In singing this we must arm ourselves against all temptations to join with the 
workers of iniquity ; and animate ourselves against all the troubles we may be 
threatened with by the workers of iniquity. 

6 Blessed be the Lord, 

Because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. 

7 The Lord is my strength and my shield ; 
My heart trusted in him, and I am helped : 



PSALM XXVIII. 



127 



Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; 
And with my song will I praise him. 

8 The Lord is their strength, 

And he is the saving strength of his anointed. 

9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance : 
Feed them also, and lift them up for ever. 

In these verses, 

First. David gives God thanks for the audience of his prayers, as affection- 
ately as a few verses before he had begged it ; ver. 6, " Blessed be the Lord." 
How soon are the saints' sorrows turned into songs; and their prayers into 
praises ! It was in faith that David prayed, ver. 2. " Hear the voice of my sup- 
plications ;" and by the same faith he gives thanks, ver. 6, that God had heard 

, the voice of his supplications. Note, 1. They that pray in faith may rejoice in 
hope. He hath heard me, that is, graciously accepted me, and J am as sure 
of a real answer as if I had it already. 2. What we win by prayer we must 
wear with praise. Hath God heard our supplications? let us then bless his 

I name. 

Secondly. He encourageth himself to hope in God for the perfecting of every 
thing that concerned him. Having given to God the glory of his grace, ver. 6, 
he is humbly bold to take the comfort of it, ver. 7. This is the method of 
attaining peace, let it begin with praise that it is attainable. Let us first bless 
God, and then bless ourselves. Observe, 1. His dependence upon God. " The 
' Lord is my strength " to support me, and carry me on through all my services 
and sufferings. He is "my shield" to protect me from all the malicious designs 
, of my enemies against me. I have chosen him to be so, I have always found him 
so, and I expect he will still be so. 2. His experience of the benefit of that 
dependence. " My heart trusted in him," and in his power and promise, and it 
has not been in vain to dp so, for 1 am helped, I have been helped many a time ; 
not only God has given in to me in his due time the help I trusted to him for, 
but my very trusting in him has helped me in the meantime, and kept me from 
fainting, Ps. xxvii. 13. The very actings of faith are present aids to a drooping 
spirit, and help it many a time at a dead lift. 3. His improvement of this expe- 
rience. He had the pleasure of it, "therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth." The 
joy of a believer is seated in the heart, while in the laughter of the fool the 
heart is sorrowful. It is great joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory. The 
heart that truly believes shall in due time greatly rejoice ; it is joy and peace in 
believing that we are to expect. God shall have the praise of it; v\hen "my 
heart greatly rejoiceth, with my song will 1 praise him." Thus must we express 
our gratitude ; it is the least we can do, and others will hereby be invited and 
encouraged to trust in him too. 

Thirdly. He pleaseth himself with the interest which all good people through 
Christ have in God; ver. 8, ''The Lord is their strength;" not mine only, but 
the strength of every believer. Note, The saints rejoice in their friends' com- 
forts as well as then* own ; for, as we have not the less benefit by the light of the 
sun, so neither by the light of God's countenance, for others sharing therein; 
for we are sure there is enough for all, and enough for each. This is our com- 
munion with all saints, that God is their strength and ours ; Christ, the 4 r Lord 
and ours, I Cor. i. 2. He is their strength, the strength of all Israel, because 
" he is the saving strength of his Anointed that is, 1. Of David in the type. 
God, in strengthening him that was their king and fought their battles, 
strengthened the whole kingdom. He calls himself God's anointed, because 
it was the unction he had received that exposed him to the envy of his enemies, 
and therefore entitled him to the Divine protection. 2. Of Christ, his Anointed, 
his Messiah, in the antitype. God was his saving strength, qualified him for 
his undertaking, and carried him through it: see Ps. lxxxix. 21 ; Isa. xlix. 5; 
1. 7, 9 ; and so he becomes their strength, the strength of all the saints. He 
strengthened him that is the churcirs head, and from him difiuseth strength to 
all the members ; has commanded his strength, and so strengthens what he has 
wrought for us, Ps. lxviii. 28 : see Ps. lxxx. 17, 18. 

Fourthly. He concludes with a short but comprehensive prayer for the church 
of God, ver. 9. He prays for Israel, not as his people, Save my people, and bless 
mine inheritance, though they were so, but thine. God's interest in them lay 
nearer his heart than his own ; We are thy people, is a good plea, Isa. Ixiv. 9 ; 
lxiii. 19, " 1 am thine, save me." God's people are his inheritance, dear to him, 
and precious in hiseyes ; what little glory he has from this world he has it from 
them: "The Lord's portion is his people." That which he begs of God for 
them is, 1. That he would save them from their enemies, and the dangers they 
were exposed to. 2. That he would bless them with ail good flowing from his 
favour, in performance of his promise, and amounting to a happiness for them. 



12S PSALM XXIX. 

3. That he would feed them: bless them with plenty, and especially the plenty 
of his ordinances, which are food to the soul: 'rule them,' so the margin; 
direct their counsels and actions aright, and overrule their affairs for good. 
Feed them ami rule them; that is. set pastors, set rulers over them, that shall do 
their office with wisdom and understanding. 4. That he would lift them up for 
ever; lift them up out of their troubles and distresses: and do this not only for 
those of that age, but for his people in every age to come, even to the end. "Lift 
them up into thy glorious kingdom, lift them up as high as heaven. There, and 
there only, will the saints be lifted up for ever, never more to sink or be 
depressed. Observe, Those, and those only, whom God feeds and rules, that 
are willing to be taught, and guided, and governed by him, shall be saved, and 
blessed, and lifted up for ever. 

PSALM XXIX. 

It is the probable conjecture of some very good interpreters that David penned this psalm 
upon occasion, and just at the time, of a great storm of thunder, lightning, and rain ; 
as the 8th psalm was his meditation in a moonshine night, and the 19th in a sunshine 
morning. It is good to take occasion from the sensible operations of God's power in 
the kingdom of nature to give glory to him. So composed was David, and so cheerful, 
even in a dreadful tempest, when others trembled, that then he penned this psalm; 
for. "though the earth be removed, yet will we not fear." I. He calls upon the great 
ones of the world to give glory to God, ver. 1, 2. II. To convince them of the great- 
ness of that God whom they were to adore, he takes notice of his power and terror 
in the thunder and lightning, and thunder-showers, ver. 3 — 9; his sovereign dominion 
over the world, ver. 10 ; and his special favour to his church, ver. 11. Great and high 
thoughts of God should fill us in singing this psalm. 

A Psalm of David. 

GIVE unto the Lord, 0 ye mighty, 
Give unto the Lord glory and strength. 

2 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name ; 
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness 

3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters : 
The God of glory thundereth : 

The Lord is upon many waters. 

4 The voice of the Lord is powerful ; 
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 

5 The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars ; 



PSALM XXIX. 129 

Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. 
6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; 
Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. 




LEBANON FROM THE SEA. La Borde. 



7 The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. 

8 The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness ; 
The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. 

9 The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, 
And discovereth the forests : 

And in his temple doth every one speak of his glory. 

10 The Lord sitteth upon the flood ; 
Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever. 

11 The Lord will give strength unto his people; 
The Lord will bless his people with peace. 

In this psalm we have, 

First. A demand of the homage of the great men of the earth to be paid 
to the great God. Every clap of thunder David interpreted as a call to himself 
and other princes to give glory to the great God. Observe, 1. Who they are 
that are called to this duty : " O ye mighty," ver. 1. Ye sons of the mighty; 
that have power, and on whom that power is devolved by succession and 
inheritance, that have royal blood running in your veins. It is much for the 
honour of the great God that the great men of this world should pay their 
homage to him ; and they are bound to do it, not only because as high as they 
are He is infinitely above them, and therefore they must vail to him, but 
because they have their power from him, and are to use it for him, and this 
tribute of acknowledgment they owe to him for it. 2. How often this caU 
is repeated: "Give unto the Lord," and again, and a third time, "Give unto 
the Lord." This intimates that the mighty men are backward to this duty, 
and are hardly persuaded to it; but that it is of great consequence to the 
interests of God's kingdom among men that princes should heartily espouse 
them. Jerusalem flourishes when the kings of the earth bring their glory and 
honour into it, Rev. xxi. 24. 3. What they are called to: To give unto the 
Lord; not as if he needed any thing, or could be benefited by any gifts of ours, 
or as if we had any thing to give him that is not his own already, "Who hath 
first given to him?" but the recognition of his glory, and of his dominion over 
us he is pleased to interpret as a gift to him. " Give unto the Lord," your own 

i 



ISO PSALM XXIX. 

selves in the first place, and then your services. " Give unto the Lord glory 
and strength;" that is, acknowledge his glory and strength, and give praise 
to him as a God of infinite majesty and irresistible power; and what glory and 
strength he has by his providence intrusted you with, offer it to him, to be used 
for his honour in his service. Give him your crowns, let them be laid at his 
feet ; give him your sceptres, your swords, your keys, put all into his hand, that 
you in the use of them may be to him for a name and a praise. Princes value 
themselves by their glory and strength ; these they must ascribe to God, own- 
ing him to be infinitely more glorious and powerful than they. 

This demand of homage from the mighty may be looked upon as directed 
either to the grandees of David's own kingdom, the peers of the realm, the 
princes of the tribes, — and it is to excite them to a more diligent and constant 
attendance at God's altars, in which he had observed them very remiss, — or to 
the neighbouring kings whom he by his sword had made tributaries to Israel, 
and now would persuade to become tributaries to the God of Israel. Crowned 
heads must bow before the King of kings. What is here said to the mighty 
is said to all, Worship God ; it is the sum and substance of the everlasting 
Gospel, Rev. xiv. 6, 7. Now we have here, 1. The nature of religions worship ; 
it is giving " to the Lord the glory due to his name," ver. 2. God's name is that 
whereby he has made Himself know r n. There is a glory due to his name. It is 
impossible we should give him all the glory due to his name; when we have 
said and done our best for the honour of God's name, still we come infinitely 
short of the merit of the subject. But when we answer that revelation which 
he has made of himself, with suitable affections and adorations, then we give 
him some of that glory which is due to his name. If we would, in hearing, and 
praying, and other acts of devotion, receive grace from God, we must make it 
our business to give glory to God. 2. The rule of the performance of religious 
exercises; "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Which speaks, 
1st. The object of our worship. The glorious majesty of God is called " the 
beauty of holiness," 2 Chr. xx. 21. In the worship of God we must have an 
eye to his beauty, and adore him not only as infinitely awful, and therefore to 
be feared above all, but as infinitely amiable, and therefore to be loved and 
delighted in above all; especially we must have an eye to the beauty of his 
holiness ; this the angels fasten upon in their praises, Rev. iv. 8. Or, 2nd. The 
place of worship. The sanctuary then was the beauty of holiness, Ps. xlviii. 1,2; 
Jer. xvii. 12. The beauty of the sanctuary was the exact agreeableness of the 
worship there performed with the Divine appointment; the pattern in the 
mount. Now, under the Gospel, solemn assemblies of Christians (which purity 
is the beauty of) are the places where God is to be worshipped. Or, 3. The 
manner of worship. We must be holy in all our religious performances ; that 
is, devoted to God, and to his will and glory. There is a beauty in holiness, 
and it is that that puts an acceptable beauty upon all the acts of worship. 

Secondly. Good reason given for this demand. We shall see ourselves bound 
to give glory to God if we consider, 1. His sufficiency in himself, intimated 
in his name Jehovah, " I am that I am," which is repeated here no less than 
eighteen times in this short psalm, twice in every verse but three, and once in 
two of those three : 1 think there is not the like in all the book of Psalms. Let 
the mighty ones of the earth know him by this name, and give him the glory 
due to it. 2. His sovereignty over all things. Let those that rule ove»* men 
know there is a God that rules over them, that rules over all. The psalmist 
here sets forth God's dominion, 

1. In the kingdom of nature. In the wonderful effects of natural causes, and 
the operations of the powers of nature, we ought to take notice of God's glory 
and strength, which we are called upon to ascribe to him. In the thunder, anci 
lightning, and rain, we may see, 

1st. His glory. It is the God of glory that thundereth, ver. 3. It is God that 
thunders; it is the noise of his voice, Job xxxvii. 2, and it speaks him a God 
of glory ; so awful is the sound of the thunder, and so bright the flash of its 
companion the lightning. To the hearing and to the sight nothing more affect- 
ing than these, as if by those two learning senses God would give such proofs 
of his glory to the minds of men as should leave the most stupid inexcusable. 
And some observe, that there were then some particular reasons why thunder 
should be called the voice of the Lord, not only because it comes from above, 
is not under the direction or foresight of any man, speaks loud, and reaches far; 
but because God often spake in thunder, particularly at mount Sinai, and by 
thunder discomfited the enemies of Israel. To speak it the voice of the God 
of glory, it is here said to be upon the waters, upon many waters, ver. 3; it 
reacheth over the vast ocean, the waters under the firmament; it rattles among 
the thick clouds, the waters that ure above the firmament. Every one that 
hears the thunder, his ears being made to tingle with it, will own that " the 
voice of the Lord is full of majesty," ver. 4, enough to make the highest 
humble, for none "can thunder with a voice like him;" an I the proudest 
tremble, for, if his voice be so terrible, what is his arm? Every time we hear 



PSALM XXIX. 131 

it thunder, let our hearts be thereby filled with great, and high, and honourable 
thoughts of God, in the holy adoring and admirings of whom the power of 
godliness doth so much consist. " O Lord our God, thou art very great." 

2nd. His power; ver. 4, "The voice of the Lord is powerful," as appears by 
the effects of it ; for it works wonders. They that write natural histories 
relate the prodigious effects of thunder and lightning, even out of the ordinary 
course of natural causes, which must be resolved into the omnipotence of 
the God of nature. First. Trees have been rent and split by thunderbolts: 
ver. 5. 6, "The voice of the Lord" in the thunder often "broke the cedars, 
even those of Lebanon, the strongest, the stateliest. Sume understand it of the 
violent winds, which shook the cedars, and sometimes tore off their aspiring 
tops. Earthquakes also shook the ground itself on which the trees grew, and 
made Lebanon and Sirion to dance; the wilderness of Kadesh also was in like 
manner shaken, ver. 8, the trees by winds, the ground by earthquakes, and 
both by thunders, of which I incline rather to understand it. The learned 
Dr. Hammond understands it of the consternation and conquest of the neigh- 
bour kingdoms that warred with Israel and opposed David; as the Syrians, 
whose country lay near the forest of Lebanon, the Amorites, that bordered on 
mount Hebron, and the Moabitesand Ammonites, that layabout the wilderness 
of Kadesh. Secondly. Fires have been kindled by lightnings, and housesand 
churches thereby consumed; hence we read of hot thunderbolts, Ps. lxxviii. 48. 
Accordingly, the voice of the Lord in the thunder is here said to divide the 
flames, ver. 7 ; that is, to scatter them upon the earth, as God sees fit to direct 
them, and do execution by them. Thirdly. The terror of thunder " makes the 
hinds to calve," sooner, and some think easier, than otherwise they would. The 
hind is a timorous creature, and much affected with the noise of thunder; and 
no marvel, when sometimes proud and stout men have been made to tremble 
at it. The emperor Caligula would hide himself under his bed when it thun- 
dered. Horace the poet owns that he was reclaimed from atheism by the terror 
of thunder and lightning, which he describes somewhat like this here, Lib. i. 
Ode 34. The thunder is said here to discover the forests ; that is, it so terrifies 
the wild beasts of the forest that they quit the dens and thickets in which they 
hid themselves, and so are discovered. Or, it throws down the trees, and so 
discovers the ground that was shaded by them. Whenever it thunders, let us 
think of this psalm; and whenever we sing this psalm let us think of the dread- 
ful thunderclaps we have sometimes heard, and thus bring God's word and his 
works together, that by both we may be directed and quickened to give unto 
him the glory due unto his name; and let us bless him that there is another 
voice of his besides this dreadful one, by which God now speaks to us, even the 
still small voice of his Gospel, the terror of which shall not make us afraid. 

2. In the kingdom of providence. God is to be praised as the governor 
of the world of mankind. He "sits upon the flood, he sits king for ever," 
ver. 10. He not only sits at rest in the enjoyment of himself, but he sits as king 
in the throne which he has prepared in the heavens, Ps. ciii. 17, where he takes 
cognizance of, and gives orders about, all the affairs of the children of men, and 
doth all according to his will, according to the counsel of his will. Observe, 
1st. The power of his kingdom: He sits upon the flood. As he has founded 
the earth, so he hath founded his own throne, upon the floods, Ps. xxiv. 2. The 
ebbings and flo wings of this lower world, and the tosses and revolutions of the 
affairs in it, give not the least shake to the repose, or to the counsels, of the 
Eternal Mind. The opposition of his enemies is compared to the floods, 
Ps. xciii. 3, 4; but the Lord sits upon it ; that is, he crusheth it, conquers it, 
and completes his own purposes in despite of all the devices that are in men's 
hearts. The word here translated " the flood," is never used but concerning 
Noah's flood; and therefore some think that is it that is here spoken of. God 
did sit upon that flood, as a judge executing the sentence of his justice upon the 
world of the ungodly that was swept away by it. And he still sits upon the 
flood, restrains the waters of Noah, that they turn not again to cover the earth, 
according to his promise never to destroy the earth any more by a flood, 
Gen. ix. 11 ; lia. liv. 9. 2nd. The perpetuity of his kingdom : He sits king for 
ever ; no period can or shall be put to his government. The administration 
of his kingdom is consonant to his counsels from eternity, and pursuant to his 
designs for eternity. 

3. In the kingdom of grace. Here his glory shines brightest, 1st. In the ador- 
ations he receives from the subjects of that kingdom, ver. 9. "In his temple," 
where his people attend his discoveries of himself and his mind, and attend him 
with their praises, there doth "every one speak of his glory." In the world 
every man sees it, or at least, may behold it afar off, Job xxxvi. 25 ; but it is only 
in the temple, in the church, that it is spoken of to his honour. "All his works 
do praise him;" that is, they minister matter for praise, but his saints only do 
bless him and speak of his glory in his works, Ps. cxlv. 10. 2nd. In the favours 
lie bestows upon the subjects of that kingdom, ver. 11. First. He will enable 
them for his service. "He will give strength to his people," to fortify tlieia 



132 PSALM XXX. 

against every evil work, and to furnish them for every good work; out of 
weakness they shall be made strong; nay, he will perfect strength in weakness. 
Secondly. He will encourage them in his service. "He will bless his people 
with peace." Peace is a blessing of inestimable value, which God designs for 
all his people. " The work of righteousness is peace : great peace have they 
that love thy law;" but much more the crown of righteousness. The end of 
the righteous is peace, it is endless peace. When the thunder of God's wrath 
shall make sinners tremble, the saints shall lift up their heads with joy. 



PSALM XXX. 

This is a psalm of thanksgiving for the great deliverances which God had wrought for 
David, penned upon occasion of the dedicating of hjs house of cedar, and sung in that 
pious solemnity, though there is not any thing in it that has particular reference to 
that occasion. Some collect from divers passages in the psalm itself, that it was 
penned upon his recovery from a dangerous fit of sickness, which might happen to 
be about the time of the dedication of his house. I. He here praiseth God for the 
deliverances he had wrought for him, ver. 1 — 3. II. He calls upon others to praise 
him too, and encourageth them to trust in him, ver. 4, 5. III. He blames himself for 
his former security, ver. 6, 7, IV. He recollects the prayers and complaints he had 
made in his distress, ver. 8 — 10; and with them stirs up himself to be very thankful 
to God for the present comfortable change, ver. 11, 12. In singing this psalm, we 
ought to remember with thankfulness any like deliverances wrought for us ; for which 
we must, stir up ourselves to praise him, and by which we must be engaged to depend 
upon him. 

A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David, 

I WILL extol thee, 0 Lord ; for thou hast lifted me up, 
And hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. 

2 0 Lord my God, I cried unto thee, 
And thou hast healed me. 

3 0 Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave : 
Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to 

4 Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, [the pit. 
And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 

5 For his anger endureth but a moment ; 
In his favour is life : 

Weeping may endure for a night, 
But joy cometh in the morning. 

It was the laudable practice of the pious Jews, and though not expressly 
appointed yet allowed and accepted, when they had built a new house, to 
dedicate it to God, Deu. xx. 5. David did so, when his house was built, and he 
took possession of it, 2 Sam. v. 11; for royal palaces do as much need God's 
protection, and are as much bound to be at his service, as ordinary houses. 
Note, The houses we dwell in should, at our first entrance upon them, be 
dedicated to God as little sanctuaries. We must solemnly commit ourselves 
and our families, and all our family affairs, to God's conduct and care; must 
pray for his presence and blessing, must devote ourselves and all ours to his 
glory, and must resolve both that we will put away iniquity far from our 
tabernacles and that we and our houses will serve the Lord, both in the duties 
of family worship, and in all instances of Gospel obedience. Some conjecture 
that this psalm was sung at the rededication of David's house, after he had 
been driven out of it by Absalom, who had defiled it with his incest, and that 
it is a thanksgiving for the crushing of that dangerous rebellion. In these 
verses, 

First. David doth himself give God thanks for the great deliverances he had 
wrought for him ; ver. \. "I will extol thee, O Lord;" that is, I will exalt thy 
name, will praise thee as one high and lifted up ; I will do what I can to 
advance the interests of thy kingdom among men. "I will extol thee, for thou 
hast lifted me up," not only up out of the pit in which I was sinking, but up to 
the throne of Israel. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust. In consideration 
of the great things God has done to exalt us, both by his providence and by his 
grace, we are bound in gratitude to do ail we can to extol his name, though 
the most we can do is but little. Three things magnify David's deliverance: 



PSALM XXX. 133 

1. That it was the defeat of his enemies. They were not suffered to triumph 
over him, as they would have done (though it is a barbarous thing) if he had 
died of this sickness, or perished in this distress: see Ps. xli. 11. 2. That it 
was an answer to his prayers ; ver. 2, "I cried unto thee." All the expressions 
of the sense we nave of our troubles should be directed to God, and every cry 
be a cry to him; and giving way in this manner to our grief will ease a bur- 
thened spirit. " I cried to thee," and thou hast not only heard me, but healed 
me, healed the distempered body, healed the disturbed and disquieted mind, 
healed the disordered, distracted affairs of the kingdom. It is what God glories 
in ; "I am the Lord that healeth thee," Ex. xv. 26, and we must give him the 
glory of it. 3. That it was the saving of his life; for he was brought to the 
last extremity, dropping into the grave, and ready to go down into the pit, and 
yet rescued and kept alive, ver. 3. The more imminent our dangers have been, 
the more eminent our deliverances have been, the more comfortable to our- 
selves, and the more illustrious proofs of the power and goodness of God. A 
life from the dead ought to be spent in extolling the God of our life. 

Secondly. He calls upon others to join with him in praise, not only for the 
particular favours God had bestowed upon him, but for the general tokens 
of his goodwill to all his saints; ver. 4, "Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of 
his." All that are truly saints he owns for his; there is a remnant of such 
in this world, and from them it is expected that they sing unto him; for they 
are created and sanctified, made, and made saints, that they be to him for 
a name and a praise. His saints in heaven sing to him ; why should not 
those on earth be doing the same work, as well as they can, in concert with 
them? 

1. They believe him to be a God of unspotted purity; and therefore let them 
sing to him. Let them "give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness ; " that 
is, let them praise his holy name, for holiness is his memorial throughout all 
generations. God is a holy God; his holiness is his glory ; that is the attribute 
which the holy angels in their praises fasten most upon, Isa. vi. 3: Rev. iv. 8. 
We ought to be much in the mention and remembrance of God's holiness ; and 
holy souls can give thanks at the mention of God's holiness. It is matter of 
joy to the saints that God is a holy God; for then they hope he will make them 
holy, more holy. No one of all God's perfections carries in it more terror to the 
wicked, nor more comfort to the godly, than his holiness. It is a good sium 
we are in some measure partakers of his holiness, if we can heartily rejoice and 
give thanks at the remembrance of it. 

2. They have experienced him to be a God gracious and merciful ; and there- 
fore let them sing to him. 1st. We have found his frowns very short. Though 
we have deserved they should have been everlasting, and that he should have 
been angry with us till he had consumed us, and should never have been 
reconciled, yet "his anger endureth but for a moment,'* ver. 5. When we 
offend him he is angry ; but, as he is slow to anger, and not soon provoked, so, 
when he is angry, upon our repentance and humiliation, his anger is soon 
turned away, and he is willing to be at peace with us. If he hide his face from 
his own children, and suspend the wonted tokens of his favour, it is but in 
a little wrath, and for a small moment ; but he will gather them with everlast- 
ing kindness, Isa. liv. 7, 8. If weeping endure for a night, and it be a wearisome 
night; yet, as sure as the light of the morning returns after the darkness of 
the night, so sure will joy and comfort return in a short time, in due time, to 
the people of God; for the covenant of grace is as firm as the covenant of the 
day. This word has often been fulfilled to us in the letter, weeping has endured 
for a night; but the grief has been soon over, and the grievance gone. Observe, 
As long as God's anger continues, so long the saints' weeping continues; but 
if that be but for a moment, the affliction is but for a moment ; and when the 
light of God's countenance is restored the affliction is easily made nothing of. 
2nd. We have found his smiles very sweet. '* In his favour is life," that is, all 
good. The return of his favour to an afflicted soul is as life from the dead ; 
nothing can be more reviving. Our happiness is bound up in God's favour; 
if we have that we have enough, whatever else we want. It is the life of the 
soul, it is spiritual life, the earnest of life eternal. 

6 And in my prosperity I said, 

I shall never be moved. [stand strong : 

7 Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to 
Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. 

8 I cried to thee, 0 Lord ; 

And unto the Lord I made supplication. [pit ? 

9 ^Yhat profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the 



134 PSALM XXX. 

Shall the dust praise thee ? shall it declare thy truth ? 

10 Hear, 0 Lord, and have mercy upon me : 
Lord, be thou my helper. 

1 1 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing : 
Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with 

gladness ; [not be silent. 

12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and 
0 Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. 

We have in these verses an account of three several states that David was 
in successively, and of the workings of his heart toward God in each of those 
states, what he said and did, and how his heart stood affected; in the first 
of which we may see what we are too apt to be, and in the other two what 

we should be. 

First. He had long enjoyed prosperity, and then he grew secure, and over 
confident of the continuance of it; ver. 6, 7, "In my prosperity," when I was in 
health of body, and God had given me rest from all mine enemies, "I said, 
I shall never be moved;" that is, I never thought either of having my body 
distempered or my government disturbed, nor had any apprehensions of danger 
upon any account. Such complete victories had he obtained over those that 
opposed him, and such a confirmed interest had he in the hearts of his people, 
such a firmness of mind, and such a strong constitution of body, that he thought 
his prosperity fixed like a mountain ; yet this he ascribes not to his own wisdom 
or fortitude, but to the Divine goodness; "Thou, through thy favour, hast 
made my mountain to stand strong," ver. 7. He doth not look upon it as his 
heaven, (as worldly people do, who make their prosperity their felicity,) only 
his mountain; it is earth still, only raised a little higher than the common level. 
This he thought, by the favour of God, would be perpetuated to him ; imagining 
perhaps that, having had so many troubles in the beginning of his days, he had 
had his whole share, and should have none in his latter end. Or, that God, 
who had given him such tokens of his favour, would never frown upon him. 
Note, 1. We are very apt to dream, when things are well with us, that they 
will always be so, and never otherwise; "To-morrow shall be as this day;" 
as if we should think when the weather is once fair, that it will be ever fair; 
whereas nothing is more certain than that it will change. 2. When we see 
ourselves deceived in our expectation, it becomes us to reflect with shame 
upon our security as our folly, as David doth here, that we may be wiser 
another time, and may rejoice in our prosperity as though we rejoiced not, 
because the fashion of it passeth away. 

Secondly. On a sudden he fell into trouble, and then he prayed to God, and 
pleaded earnestly for relief and succour. 1. His mountain was shaken, and he 
with it; it proved when he grew secure he was least safe; "Thou didst hide 
thy face, and I w r as troubled," in mind, body, or estate. In every change of his 
condition he still kept his eye upon God; and, as he ascribed his prosperity to 
God's favour, so in his adversity he observed the hiding of God's face to be the 
cause of it. If God hide his face, a good man is certainly troubled, though no 
other calamity befal him. When the sun sets, night certainly follows; and the 
moon and all the stars cannot make day. 2. When his mountain was shaken, 
he lifted up his eyes above the hills. Prayer is a salve for every sore: he made 
use of it accordingly. " Is any afflicted?" Is any troubled ? " Let him pray." 
Though God hid his face from him, yet he prayed. If God in wisdom and 
justice turn from us, yet it will be in us the greatest folly and injustice imagin- 
able if we turn from him. No, let us learn to pray in the dark ; ver. 8, "I cried 
to thee, O Lord." It seems God's withdrawings made his prayers the more 
vehement. We are here told, (for it seems he kept account of it,) First. What 
he pleaded, ver. 9. That God would be no gainer by his death; " What profit 
is there in my blood?" implying, that he would willingly die if he could thereby 
do any real service to God or his country, Phil. ii. 17 ; but he saw not what 
good could be done by his dying in the bed of sickness, as might be if he had 
died in the bed of honour. Lord, saith he, wilt thou sell one of thine own 
people for nought, and not increase thy wealth by the price ? Ps. xliv. 12. Nay, 
that in his honour God would seem to be a loser by his death. " Shall the dust 
praise thee?" The sanctified spirit which returns to God shall praise him, 
shall be still praising him ; but the dust which returns to the earth shall not 
praise him, nor declare his truth. The services of God's house cannot be per- 
formed by the dust; it cannot praise him. There is none of that device or 
working in the grave, for it is the land of silence. The promises of God's 



PSALM XXXI. 



135 



covenant cannot be performed to the dust. Lord, saith David, if I die now, 
what will become of the promise made to me, who shall declare the truth or 
tiiat? The best pleas in prayer are those that are taken from God's honour, 
and then we ask aright for life, when we have that in view r , that we may live 
and praise him. Secondly. What he prayed for, ver. 10. He prayed for mercy 
to pardon, "Have mercy upon me;" and for grace to help in time of need, 
"Lord, be thou my helper/' And on these two errands we also may come 
boldly to the throne of grace, Neb. iv. 16. 

Thirdly. In due time God delivered him out of his troubles, and restored him 
to his former prosperity. His prayers were answered, and his mourning was 
turned into dancing, ver. 11. God's anger now endured but for a moment, and 
David's weeping but for a night. The sackcloth, with which in an humble 
compliance with the Divine providence he had clad himself, was loosed, his 
griefs were balanced, his fears were silenced, his comforts returned, and he 
was girded with gladness; joy was made his ornament ; was made his strength, 
and seemed to cleave to him as " the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man." As 
David's plunge into trouble from the height of prosperity, and then when he 
least expected it, teacheth us to rejoice as though we rejoiced not, because we 
know not how near trouble may be, so his sudden return to a prosperous con- 
dition, teacheth us to weep as though we wept not, because we know not how 
soon the storm may become a calm, and the formidable blast may become a 
favourable gale. 

Bat what temper of mind was he in upon this happy change of the face of 
his affairs? What doth he say now? He tell us, ver. 12, 1. His complaints 
were turned into praises. He looked upon it that therefore God girded him 
with gladness, to the end that he might be the sweet psalmist of Israel, 
2 Sam. xxiiL I. That his glory might sing praise to God; that is, his tongue; 
for our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when it is employed in 
praising God. Or, his soul ; for that is our glory above the beasts : that must be 
employed in blessing the Lord, and with that we must make melody to him 
in singing psalms. They that are kept from being silent in the pit must not 
be silent in the land of the living, but fervent, and constant, and public, in 
praising God. 2. These praises were likely to be everlasting. "'I will give 
thanks unto thee for ever." This speaks a gracious resolution, that he would 
persevere to the end in praising God, and a gracious hope that he should never 
want fresh matter for praise, and that he should shortly be there where this 
would be the everlasting work. Blessed are they that dwell in God's house, 
they will be still praising him. Thus must we learn to accommodate ourselves 
to the various providences of God that are concerning us; to want and to 
abound, to sing of mercy and judgment, and to sing unto God for both. 



PSALM XXXI. 

It is probable that David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul ; and some 
passages in it agree particularly to the fair escape he had at Keilah, 1 Sam. xxiii. 13; 
and then in the wilderness at Maon, when Saul marched on one side of the hill and 
he on the other; and soon after in the cave in the wilderness of En-gedi ; but that it 
was penned upon any of those occasions we are not told. It is a mixture of prayers, 
and praises, and professions of confidence in God ; all which do well together, and 
are helpful to one another. I. David professeth his cheerful confidence in God, and 
in that confidence prays for deliverance out of his present troubles, ver. 1 — 8. II. He 
complains of the very deplorable condition he was in, and in the sense of his calami- 
ties still prays that God would graciously appear for him against his persecutors, 
ver. 9 — 18. III. He concludes the psalm with praise and triumph, giving glory to 
God, and encouraging himself and others to trust in him, ver. 19 — 24. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 

TN thee, 0 Lord, do I put my trust ; 
X Let me never be ashamed : 

Deliver me in thy righteousness 

2 Bow down thine ear to me ; 

Deliver me speedily : be thou my strong rock, 
For an house of defence to save me. 

3 For thou art my rock and my fortress ; 

Therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me. 

4 Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me : 



136 PSALM XXXL 

For thou art my strength. 

5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit : 

Thou hast redeemed me, 0 Lord God of truth. 

6 I have hated them that regard lying vanities: 
But I trust in the Lord. 

7 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy : 
For thou hast considered my trouble ; 
Thou hast known my soul in adversities ; 

8 And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy : 
Thou hast set my feet in a large room. 

Faith and prayer must go together. He that believes let him pray; **I 
believe, therefore have I spoken." And he that prays let him believe i, for the 
prayer of faith is the prevailing prayer. We^have both here. 

First. David in distress is very earnest with God in prayer for snecour and 
relief. This easeth a burthened spirit, fetcheth in promised mercies, and won- 
derfully supports and comforts the soul in the expectation of them. He prays, 

1. That God would deliver him, ver. 1; that his life might be preserved from 
the malice of his enemies, and that an end might be put to their prosecutions 
of him; that God, not only in mercy but in righteousness, would deliver him, 
as a righteous judge Detwixt him and his unrighteous persecutors ; that he 
would bow down his ear to his petitions, to his appeals, and deliver him, ver. % 
{it is condescension in God to take cognizance of the ease of the greatest and 
best of men, — he humbleth himself to do it;) and that he would deliver him 
speedily, lest, if the deliverance were long deferred, his faith should fail. 

2. That if he did not presently deliver him out of his troubles, yet he would 
protect and shelter him in his troubles : "Be thou my strong rock," immoveable, 
impregnable, as a fastness framed by nature, and my house of defence, a fortress 
framed by art, and all "to save me." Thus may we pray that God's providence 
would secure to us our lives and comforts, and that by his grace We may be 
enabled to think ourselves safe in him, Pr. xviii. 10, 3. That his case, having 
much in it of difficulty, both in respect of duty and in respect of prudence, he 
might be under a Divine conduct: "Lord, lead me, and guide me," ver. 3. So 
order my steps, so order my spirit, that I may never do any thing unlawful 
and unjustifiable, against my conscience; or unwise and indiscreet, against my 
interest. They that resolve to follow God's direction may in faith pray for it. 
4. That his enemies being very crafty as well as very spiteful, God would 
frustrate and baffle their designs against him; ver. 4, "Pull me out of the net 
that they have laid privily for me," and keep me from the sin, the trouble, the 
death, they aim to entrap me in. 

Secondly. In this prayer he gives glory to God by a repeated profession of his 
confidence in him and dependence on him. This encouraged his prayers, and 
qualified him for the mercies he prayed for ; ver. 1, " In thee, O Lord, do I put 
my trust," and not in myself, or any sufficiency of my own, or in any creature; 
"let me never be ashamed, that is, let me not be disappointed of any of that 
good which thou hast promised me, and which therefore I have promised 
myself in thee. 

1. He had chosen God for his protector, and God had, by his promise, under- 
taken to be so; ver. 3, "Thou art my rock and my fortress," by thy covenant 
with me, and my believing consent to that covenant; therefore, be my strong 
rock, ver. 2. They that have in sincerity avouched the Lord for theirs may 
expect the benefit of his being so, for God's relations to us carry with them 
both name and thing. " Thou art my strength," ver. 4. If God be our strength, 
we may hope that he will both put his strength in us and put forth his strength 
for us. 

2. He gave up his soul in a special manner to him; ver. 5, "Into thine hand 
I commit my spirit." 1st. If David here looks upon himself as a dying man, by 
these words he resigns his departing soul to God who gave it, and to whom 
at death the spirit returns. Men can but kill the body ; but I trust in God to 
"redeem my soul from the power of the grave," Ps. xlix. 15. He is willing 
to die if God will have it so ; but let my soul fall into the hands of the Lord, 
for his mercies are great. With these words our Lord Jesus yielded up the 
ghost upon the cross, and made his soul an offering, a freewill offering for sin, 
voluntarily laying down his life a ransom. By Stephen's example we are 
taught, in our dying moments, to eye Christ at God's right hand, and to commit 
our spirits to him, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." But, 2nd. David is here 
to be looked upon as a man in distress and trouble. And, First. His great care 



PSALM XXXI. 137 

Is about his soul, his spirit, his better part* Note, Our outward afflictions 
should increase our concern for our souls. Many think while they are per- 
plexed about their worldly affairs, and Providence multiplies their cares about 
them, they may be excused if they neglect their souls; whereas, the greater 
hazard our lives and secular interests lie at, the more we are concerned to look 
to our souls, that, though the outward man perish, the inward man may suffer 
no damage, 2 Cor. iv. 16; and that we may keep possession of our souls when 
we can keep possession of nothing else, Lu. xxi. 19. Secondly. He thinks the 
best he can do for his soul is to commit it into the hand of God, and lodge that 
great trust with him. He had prayed, ver. 4, to be plucked out of the net of 
outward trouble; but as not insisting upon that, God's will be done, he pre- 
sently lets fall that petition, and commits the spirit, the inward man, into God's 
hand: Lord, however it goes with me as to my body, let it go well with my soul. 
Note, It is the wisdom and duty of every one of us solemnly to commit our 
spirits into the hands of God, to be sanctified by his grace, devoted to his 
honour, employed in his service, and fitted for his kingdom. That which 
encourageth us to commit our spirits into the hand of God is, that he hath not 
oniy created, but redeemed them ; the particular redemptions of the Old Tes- 
tament church, and the Old Testament saints, were typical of our redemption 
by Jesus Christ, Gen. xlviii. 16. The redemption of the soul is so precious that 
it must have ceased for ever if Christ had not undertaken it ; but by redeeming 
our souls he has not only acquired an additional right and title to them, which 
obligeth us to commit them to him as his own, but hath shewed the extra- 
ordinary kindness and concern he hath for them, which encourageth us to 
commit them to him to be preserved to his heavenly kingdom, 2 Tim. i. 12. 
" Thou hast redeemed it, O Lord God of truth : " redeemed it according to 
a promise which thou wilt be true to. 

3. He disclaimed all confederacy with those that made an arm of flesh their 
confidence ; ver. 6, " I have hated them that regard lying vanities." Idolaters, 
(so some,) who expect aid from false gods, which are vanity and a lie; astro-- 
logers, and those that give heed to them, (so others.) David abhorred the use 
of enchantments and divinations ; consulted not, nor ever took notice of the 
flight of birds, or entrails of beasts. Good omens or bad omens, they are 
lying vanities ; and he not only did not regard them himself, but hated the 
wickedness of those that did. He trusted in God only, and not in any crea- 
ture; his interest in the court or country, his retreats or strongholds, even 
Goliath's sword itself, these were lying vanities, which he could not depend 
upon, but trusted in the Lord only : see Ps. xl. 4 ; Jer, xvii. 5. 

4. He comforted himself with his hope in God, and made himself not only 
easy, but cheerful with it, ver. 7. Having relied on God's mercy, he will be 
glad and rejoice in it. And those know not how to value their hope in God 
who cannot find joy enough in that hope to balance their grievances, and silence 
their griefs. 

5. He encouraged himself in this hope with the experiences he had had of late 
and formerly of God's goodness to him, which he mentions to the glory of God. 
He that has delivered, doth and will. 1st. God had taken notice of his afflic- 
tions, and all the circumstances of them. " Thou hast considered my trouble/' 
with wisdom to suit relief to it ; with condescension and compassion, regarding 
the low estate of thy servant. 2nd. He had observed the temper of his spirit, 
and the workings of his heart under his afflictions ; " Thou hast known my soul 
in adversities," with a tender concern and care for it. God's eye is upon our 
souls when we are in trouble, to see whether they be humbled for sin, sub- 
missive to the will of God, and bettered by the affliction. If the soul, when 
cast down under affliction has been lifted up to him in true devotion, he knows 
it. 3rd. He had rescued him out of the hands of Saul, when he had him safe 
enough in Keilah; 1 Sam. xxxiii. 7, " Thou hast not shut me up into the hand 
of the enemy," but set me at liberty, in a large room, where I may shift for my 
own safety, ver. 8. Christ's using these words, ver. 5, upon the cross, may war- 
rant us to apply all this to Christ, who trusted in his Father, and was supported 
and delivered by him, and, because he humbled himself, highly exalted ; which 
it is proper to think of when we sing these verses, as also therein to acknow- 
ledge the experience we have had of God's gracious presence with us in our 
troubles, and to encourage ourselves to trust in him for the future. 

9 Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord, for I am in trouble : 
Mine eye is consumed with grief, 
Yea, my soul and my belly. 
10 For my life is spent with grief, 
And my years with sighing : 



138 PSALM XXXI. 

My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, 
And my bones are consumed. 
Ill was a reproach among all mine enemies, 
But especially among my neighbours, 
And a fear to mine acquaintance : 
They that did see me without fled from me 

12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind : 
I am like a broken vessel. 

13 For I have heard the slander of many : 
Fear was on every side : 

While they took counsel together against me, 
They devised to take away my life. 

14 But I trusted in thee, 0 Lord : 
I said, Thou art my God. 

15 My times are in thy hand : 

Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, 
And from them that persecute me. 

16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant : 

Save me for thy mercies sake. [thee : 

17 Let me not be ashamed, 0 Lord ; for I have called upon 
Let the wicked be ashamed, 

And let them be silent in the grave 

18 Let the lying lips be put to silence : 
Which speak grievous things proudly 
And contemptuously against the righteous. 

In the foregoing verses David had appealed to God's righteousness, and 
pleaded his relation to him and dependence on him; here he appeals to his 
mercy, and pleads the greatness of his misery, which made his case the proper 
object of that mercy. Observe, 

First. The complaint he makes of his trouble and distress; ver. 9, "Have 
mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble," and need thy mercy. The re- 
membrance he makes of his condition is not much unlike some even of Job's 
complaints. 

1. His troubles had fixed a very deep impression upon his mind, and made 
him a man of sorrows. So great was his grief, that his very soul was consumed 
with it, and his life spent with it, and he was continually sighing, ver. 9, 10. 
Herein he was a type of Christ, who was intimately acquainted with grief, and 
often in tears. We may guess by David's complexion, which was ruddy and 
sanguine, by his genius for music, and by his daring enterprises in his early 
days, that his natural temper was both cheerful and stout, that he was apt 
enough to be merry, and not at all to lay trouble to his heart ; and yet here we 
see what he is brought to : he has almost wept out his eyes, and sighed away his 
breath. Let those that are airy and gay take heed of running into extremes,* and 
never set sorrow at defiance ; God can find out ways to make them melancholy 
if they will not otherwise learn to be serious. 

2. His body was affected with the sorrows of his mind ; ver. 10, "My strength 
fails, my bones are consumed," and all " because of mine iniquity." As to Saul, 
and the quarrel he had with him, he could confidently insist upon his righteous- 
ness: but, as it was an affliction God laid upon him, he owns he had deserved it, 
and freely confesseth his iniquity to have been the procuring cause of all his 
trouble; and the sense of sin touched him to the quick, and wasted him more 
than all his calamities. 

3. His friends were unkind, and became shy of him. He was a fear to his 
acquaintance ; when they saw him they fled from him, ver. 11. They durst not 
harbour him, not give him any assistance, not shew him any countenance t not 



PSALM XXXI. 139 

so much as be seen in his company, for fear of being brought into trouble by it, 
now Saul had proclaimed him traitor, and outlawed him. They saw how dear 
Ahimelech the priest had paid for aiding and abetting him, though ignorantly ; 
and therefore, though they could not but own he had a great deal of wrong 
done him, yet they had not the courage to appear for him. He was forgotten 
by them as a dead man out of mind, ver. 12, and looked upon with contempt as 
a broken vessel. They that shewea him all possible respects when he was in 
honour at court, now he was fallen into disgrace, though unjustly, were strange 
to him. Such swallow friends the world is full of, that are gone in winter. 
Let those that fall on the losing side not think it strange if they be thus 
deserted, but make sure a Friend in heaven that will not fail them, and make 
use of him. 

4. His enemies were unjust in their censures of him. They would not have 
persecuted him as they did, if they had not first represented him as an ill man ; 
he was a reproach among all his enemies, but especially among his neighbours, 
ver. 11. Those that had been the witnesses of his integrity, and could not but 
be convinced in their consciences that he was an honest man, yet were the 
most forward to represent him quite otherwise, that they might curry favour 
with Saul. Thus he heard the slander of many : every one had a stone to throw 
at him, because fear was on every side; that is, they durst not do otherwise, 
for he that would not join with his neighbours to abuse David was looked 
upon as disaffected to Saul. Thus the best of men have been put under the 
worst characters by those that resolved to give them the worst treatment. 

5. His life was aimed at, and he went in continual peril of it. That fear was 
on every side, and he knew that, whatever counsel his enemies took against 
him, the design was not to take away his liberty, but to take away his life, 
ver. 13; a life so valuable, so useful, to the good services of which all Israel 
owed so much, and which was never forfeited. Thus in all the plots of the 
Pharisees and Herodians against Christ, still the design was to take away his 
life, such is the enmity and cruelty of the serpent's seed. 

Secondly. His confidence in God in the midst of these troubles. Every thing 
looked black and dismal round about him, and threatened to drive him to 
despair; " But I trusted in thee, O Lord," ver. 14, and that kept me from sink- 
ing. His enemies robbed him of his reputation among men, but they could not 
rob him of his comfort in God, because they could not drive him from his con- 
fidence in God. Two things he comforted himself with in his straits, and he 
went to God and pleaded them with him: 1. " Thou art my God;" that is, 
1 have chosen thee for mine, and thou hast promised to be mine. And if he be 
ours, and we can by faith call him so, it is enough, when we can call nothing 
else ours. " Thou art my God," and therefore to whom shall I go for relief 
but to thee? They need not be straitened in their prayers who can plead this ; 
for if God undertake to be our God he will do that for us which will answer 
the compass and vast extent of that engagement. 2. "My times are in thy 
hand." Join this with the former, and it makes the comfort complete. If God 
have our times in his hand, he can help us; and if he be our God, he will help 
us, and then what can discourage us ? It is a great support to those who have 
God for their God, that their times are in his hand, and he will be sure to 
order and dispose of them for the best, to all those who commit their spirits 
also into his hand, to suit them to their times, as David here, ver. 5. The time 
of life is in God's hands, to lengthen or shorten, embitter or sweeten, as he 
pleaseth, according to the counsel of his will. Our times, that is, ail events 
that are concerning us, and the timing of them, these are at God's dispose. 
They are not in our own hands; for the way of man is not in himself, not in 
our friends' hands, nor in our enemies' hands, but in God's, every man's judg- 
ment proceedeth from him. David doth not in his prayers prescribe to God, 
but subscribe to him, "Lord, my times are in thy hand," and I am well pleased 
that they are so, they could not be in a better hand. " Thy will be done." 

Thirdly. His petitions to God. In this faith and confidence, 

1. He prays that God would deliver him out of the hand of his enemies, 
ver. 15, and save him, ver. 16, and this for his mercies' sake, and not for any 
merit of his own. Our opportunities are in God's hand, (so some read it,) and 
therefore he knows how to choose the best and fittest time for our deliverance, 
and we must be willing to wait that time. When David had Saul at his mercy 
in the cave, those about him said, This is the time in which God will deliver 
thee, 1 Sam. xxiv. 4. No, saith David, the time is not come for my deliverance, 
till it can be wrought without sin, and 1 will wait for that time; or it is God's 
time, and that is the best time. 

2. That God would give him the comfort of his favour in the meantime ; 
ver. 16, " Make thy face to shine upon thy servant." Let me have the comfort- 
able tokens and evidences of thy favour to me, and that shall put gladness in 
my heart in the midst of all my griefs. 

3. That his prayers to God might be answered, and his hopes in God accom- 
plished; ver. J 7, "Let me not be ashamed" of my hopes and prayers, "for I 



140 



PSALM XXXI. 



have called upon thee," who never saidst to thy people, Seek in vain, and hope 
in vain. 

4. That shame and silence might be the portion of wicked people, and par- 
cularly of his enemies. They were confident of their success against Davidj 
and that they should run him down and ruin him. Lord, saith he, "let them 
be made ashamed" of that confidence by the disappointment of their expecta- 
tions; as those that opposed the building of the wall about Jerusalem, when 
it was finished, were much cast down in their own eyes s Neh. vi. 16. "Let them 
be silent in the grave." Note, Death will silence the rage and clamour of cruel 
persecutors whom reason would not silence. In the grave "the wicked cease 
from troubling." Particularly he prays for, that is, he prophesies, the silencing 
of those that reproach and calumniate the people of God; ver. 18, "Let lying 
lips be put to silence, that speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously 
against the righteous." This is a very good prayer, 1st. Which we have often 
occasion to put up to God ; for they that set their mouth against the heavens, 
commonly fall foul on the heirs of heaven. Religion, and the strict and serious 
professors of it, are every where spoken against, First. With a great deal of 
malice. They speak grievous things^ on purpose to vex them, and hoping with 
what they say to do them a real mischief. They speak hard things, (so the 
word is,) which bear hard upon them, and by which they hope to fasten indeli- 
ble characters of infamy upon them. Secondly. With a great deal of falsehood. 
They are lying lips, taught by the father of lies, and serving his interest. 
Thirdly. With a great deal of scorn and disdain. They speak "proudly and 
contemptuously," as if the righteous, whom God has honoured, were the most 
despicable people in the world, and not worthy to be set with the dogs of their 
flock. One would think they thought it no sin to tell a deliberate lie, if it may 
but serve to expose a good man either to hatred or contempt. " Hear, O our 
God, for we are despised." 2nd. We may pray it in faith ; for these lying lips 
shall be put to silence. God has many ways of doing it. Sometimes he con- 
vinceth the consciences of those that reproach his people, and turns their 
hearts ; sometimes by his providence he visibly confutes their calumnies, and 
brings forth the righteousness of his people as the light. However, there is 
a day coming when God will convince ungodly sinners of the falsehood of all 
the hard speeches they have spoken against his people, and will execute judg- 
ment upon them, Jude 14, 15. Then shall this prayer be fully answered, and 
to that day we should have an eye in the singing of it ; engaging ourselves 
likewise by well-doing, if possible, to silence the ignorance of foolish men 
1 Pet. ii. 15. 

19 Oh how great is thy goodness, 

Which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee ; 
Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee 
before the sons of men ! 

20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence 
From the pride of man : 

Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion 
From the strife of tongues. 

21 Blessed be the Lord : 

For he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness 
In a strong city. 

22 For I said in my haste, 

I am cut off from before thine eyes : 

Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications 

When I cried unto thee. 

23 0 love the Lord, all ye his saints : 
For the Lord preserveth the faithful, 
And plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. 

24 Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, 
All ye that hope in the Lord. 



PSALM XXXI. 141 
We have three things in these verses : 

First. The believing acknowledgment which David makes of God's goodness 
to his people in general, ver, 19, 20. 

1. God is good to all, but he is in a special manner good to Israel. His good- 
ness to them is wonderful, and will be to eternity matter of admiration. " O 
how great is thy goodness !" How profound are the counsels of it; how rich 
are the treasures of it ; how free and extensive are the communications of it ! 
Those very persons whom men load with slanders God loads with benefits and 
honours. Those who are interested in this goodness are described to be such 
as fear God, and trust in him, that stand in awe of his greatness, and rely on 
his grace. This goodness is said to be laid up for them, and wrought for them. 
1st. There is goodness laid up for them in the other world, an inheritance 
reserved in heaven, 1 Pet. i. 4; and there is a goodness wrought for them in 
this world, goodness wrought in them. There is enough in God's goodness; 
both for the portion and inheritance of all his children, when they come to 
their full age, and for their maintenance and education during their minority. 
There is enough in bank, and enough in hand. 2nd. This goodness is laid up 
in his promise for all that fear God, to whom assurance is giyen that they 
shall want no good thing. But it is wrought in the actual performance of the 
promise for those that trust in him, that is, that by faith take hold of the pro- 
mise, put it in suit, and draw out to themselves the benefit and comfort of it. 
If what is laid up for us in the treasures of the everlasting covenant be not 
wrought for us, it is our own fault, because we do not believe. But those that 
tr ist in God, as they have the comfort of his goodness in their own bosoms, so 
they have the credit of it, (and the credit of an estate goes far with some ;) it is 
wrought for them before the sons of men. God's goodness to them puts an 
honour upon them, and rolls away their reproach ; " for all that see them shall 
acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed," 
Isql. lxi. 9. 

2. God preserveth man and beast ; but he is in a special manner the protector 
of his own people, ver. 20. "Thou shalt hide them." As his goodness is hid 
and reserved for them, so they are hid and preserved for it. The saints are 
God's hidden ones. See here, 1st. The danger they are in, which ariseth from 
the pride of man, and from the strife of tongues. Proud men insult over them, 
and would trample on them, and tread them down ; contentious men pick 
quarrels with them; and when tongues are at strife good people oftentimes 
go by the worst. The pride of man endangers their liberty. The strife of 
tongues in perverse disputings endangers truth. But, 2nd. See the defence 
they are under; "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence;" in a 
pavilion. God's providence shall keep them safe from the malice of their 
enemies. He has many ways of sheltering them. When Baruch and Jeremiah 
were sought for, the Lord hid them, Jer. xxxvi. 26. God's grace shall keep 
them safe from the evil of the judgments that are abroad; to them they have 
no sting : they shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger, for there is no anger 
at them. His comforts shall keep them easy and cheerful; and his sanctuary, 
where they have communion with him, shelters them from the fiery darts of 
terror and temptation ; and the mansions in his house above shall be shortly, 
shall be eternally, their hiding-place from all danger and fear. 

Secondly. The thankful returns which David makes for God's goodness to 
him in particular, ver. 21, 22. Having admired God's goodness to ail the saints, 
he here owns how good he had found him. 

1. "Without were fightings ; " but God had wonderfully preserved his life. 
"He hath shewed me his marvellous lovingkindness ; " that is, he hath given 
me an instance of his care of me, and favour to me, beyond what I could have 
expected. God's lovingkindness to his people, all things considered, is won- 
derful ; but some instances of it, even in this world, are in a special manner 
marvellous in their eyes; as this here, when God preserved David from the 
sword of Saul in caves and woods, as safe as if he had been in a strong city. 
In Keilah, that strong city, God shewed him great mercy, both in making him 
an instrument to rescue the inhabitants out of the hands of the Philistines, and 
then in rescuing him from the same men who would have ungratefully delivered 
him up into the hand of Saul, 1 Sam. xxiii. 5, 12. This was marvellous loving- 
kindness indeed, upon which he writes with wonder and thankfulness, " Blessed 
be the Lord." Special preservations call for particular thanksgivings. 

2. "Within were fears;" but God was better to him than his fears, ver. 22. 
He here keeps an account, 1st, Of his own folly in distrusting God, which he 
acknowledged to his shame, that though he had express promises to build 
upon, and great experience of God's care concerning him in many straits, yet 
he had entertained this hard and jealous thought of God, and could not forbear 
telling it him to his face, " I am cut off from before thine eyes ; " that is, thou 
hast quite forsaken me, and I must not expect to be looked upon or regarded 
by thee any more. " I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul," and so be cut 



m PSALM XXXII. 

off before thine eyes, he ruined while thou lookest on, 1 Sam. xxvii. 1. This he 
said 'in his flight,' (so some read it,) which notes the distress of his affairs. 
Saul was just at his back, and ready to seize him, which made the temptation 
strong. * In his haste," (so we read it,) which notes the disturbance and dis- 
composure of his mind, which made the temptation surprising, so that it found 
him off his guard. Note, It is a common thing to speak amiss when we speak 
in haste, and without consideration; but what we speak amiss in haste we 
must repent of at leisure, particularly that which we have spoken distrustfully 
of God. 2nd. Of God's wonderful goodness to him notwithstanding. Though 
his faith failed, God's promise did not : " Thou heardest the voice of my suppli- 
cation" for all this. He mentions his own unbelief as a foil to God's fidelity, 
serving to make his lovingkindness the more marvellous, the more illustrious. 
When we have thus distrusted God, he might justly have taken us at our word, 
and brought our fears upon us, as he did on Israel, Num. xiv. 28; Isa. lxvi. 4. 
But he has pitied and pardoned us, and our unbelief has not made his promise 
and grace of none effect ; for he knows our frame. 

Thirdly. The exhortation and encouragement which he hereupon gives to 
all the saints, ver. 23, 24. 

1. He would have them set their love on God; ver. 23, " O love the Lord, all 
ye his saints." Those that have their own hearts full of love to God cannot 
but desire that others also may be in love with him; for in his favour there is 
no need to fear a rival. It is the character of the saints that they do love God ; 
and yet they must be still called upon to love hm, to love him more, and love 
him better, and give proofs of their love. We must love him not only for his 
goodness, because he "preserveth the faithful," but for his justice, because he 
"plentifully rewardeth the proud doer" (who would ruin those whom he pre- 
serves) according to their pride. Some take it in a good sense ; 1 He plentifully 
rewardeth the magnificent' (or excellent) 'doer,' that is daringly good, whose 
heart, like Jehoshaphat's, is " lifted up in the ways of the Lord." He rewardeth 
him that doth well, but plentifully rewardeth him that doth excellently well. 

2. He would have them set their hope in God: ver. 24, " Be of good courage," 
have a good heart on it, whatever difficulties or dangers you may meet with; 
the God you trust in shall by that trust strengthen your heart. They that hope 
in God have reason to be of good courage, and let their hearts be strong, for, 
as nothing truly evil can befall them, so nothing truly good for them shall be 
wanting to them. 

In singing this, we should animate ourselves and one another to proceed and 
persevere in our Christian course, whatever threatens us, and whoever frowns 
upon us. 

PSALM XXXII. 

This psalm, though it speak not of Christ, as many of the psalms hitherto we have met 
with have done, yet it has a great deal of gospel in it. The apostle tells us, that 
David in this psalm "describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth 
righteousness without works," Rom. iv. 6. We have here a summary, I. Of gospel 
grace in the pardon of sin, ver. 1,2; in Divine protection, ver. 7 ; and Divine conduct, 
ver. 8. II. Of gospel duty ; to confess sin, ver. 3 — 5 ; to pray, ver. 6 ; to govern 
ourselves well, ver. 9, 10 ; and to rejoice in God, ver. 11. And the way to obtain these 
privileges is to make conscience of these duties, which we ought to think of, — of the 
former for our comfort, of the latter for our quickening, — when we sing this psalm. 
Grotius thinks it was designed to be sung on the day of atonement. 



B 



A Psalm of David, Maschil. 

LESSED is he whose transgression is forgiven, 

Whose sin is covered. [iniquity, 
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not 
And in whose spirit there is no guile. 
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old 
Through my roaring all the day long. 
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me : 
My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. 
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, 
And mine iniquity have I not hid. 
I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ; 



PSALM XXXII. 143 
And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. 
6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee 
In a time when thou may est be found : 
Surely in the floods of great waters 
They shall not come nigh unto him. 

This psalm is entitled Maschil, which some take to be only the name of the 
tune to which it was set and was to be sung. But others think it is significant. 
Our margin reads it, * A psalm of David giving instruction.' And there is 
nothing in which we have more need of instruction than in the nature of true 
blessedness, wherein it consists, and the way that leads to it — what we must do 
that we may be happy. There are divers things in which these verses instruct 
us. In general, we are here taught that our happiness consists in the favour 
and grace of God, and not in the wealth of this world; in spiritual blessings, 
and not the good things of this world. When David saith, Ps. i. 1, " Blessed 
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly;" and, Ps. cxix. 1, 
" Blessed are the undefiled in the way," the meaning is, this is the character 
of the blessed man, and he that has not this character cannot expect to be 
happy; but when it is here said, "Blessed is the man whose iniquity is for- 
given," the meaning is, this is the ground of his blessedness, this is that funda- 
mental privilege from which all the other ingredients of his blessedness flow. 
In particular, we are here instructed, 

First. Concerning the nature of the pardon of sin. This is that we all need, 
and are undone without, and we are therefore concerned to be very solicitous 
and inquisitive about it. 1. It is the forgiving of transgression. Sin is the 
transgression of the law: upon our repentance the transgression is forgiven ; 
that is, the obligation to punishment, which we lay under by virtue of the 
sentence of the law, is vacated and cancelled ; it is lifted off, (so some read it,) 
that by the pardon of it we may be eased of a burthen, a heavy burthen, like 
a load on the back that makes us stoop, or a load on the stomach that makes 
us sick, or a load on the spirits that makes us sink. The remission of sins gives 
rest and relief to those that were weary and heavy laden, Mat. xi. 23. 2. It is 
the covering of sin, as nakedness is covered, that it may not appear to our 
shame, Rev. iii. 18. One of the first symptoms of guilt in our first parents 
was blushing at their own nakedness. Sin makes us loathsome in the sight 
of God, and utterly unfit for communion with him, and when conscience is 
awakened it makes us loathsome to ourselves too; but when it is pardoned, 
it is covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness, like the coats of skins 
wherewith God clothed Adam and Eve, (an emblem of the remission of sins,) 
so that God is no longer displeased with us, but perfectly reconciled. They are 
not covered from us; no, "my sin is ever before me;" nor covered from God's 
omniscience, but from his vindictive justice. When he pardons sin he remem- 
bers it no more, he casts it behind his back ; it shall be sought for, and not 
found. And the sinner, being thus reconciled to God, begins to be reconciled 
to himself. 3. It is the not imputing of iniquity, not laying it to the sinner's 
charge, not proceeding against him for it, according to the strictness of the 
law, not dealing with him as he deserves. The righteousness of Christ being 
imputed to us, and we made the righteousness of God in him, our iniquity is 
not imputed, God having laid upon him the iniquity of us all, and made him sin 
for us. Observe, It is God's act not to impute iniquity ; for he is the Judge. 
" It is God that justifieth." 

Secondly. Concerning the character of those whose sins are pardoned : "in 
whose spirit there is no guile." He doth not say there is no guilt, (for who is 
there that lives and sins not?) but no guile; that doth not dissemble with God 
in his professions of repentance and faith, and in his prayers for peace or 
pardon ; but in all these is sincere, and means as he saith ; that doth nut repent 
with a purpose to sin again, and then sin with a purpose to repent again, as 
a learned interpreter glosseth upon it. Those that design honestly, that are 
really what they profess to be, those are the Israelites indeed, in whom is no 
guile. 

Thirdly. Concerning the happiness of a justified state: "Blessednesses are to 
the man whose iniquity is forgiven," all manner of blessings, sufficient to make 
him completely blessed. That is taken away which incurred the curse, and 
obstructed the blessing, and then God will pour out blessings till there be no 
room to receive them. The forgiveness of sin is that article of the covenant 
which is the reason and ground of all the rest: "for I will be merciful to their 
unrighteousness," Heb. viii. 12. 

Fourthly. Concerning the uncomfortable condition of an unhumbled sinner, 
that sees his guilt, but is not yet brought to make a penitent confession of it. 
This David describes very pathetically from his own sad experience ; ver. 3, 4, 



144 PSALM XXXII. 

" While I kept silence, my bones waxed old." Those may be said to keep 
silence that stifle their convictions, that when they cannot but see the evil of 
sin, and their danger by reason of it, ease themselves by not thinking of it and 
diverting their minds to something else, as Cain to the building of a city ; that 
cry not when God binds them ; that will not unburthen their consciences by a 
penitent confession, nor seek for peace, as they ought, by faithful and fervent 
prayer ; and that choose rather to pine away in their iniquities, than to take 
the method which God has appointed of finding rest for their souls. Let snch 
expect that their smothered convictions will be a fire in their bones, and the 
wounds of sin not opened will fester and grow intolerably painful. If con- 
science be seared, the case is so much the more dangerous ; but if it be startled 
and awake, it will be heard ; the hand of Divine wrath will be felt lying heavy 
upon the soul, and the anguish of the spirit will affect the body, To that 
degree David experienced it, so that when he was young his bones waxed old, 
and even his silence made him roar all the day long, as if he had been under 
some grievous pain and distemper of body; when really the cause of all his 
uneasiness was the struggle he felt in his own bosom between his convictions 
and his corruptions. Note, "He that covers his sins shall not prosper." Some 
inward trouble is required in repentance, but there is much worse in impeni- 
tency. 

Fifthly. Concerning the true and only way to peace of conscience. We are 
here taught to confess our sins, that they may be forgiven : to declare, that we 
may be justified. This course David took: "I acknowledged my sin unto 
thee," and no longer hide mine iniquity, ver. 5. Note, Those that would have 
the comfort of the pardon of their sins, must take shame to themselves by a 
penitent confession of them, We must confess the fact of sin, and be particular 
in it,^thus and thus have I done; confess the fault of sin, aggravate it, and lay 
load upon ourselves for it, — I have done very wickedly ; confess the justice of 
the punishment we have been under for it, — "The Lord is just in all that is 
brought upon us ; " and that we deserve much worse, — " I am no more worthy 
to be called thy son." We must confess sin with shame and holy blushing, with 
fear and holy trembling. 

Sixthly. Concerning God's readiness to pardon sin to those who truly repent 
of it. "I said, I will confess;" that is, I sincerely resolved upon it, hesitated 
no longer, but came to a point, that I w r ould make a free and ingenuous con- 
fession of my sins, and immediately " thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin," and 
gravest me the comfort of the pardon in mine own conscience ; presently I 
found rest to my soul. Note, God is more ready to pardon sin, upon our 
repentance, than we are to repent in order to the obtaining of pardon. It was 
with much ado that David was here brought to confess his sins : he was put to 
the rack before he was brought to it, ver. 3, 4; he held out long, and would not 
surrender till it came to the last extremity ; but when he did otter to surrender, 
see how quickly, how easily, he obtained good terms ! I did but say, 1 will con- 
fess, and thou forgavest. Thus the father of the prodigal saw his returning 
son "when he was yet afar off," and ran to meet him with the kiss that sealed 
his pardon. What an encouragement is this to poor penitents, and what an 
assurance doth it give us, that "if we confess our sins," we shall find God 
not only "faithful and just," but gracious and kind, "to forgive us our sins !" 

Seventhly. Concerning the good use that we are to make of the experience 
David had had of God's readiness to forgive his sins; ver. 6, "For this shall 
every one that is godly pray unto thee." Note, 1. All godly people are praying 
people. As soon as ever Paul was converted, " behold he prays," Acts ix. 11. 
You may as soon find a living man without breath, as a living Christian without 
prayer. 2. The instructions given us concerning the happiness of those whose 
sins are pardoned, and the easiness of obtaining the pardon, should engage and 
encourage us to pray, and particularly to pray, " God be merciful to us sin- 
ners." For this shall every one that is well inclined be earnest with God in 
prayer, and come boldly to the throne of grace, with hopes to obtain mercy, 
Heb. iv. 16. 3. Those that would speed in prayer, must seek the Lord in a 
time when he will be found. When he doth by his providence call them to seek 
him, and by his Spirit stir them up to seek him, they must go speedily to seek 
the Lord, Zee. viii. 21, and lose no time, lest death cut them off, and then it 
will be too late to seek him, Isa. lv. 6. " Behold, now is the accepted time," 
2 Cor. vi. 2. 4. Those that are sincere and abundant in prayer will find the 
benefit of it when they are in trouble. " Surely in the floods of great -waters," 
which are very threatening, "they shall not come nigh them" to terrify them, 
or create them any uneasiness, much less shall they overwhelm them. Those 
that have God " nigh unto them in all that which they call upon him for," as 
all upright, penitent, praying people have, are so guarded, so advanced, that no 
waters, no, not great waters, no, not floods of them, can come nigh them to 
hurt them. As the temptations of the wicked one touch them not, 1 Jno. v. 18, 
so neither do the troubles of this evil world; these fiery darts of both kinds 
drop short of them. 



PSALM XXXII. 



145 



7 Thou art my hiding place ; 

Thou shalt preserve me from trouble ; [Selah. 
Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. 

8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou 
I will guide thee with mine eye. [shalt go *. 

9 Be ye not as the horse, 

Or as the mule, which have no understanding : 
Whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, 
Lest they come near unto thee. 

10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked : 

But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass 
him about. 

11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: 
And shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. 

David is here improving the experience he had had of the comfort of pardon- 
ing mercy. 

First. He speaks to God, and professeth his confidence in him and expecta- 
tion from him, ver. 7 ; having tasted the sweetness of Divine grace to a penitent 
sinner, he cannot doubt of the continuance of that grace to a praying saint; and 
that in that grace he should find both safety and joy. 1. Safety. " Thou art my 
hiding place;" when by faith I have recourse to thee, I see all the reason in the 
world to be easy, and to think myself out of the reach of any real evil. " Thou 
shalt preserve me from trouble," from the sting of it, and from the strokes of 
it, as far as is good for me. Thou shalt preserve me from such trouble as 1 was 
in while I kept silence, ver. 3. When God has pardoned our sins, if he leave us 
to ourselves, we shall soon run as far in debt again as ever, and plunge ourselves 
again into the same gulf; and, therefore, when we have received the comfort 
of our remission, we must fly to the grace of God to be preserved from return- 
ing to folly again, and having our hearts again hardened through the deceitful- 
ness of sin. God keeps his people from trouble by keeping them from sin. 
2. Joy. " Thou shalt not only deliver me, but " compass me about with songs of 
deliverance;" which way soever I look I shall see occasion to rejoice and to 
praise God, and my friends also shall compass me about in the great congrega- 
tion, to join with me in songs of praise: they shall join their songs of deliver- 
ance with me. As every one that is godly shall pray with me, so they shall give 
thanks with me. 

Secondly. He turns his speech to the children of men; being himself con- 
verted, he doth what he can to strengthen his brethren, Lu. xxii. 32; ver. 8, 
* I will instruct thee," whoever thou art that desirest instruction, " and teach 
thee in the way which thou shalt go." Thus, in another of his penitential 
psalms, he resolves that, when God had restored to him the joy of his salvation, 
he would teach transgressors his ways, and do what he could to convert sinners 
to God, as well as to comfort those that were converted, Ps. li. 12, 13; when 
Solomon became a penitent, he presently became a preacher, Eccl. i. 1. Those 
are best able to teach others the grace of God who have themselves had the 
experience of it; and those who are themselves taught of God ought to tell 
others what he has done for their souls, Ps. lxvi. 16, and so teach them. "I will 
guide thee with mine eye." Some apply it to God's conduct and direction. He 
teacheth us by his word, and guides us with his eye; that is, by the secret 
intimations of his will in the hints and turns of providence, which he enables 
his people to understand and take direction from ; as a master makes a servant 
know his mind by a wink of his eye. When Christ turned and looked upon 
\ Peter, he guided him with his eye. But it is rather to be taken as David's 
' promise to those who sat under his instruction, his own children and family 
1 especially. 'I will counsel thee, mine eye shall be upon thee,' so the margin 
reads it. I will give thee the best counsel I can, and then observe whether thou 
! takest it or no. Those that are taught in the word should be under the con- 
I stant inspection of those that teach them. Spiritual guides must be overseers. 
In this application of the foregoing doctrine concerning the blessedness of 
those whose sins are pardoned, here is a word to sinners, and a word to saints; 
| and this is rightly dividing the word of truth, and giving to each their portion. 
1. Here is a word of caution to sinners, and a good reason given for it. 1st. 

K 



146 



PSALM XXXIIL 



The caution is, not to be unruly and ungovernable; ver. 9, "Be ye not as the 
horse, or the mule, which have no understanding." When the psalmist would 
reproach himself for the sins he repented of, he compared himself to a beast 
before God, " So foolish have I been, and ignorant," Ps. ixxiii. 23; and there- 
fore warns others not to be so. It is our honour and happiness that we have 
understanding, that we are capable of being governed by reason, and of reason- 
ing with ourselves. Let us, therefore, use the faculties we have, and act 
rationally. The horse and mule must be managed with bit and bridle, lest 
they come near to us to do us a mischief ; or, as some read it, that they may 
come near to us, to do us service, that they may obey us, Jas. iii. 3. Let us not 
be like them : that is, let us not be hurried by appetite and passion at any time, 
to go contrary to the dictates of right reason, and to our true interest. If 
sinners would be governed and determined by these, they would soon become 
saints, and would not go a step farther in their sinful courses. Where there 
is renewing grace, there is no need of the bit and bridle of restraining grace. 
2nd. The reason for this caution is, because the way of sin, which we w T ould 
persuade you to forsake, wm certainly end in sorrow ; ver. 10, " Many sorrows 
shall be to the wicked," which will not only spoil their vain and carnal mirth, 
and put an end to it, but will make them pay dear for it. Sin will have sorrow, 
if not repented of, everlasting sorrow. It was part of the sentence, " I will 
greatly multiply thy sorrows." Be wise for yourselves, therefore, and turn 
from your wickedness, that you may prevent those sorrows, those many 
sorrows. 

2. Here is a word of comfort to saints, and a good reason given for that too. 
1st. They are assured that if they will but trust in the Lord, and keep close to 
him, mercy shall compass them about on every side, ver. 10, so that they shall 
not depart from God, for that mercy shall keep them in, nor shall any real evil 
break in upon them, for that mercy shall keep it out. 2nd. They are, therefore, 
commanded to be glad in the Lord, and to rejoice in him, to that degree, 
as even to shout for joy, ver. 11. Let them be so transported with this holy 
joy as not to be able to contain themselves, and let them affect others with it, 
that they also may see that a life of communion with God is the most pleasant 
and comfortable life we can live in this world. This is that present bliss which 
the upright in heart, and they only, are entitled to and qualitied for. 

PSALM XXXIIL 

This is a psalm of praise ; it is probable David was the penman of it, but we are not 
told so, because God would have us look above the penmen of sacred writ, to that 
blessed Spirit that moved and guided them. The psalmist in this psalm, I. Calls 
upon the righteous to praise God, ver. 1 — 3. II. Furnisheth us with matter for praise. 
We must praise God, 1. For his justice, goodness, and truth, appearing in his word, 
and in all his works, ver. 4, 5. 2. For his power appearing in the work of creation, 
ver. 6 — 9. 3. For the sovereignty of his providence in the government of the world, 
ver. 10, 11 ; and again, ver. 13 — 17. 4. For the peculiar favour which he bears to his 
own chosen people, which encourageth them to trust in him, ver. 13; and again, 
ver. 18 — 22. We need not be far to seek for proper thoughts in singing this psalm, 
which so naturally speaks the pious affections of a devout soul towards God. 

EEJOICE in the Lord, 0 ye righteous : 
For praise is comely for the upright. 

2 Praise the Lord with harp : 

Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of 
ten strings. 

3 Sing unto him a new song ; 
Play skilfully with a loud noise. 

4 Tor the word of the Lord is right ; 
And all his works are done in truth. 

5 tie loveth righteousness and judgment 

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. 

6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made ; 

. And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 



PSALM XXXIII. 



147 



7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap : 
He layeth up the depth in storehouses. 

8 Let all the earth fear the Lord : 

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 

9 For he spake, and it was done ; 
He commanded, and it stood fast. 

10 The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought : 
He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. 

1 1 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, 
The thoughts of his heart to all generations. 

Four things the psalmist expresseth in these verses : 

First. The great desire he had that God might be praised. He did not think 
he did it so well himself, but that he wished others also might be employed 
in this work; the more the better in this concert, it is the liker to heaven. 
1. Holy joy is the heart and soul of praise, and that is here pressed upon all 
good people; ver. 1, " Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous," so the foregoing 

Esalm concluded, and so this begins ; for all our religious exercises should both 
egin and end with a holy complacency and triumph in God as the best of 
beings and best of friends. 2. Thankful praise is the breath and language of 
holy joy ; and that also is here required of us, ver. 2, "Praise the Lord." Speak 
well of him, and give him the glory due to his name. 3. Religious songs are the 
proper expressions of thankful praise. Those are here required ; ver. 3, " Sing 
unto him a new song," the best you have, not that which by frequent use is 
worn threadbare ; but that which, being new, is most likely to move the affec- 
tions. A new song for new mercies, and upon every new occasion, for those 
compassions which are new every morning. Music was then used by the 
appointment of David, with the temple songs, that they might be the better 
sung; and this also is here called for, ver. 2, "Sing unto him with the psaltery." 
Here is, 1st. A good rule for this duty ; Do it " skilfully, and with a loud noise 
let it have the best both of head and heart; let it be done intelligently, and 
with a clear head; affectionately, and with a warm heart. 2nd. A good reason 
for this duty; " for praise is comely for the upright." It is greatly well-pleasing 
to God. The garments of praise add much to the comeliness which God puts 
upon his people ; and it is an excellent ornament to our profession. It becomes 
the upright, whom God has put so much honour upon, to give honour to him. 
The upright praise God in a comely manner, for they praise him with their 
hearts : that is praising him with their glory. Whereas the praises of hypocrites 
are awkward and uncomely, like a parable in the mouth of fools, Pr. xxvi. 7. 

Secondly. The high thoughts he had of God and of his infinite perfections,- 
ver. 4,5. God makes himself known to us, 1. In his Word; here put for all 
Divine revelation, all that which God at sundry times and in divers manners 
spake to the children of men ; and that is all right; there is nothing amiss in it. 
His commands exactly agree with the rules of equity, and the eternal reasons 
of good and evil. His promises are all wise and good, and inviolably sure, and 
there is no iniquity in his threatenings, but even those are designed for our 
good, by deterring us from evil. God's word is right, and therefore all our 
deviations from it are wrong, and we are then in the right when we agree with 
it. 2. In his works; and those are all done in truth, all according to his 
counsels, which are called the scriptures of truth, Dan. x. 21. The copy in all 
God's works agrees exactly with the great original, the plan laid in the Eternal 
Mind, and varies not in the least jot. God has made it to appear in his works, 
1st. That he is a God of inflexible justice. He loveth righteousness and judg- 
ment. There is nothing but righteousness in the sentence he passeth, and 
judgment in the execution of it. He never did or can do wrong to any of his 
creatures, but is always ready to right those that are wronged, and doth it witli 
delight. He takes pleasure in those that are righteous. He is himself "the 
righteous Lord," and therefore "loveth righteousness." 2nd. That lie is a God 
of inexhaustible bounty. "The earth is full of his goodness," that is, of the 
proofs and instances of it. The benign influences which the earth receives 
from above, and the fruits it is thereby enabled to produce, the provision that 
is made both for man and beast, and the common blessings with which all the 
nations of the earth are blessed, plainly speak that " the earth is full of his 
goodness;" the darkest, the coldest, the hottest, and the most dry and desert 
part of it not excepted. What pity is it that this earth, which is so full of God's 
goodness, should be so empty of his praises ; and that, of the multitudes that 
live upon his bounty, there are so few that live to his glory ! 



143 PSALM XXXlll. 

Thirdly. The conviction he was under of the almighty power of God, 
evidenced in the creation of the world. We believe in God, and therefore we 
praise him as ' the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth;' so we are here 
taught to praise him. 

Observe, 1. How God made the world, and brought all things into being. 
1st. How easily. All things were made by the word of the Lord, and by the 
breath of his mouth ; Christ is the Word, the Spirit is the breath, so that God 
the Father made the world, as lie rules it and redeems it, by his Son and Spirit. 
" He spake and he commanded," yer. 9, and that was enough, there needed no 
more. With men, saying and doing are two things ; but it is not so with God: 
by the word and Spirit of God is tfie world was made, so was man, that little 
world. God said, "Let us make man ; and he breathed into him the breath of 
life." By the word and Spirit the church is built, that new world, and grace 
wrought in the soul, that new man, that new creation. What cannot that 
power do which with a word made a world! 2nd. How effectually it was done, 
"and it stood fast." What God doth, he doth to purpose; he doth it, and it 
stands fast, ver. 9. Whatsoever God doth, it shall be for ever, Eccl. iii. 14. It 
is by virtue of that command to stand fast that they continue to this day 
according to God's ordinance, Ps. cxix. 91. 

2. What he made. He made all things ; but notice is here taken, 1st. Of the 
heavens, and the host of them, ver. 6. The visible heavens, and the sun, moon, 
and stars, their hosts; the highest heavens, and the angels their hosts. 2nd. 
Of the waters, and the treasures of them, ver. 7. The earth was at tirst 
covered with the water, and being heavier must of course subside and sink 
under it; but to shew from the very first that the God of nature is not tied 
to the ordinary method of nature, and the usual operations of his powers, with 
a word's speaking he " gathered the waters together on a heap," that the dry 
land might appear, yet left them not to continue on a heap, but " laid up the 
depth in storehouses;" not only in the flats where the seas make their beds, 
and in which they are locked up by the sand on the shore as in storehouses, 
but in secret subterraneous caverns, where they are hid from the eyes of all 
living, but were reserved as in a storehouse for that day when those fountains 
of the great deep were to be broken up; and they are still laid up there in 
store, for what use the great Master of the house knows best. 

3. What use is to be made of this; ver. 8, "Let all the earth fear the Lord, 
and stand in awe of him;" that is, let all the children of men worship him, and 
give glory to him, Ps. xcv. 5, 6. The everlasting Gospel gives this as the reason 
why we must worship God, because he made the heaven, and the earth, and 
the sea, Mev. xiv. 6., 7. Let us all fear him; that is, dread his wrath and dis- 
pleasure, and be afraid of having him our enemy, and standing it out against 
him. Let us not dare to offend him who, having this power, no doubt has all 
power in his hand. It is dangerous being at war with him who has the hosts 
of heaven for his armies, and the depths of the sea for his magazines ; and 
therefore it is wisdom to desire conditions of peace : see Jer. v. 22. 

Fourthly. The satisfaction he had in God's sovereignty and dominion, 
ver. 10, 11. He overrules all the counsels of men, and makes them, contrary 
to their intention, serviceable to his counsels. Come and see, with an eye of 
faith, God in the throne, 1. Frustrating the devices of his enemies. "He 
bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought," so that what they imagine 
against him and his kingdom proves a vain thing, Ps. ii. 1 ; the counsel of 
Ahithophel is turned into foolishness, Haman's plot baffled. Though the 
design be laid never so deep, and the hopes raised upon it never so high, yet, 
if God saith, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass, it is all to no pur- 
pose. 2. Fulfilling his own decrees. " The counsel of the Lord standeth for 
ever." It is immutable in itself, for he is in one mind, and who can turn him ? 
The execution of it may be opposed, but cannot in the least be obstructed by 
any created power. Through all the revolutions of time God never changeth 
liis measures, but in every event, even that which to us is most surprising, the 
eternal counsel of God is fulfilled ; nor can any thing prevent its being accom- 
plished in its time. With what pleasure to ourselves may we, in singing this, 
give praise to God ! How easy may this thought make us at all times, that 
God governs the world, that he did it in infinite wisdom before we were born, 
and will do it when we are sileut in the dust ! 

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord ; 

And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inherit- 

13 The Lord ]ooketh from heaven ; [ance. 
He beholdeth all the sons of men. 

14 From the place of his habitation 

He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 



PSALM XXXIII. 149 

15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; 
He considereth all their works. 

16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host : 
A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 

1 7 An horse is a vain thing for safety : 

Neither shall he deliver anij by his great strength. 
IS Behold, the eye of the Lord is. upon them that fear him, 
Upon them that hope in his mercy ; 

19 To deliver their soul from death, 
And to keep them alive in famine. 

20 Our soul waiteth for the Lord : 
He is our help and our shield. 

21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, 
Because we have trusted in his holy name. 

22 Let thy mercy, 0 Lord, be upon us, 
According as we hope in thee. 

We are here taught to give God the glory, 

First. Of his common providence towards all the children of men. Though 
he has endued man with understanding and freedom of will, yet he reserves to 
himself the government of him, and even of those very faculties by which he is 
qualified to govern himself. 

L The children of men are all under his eye, even their hearts are so ; and all 
the motions and operations of their souls, which none know but they them- 
selves, he knows better than they themselves, ver. 13, 14. Though the resi- 
dence of God's glory is in the highest heavens, yet from thence he not only has 
a prospect of all the earth, but a particular inspection of all the inhabitants of 
the earth. He not only beholdeth them, but he looks upon them, he looks nar- 
rowly upon them; so the word here used is sometimes rendered; so narrowly 
that not the least thought can escape his observation. Atheists think that, 
because he dwells above in heaven, he cannot, or will not, take notice of what 
is done here in this lower world; but from thence, as high as it is, he sees us 
all, and all persons and things are naked and open before him. 

2. Their hearts as well as their times are all in his hand. " He fashioneth 
their hearts." He made them at first, formed the spirit of each man within 
him, then when he brought him into being. Hence he is called the Father of 
soirits. And this is a good argument to prove that he perfectly knows them. 
The^ artist that made the clock can account for the motions of every wheel. 
David useth this argument, with application to himself, Ps. exxxix. 1, 14. He 
still moulds the hearts of men, turns them as the rivers of water which way 
soever he pleaseth, to serve his own purposes; darkens or enlightens men's 
understandings, stiffens or bows their wills, according as he is pleased to mak« 
use of them. He that fashions men's hearts fashions them alike. It is in 
hearts as in faces; though there is a great difference, and such a variety as 
that no two faces are exactly of the same features, nor any two hearts exactly 
of the same temper, yet there is such a similitude, as that in some things all 
faces and all hearts agree, "as in water face answers to face," Pr. xxvii. 19. 
'He fashions them together ;' (so some read it;) as the wheels of a watch, though 
of different shapes, sizes, and motions, yet are all put together to serve one 
and the same purpose, so the hearts of men and their dispositions, however 
varying from each other, and seeming to contradict one another, yet are ail 
overruled to serve the Divine purpose, which is one. 

3. They, and all they do, are obnoxious to his judgment; for he "considereth 
all their works ;" not, only knows them, but weighs them, that he may ''render 
to every man according to his works, 5 ' in the day, in the world, of retribution, 
in the judgment, and to eternity. 

4. All the powers of the creature have a dependence upon him, and are of no 
account, of no avail at all, without him, ver. 16, 17. It is much for the honour 
of God, that not only no force can prevail in opposition to him, but that no 
force can act but in dependence on him, and by a power derived from him. 
1st. The strength of a king is nothing without God. No king is sacred by his 
royal prerogatives, or the authority with which he is invested; for the powers 



150 PSALM XXXIIL 

of that kind that be are ordained of God, and are what he makes them, and no 
more. David was a king, and a man of war, from his youth, and yet acknow- 
ledged God only to be his protector and saviour. 2nd. The strength of an 
army is nothing without God. "The multitude of an host" cannot secure 
those under whose command they act, unless God make them a security to 
them. A great army cannot be sure of victory, for when God pleaseth one 
shall chase a thousand. 3rd. The strength of a giant is nothing without God. 
" A mighty man," such as Goliath was, "is not delivered by his much strength," 
when his day comes to fall ; neither the firmness nor actiyity of his body, neither 
the stoutness nor resolution of his mind, will stand him any stead, any farther 
than God is pleased to give him success. Let not the strong man, then, glory 
in his strength, but let us all strengthen ourselves in the Lord our God; go 
forth and go on in his strength. 4th. The strength of a horse is nothing with- 
out God; ver. 17, "A horse is a vain thing for safety." In war horses were 
then so highly accounted of, and so much depended on, that God forbade the 
kings of Israel to multiply horses, Deu. xvii. 16, lest they should be tempted to 
trust to them, and their confidence should thereby be taken off from God. 
David houghed the horses of the Syrians, 2 Sam. viii. 4; here he houghs all the 
horses in the world, by pronouncing a horse a vain thing for safety in the day 
or battle. If the war-horse be unruly and ill-managed, he may hurry his rider 
into danger, instead of carrying him out of danger. If he be killed under him, 
he may be his death, instead of saying his life. It is, therefore, our interest to 
make sure God's favour towards us, and then we may be sure of his power 
engaged for us, and need not fear whatever is against us. 

Secondly. We are to give God the glory of his special grace. In the midst 
of his acknowledgments of God's providence, he pronounceth those blessed 
that have Jehovah for their God, who governs the world, and has wherewithal 
to help them in every time of need, while they were miserable who had this 
and the other Baal for their God, which was so far from being able to hear and 
help tiiem, that it was itself senseless and helpless; yer. 12, "Blessed, is the 
nation whose God is the Lord," even Israel, who had the knowledge of the true 
God, and were taken into covenant with him, and all others who own God for 
theirs, and are owned by him ; for they also, whatever nation they are of, are 
of the spiritual seed of 'Abraham, i. It is their wisdom that they take the 
Lord for their God, that they direct their homage and adoration there where 
it is due, and where the payment of it will not be in vain. 2. It is their hap- 
piness that they are the people whom God hath chosen for his own inheritance, 
whom he is pleased with, and honoured in, and whom he protects and takes 
care of; whom he cultivates and improves, as a man doth his inheritance, 
Deu. xxxii. 9. Now let us observe here, to the honour of Divine grace, 

1st. The regard which God has to his people, ver. 18, 19. God beholds all 
the sons of men with an eye of observation, but his eye of favour and compla- 
cency is upon them that fear him: he looks upon them with delight, as the 
father on his children, as the bridegroom on his spouse, Jsa. lxii. 5. While 
those that depend on arms and armies, on chariots and horses, perish in the 
disappointment of their expectations, God's people under his protection are 
safe, for "he shall deliver their soul from death," when there seems to be but 
a step between them and it. If he do not deliver the body from temporal 
death, yet he will deliver the soul from spiritual and eternal death ; their 
souls, whatever happens, shall live and praise him, either in this world or in 
a better. From his bounty they shall be supplied with all necessaries: "he 
shall keep them alive in famine;" when others die for want, they shall live, 
which makes it a distinguishing mercy ; when visible means fail, God will find 
out some way or other to supply them. He doth not say he will give them 
abundance, they have no reason either to desire it or to expect it, but he will 
keep them alive, they shall not starve; and when destroying judgments are 
abroad it ought to be reckoned a great favour, for it is a very sensible one, 
and very obliging, to have our lives given us for a prey. They that have the 
Lord for their God shall find him their help and their shield, ver. 20. In their 
difficulties he will assist them, they shall be helped over them, helped through 
them ; in their dangers he will secure them, so that they shall not receive any 
real damage. 

2nd. The regard which God's people have to him, and which we all ought to 
have in consideration of this. First. We must wait for God. "We must attend 
the motions of his _ providence, and accommodate ourselves to them, and 
patiently expect the issue of them. Our souls must wait for him, ver. 20. We 
must not only in word and tongue profess a believing regard to God, but it 
must be inward and sincere, a secret and silent attendance on him. Secondly. 
"We must rely on God, "hope in his mercy," in the goodness of his nature, 
though we have not an express promise to depend upon. They that fear God 
and his wrath, must hope in God and his mercy ; for there is no flying from God, 
but by flying to him. These pious dispositions will not only consist together, 
but befriend each other; a holy fear of God, and yet at the same time a hope in 



PSALM XXXIV. 



151 



his mercy. This is trusting in his holy name, ver. 21, in all that whereby he 
has made known himself to us for our encouragement to serve him. Thirdly. 
We must rejoice in God, ver. 21. And those do not truly rest on God, or do 
not know the unspeakable advantage they have by so doing, who do not rejoice 
in him at all times ; because they that hope in God hope for an eternal fulness 
of joy in his presence. Fourthly. We must seek to him for that mercy which 
we hope in, ver. 22. Our expectations from God are not to supersede, but to 
quicken and encourage our applications to him; he will be sought unto for 
that which he has promised, and therefore the psalm concludes with a short 
but comprehensive prayer, "Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us;" let us always 
have the comfort and benefit of it, not according as we merit from thee, but 
" according as we hope in thee," that is, according to the promise which thou 
hast in thy Word given to us, and according to the faith which thou hast by 
thy Spirit and grace wrought in us. If in singing these verses we put forth a 
dependence upon God, and let out our desires towards him, we make melody 
with our hearts to the Lord. 

PSALM XXXIV. 

This psalm was penned upon a particular occasion, as appears by the title ; and yet there 
is little in it peculiar to that occasion, but that which is general, both by way of thanks- 
giving to God and instruction to us. I. He praiseth God for the experience which he 
and others had had of his goodness, ver. 1 — 6. II. He encourageth all good people 
to trust in God, and to seek to him, ver. 7 — 10. III. He gives good counsel to us all 
as unto children, to take heed of sin, and to make conscience of our duty both to God 
and man, ver. 11 — 14. IV. To enforce this good counsel he shews God's favour to th6 
righteous, and his displeasure against the wicked ; in which he sets before us good and 
evil, the blessing and the curse, ver. 15 — 22. So that, in singing this psalm, we are 
both to give glory to God, and to teach and admonish ourselves and one another. 

A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; 
who drove him away, and he departed. 

I WILL bless the Lord at all times : 
His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 

2 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord : 
The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. 

3 0 magnify the Lord with me, 
And let us exalt his name together. 

4 I sought the Lord, and he heard me, 
And delivered me from all my fears. 

5 They looked unto him, and were lightened : 
And their faces were not ashamed. 

6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, 
And saved him out of all his troubles. 

7 The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them 
And delivereth them. [that fear him, 

8 0 taste and see that the Lord is good : 
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. 

9 0 fear the Lord, ye his saints : 

For there is no want to them that fear him. 
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: {thing. 
But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good 

The title of this psalm tells us both who penned it and upon w r hat occasion 
it was penned. David being forced to run his country, which was made too 
hot for him by the rage of Saul, sought for shelter as near it as he could in the 
land of the Philistines; there it was soon discovered who he was, and he was 
brought before the king, who in the storv is called Achish, his proper name, 
here Abimelech, his title. And for fear he should be treated as a spy, or one 



152 PSALM XXXIV. 

that came thither upon design, he feigned himself to be a mad man, (such there 
have been in every age, that even by idiots men might be taught to give God 
thanks for the use of their reason,) that Achish might dismiss him as a con- 
temptible man, rather than take cognizance of him as a dangerous man. And 
it had the effect he desired; by this stratagem he escaped the hand that other- 
wise would have handled him roughly. Now, 1. We cannot justify David 
in this dissimulation ; it ill became an honest man to feign himself to be what 
he was not, and a man of honour to feign himself to be a fool and a madman. 
If in sport we mimic those who have not so good an understanding as we think 
we have, we forget that God might have made their case ours. 2. Yet we 
cannot but admire at the composedness of his spirit, and how far he was from 
any change of that when he changed his behaviour. Even when he was in 
that fright, or rather in that danger only, his heart was so fixed, trusting in God, 
that even then he penned this excellent psalm, which hath as much in it of the 
marks of a calm, sedate spirit as any psalm in all the book ; and there is some- 
thing very nice too in the composure, for every verse begins with a several 
letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. Happy they who can thus keep their 
temper, and keep their graces in exercise, even when they are tempted to change 
their behaviour. In this former part of the psalm, 

First. David engageth and exciteth himself to praise God. Though it was 
his fault that he changed his behaviour, yet it was God's mercy that he 
escaped; and the mercy was so much the greater in that God did not deal 
with him according to the desert of his dissimulation : and we must in every 
thing give thanks. He resolves, 1. That he will praise God constantly; " I will 
bless the Lord at all times," upon all occasions. He resolves to keep up stated 
times for this duty : to lay hold on all opportunities for it, and to renew his 
praises upon every fresh occurrence that furnisheth him with matter. If we 
hope to spend our eternity in praising God, it is fit we should spend as much 
as may be of our time in this work. 2. That he will praise him openly; " His 
praise shall continually be in my mouth." Thus he would shew how forward 
he was to own his obligations to the mercy of God, and how desirous to make 
others also sensible of theirs. 3. That he will praise him heartily ; " My soul 
shall make her boast in the Lord," in my relation to him, my interest in him, and 
expectations from him. This is not vainglory to glory in the Lord. 

Secondly. He calls upon others to 30m with him herein. He expects they 
will : ver. 2, " The humble shall hear thereof," both of my deliverance and of 
my thankfulness, " and be glad," that a good man has so much favour shewed 
him, and a good God so much honour done him. Those have much comfort 
in God's mercies, both to others and to themselves, that are humble, and have 
the least confidence in their own merit and sufficiency. It pleased David to 
think that God's favours to him would rejoice the heart of every Israelite. Three 
things he would have us all to concur with him in : 

1. In great and high thoughts of God, which we should express in magnifying 
him, and exalting his name, ver. 3. We cannot make God greater or higher 
than he is, but if we adore him as infinitely great, and higher than the highest, 
he is pleased to reckon this magnifying and exalting him. This we must do 
together. God's praises sound best in concert, for so we praise him as the 
angels do in heaven. They that share in God's favour, as all the saints do, 
should concur in his praises ; and we should be as desirous of the assistance 
of our friends in returning thanks for mercies as in praying for them. We have 
reason to join in thanksgiving to God, 

1st. For his readiness to hear prayer, which all the saints have had the 
comfort of; for he never said to any of them, Seek ye me in vain. First. David 
for his part will give it under his hand that he has found him a prayer-hearing 
God ; ver. 4, " I sought the Lord" in my distress, intreated his favour, begged 
his help, "and he heard me ;"' answered my request presently, " and delivered 
me from all my fears," both from the death I feared and from the disquietment 
and disturbance I was put into by my fear of it. The fornier he doth by his 
providence working for us; the latter by his grace working in us to silence our 
fears, and still the tumult of the spirits. And this is the greater mercy of the 
two, because the thing we fear is our trouble only,_ but our unbelieving, dis- 
trustful fear of it is our sin ; nay, and many times it is more our torment too 
than the thing itself would be, which perhaps would only touch the bone and 
the flesh, while the fear would prey upon the spirits, and put us out of the 
possession of our own soul. David's prayers helped to silence his fears ; having 
sought the Lord, and left his case with him, he could with a great deal of ease 
expect the event. But David was a great and eminent man : we may not expect 
to be favoured as he was ; have an^ others ever experienced the like benefit by 
prayer? Yes ; Secondly. Many besides him have looked unto God by faith and 
prayer, and have been lightened by it, ver. 5. It has wonderfully revived and 
comforted them, witness Hannah, who, when she had prayed, " went her way 
and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad." When we look to the 



PSALM XXXIV. 



153 



world we are darkened, are perplexed and at a loss ; but when we look unto 
God, from him we have the light both of direction and joy, and our way is 
made both plain and pleasant. These here spoken of, that looked unto God, 
had their expectations raised, and the event did not frustrate them ; their faces 
were not ashamed of their confidence. But perhaps these also were persons 
of great eminency, like David himself, and upon that account were highly fa- 
voured ; or their numbers made them considerable. Nay, Thirdly, " This poor 
man cried;" a single person, mean and inconsiderable, whom no man looked 
upon with any respect, or looked after with any concern, yet he was as welcome 
to the throne of grace as David or any of his worthies. The Lord heard him," 
took cognizance of his case and of his prayers, "and saved him out of all his 
troubles," ver. 6. God will regard the prayer of the destitute, Pd. cii. 17 : see 
Is a. lvii. 15. 

2nd. For the ministration of the good angels about us ; ver. 7, " The angel 
of the Lord," that is, a guard of angels, so some, but so unanimous in their 
service as if they were but one, or a guardian angel, " encampeth round about 
them that fear God," as the life-guard about the prince, " and delivereth them." 
God makes use of the attendance of the good spirits for the protection of his 
people from the malice and power of evil spirits ; and more good offices the 
holy angels do us every day than we are aware of. Though in dignity and 
capacity of nature they are very much superior to us, though they retain their 
primitive rectitude, which we have lost, though they have constant employment 
in the upper world to praise God, and are entitled to a constant rest and bliss 
there, yet in obedience to their Maker, and in love to those that bear his image, 
they condescend to minister to the saints, and stand up for them against trie 
powers of darkness. They not only visit them, but encamp round about them, 
acting for their good as really, though not as sensibly, as for Jacob's, Gen. xxxii. 1 ; 
and Elisha's, 2 Kin. vi. 17. All the glory be to the God of the angels. 

2. He would have us to join with him in kind and good thoughts of God; 
ver. 8, " O taste and see that the Lord is good/' The goodness of God includes 
both the beauty and amiableness of his being, and the bounty and benefi- 
cence of his providence and grace: and, accordingly, 1st. We must taste 
that he is a bountiful benefactor, relish the goodness of God in all his gifts 
to us, and reckon that the savour and sweetness of them; let God's goodness 
be rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel. 2nd. AVe must see that he is a 
beautiful being, and delight in the contemplation of his infinite perfections. By 
taste and sight we both make discoveries and take complacency. Taste and see 
God's goodness, that is, take notice of it, and take the comfort of it, 1 Pet. ii. 3. 
He is good, for ne makes all those truly blessed that trust in him ; let us, there- 
fore, be so convinced of his goodness as thereby to be encouraged in the worst 
of times to trust in him. 

3. He would have us join with him in a resolution to seek God and serve 
him, and continue in his fear ; ver. 9, " O fear the Lord, ye his saints : " when we 
taste and see that he is good, we must not forget that he is great, and greatly 
to be feared;" nay, even his goodness is the proper object of a filial reverence 
and awe; " They shall fear the Lord and his goodness," Bos. hi. 5. " Fear the 
Lord;" that is, w r orship him, and make conscience of your duty to him in every 
thing : not fear him and shun him, but fear him and seek him, ver. 10 ; as a 
people seek unto their God ; apply yourselves to him, and portion yourselves 
in him. To encourage us to fear God and seek him, it is here promised that 
those that do so, even in this wanting world, shall want no good thing; Heb., 
' They shall not want all good things, that is, they shall so have all good things 
as that they shall have no reason to complain of the want of any. As to the 
things of the other world, they shall have grace sufficient for the support of 
the spiritual life, 2 Cor. xii. 9 ; Ps. lxxxiv. 1 1 ; and, as to this life, they shall 
have what is necessary to the support of it from the hand of God. As a Pather, 
he will feed them with food convenient. What farther comforts they desire 
they shall have, as far as Infinite Wisdom sees good ; and what they want in one 
thing, shall be made up in another. What God denies them, he will give them 

race to be content without, and then they do not want it, Deu. hi. 26 ; Paul 
ad all and abounded, because he was content, Phil. iv. 11—18. Those that 
live by faith in God's all-sufficiency want nothing, for in him they have enough; 
however it goes with the young lions, they shall lack and suffer hunger. They 
that live upon common providence, as the lions do, shall want that satisfaction 
which they have that live by faith in the promise. They that trust to them- 
selves, and think their own hands sufficient for them, shall want ; for bread 
is not always to the wise, but verily they shall be fed that trust in God, and 
desire to be at his finding. They that are ravenous and prey upon all about 
them shall want ; but " the meek shall inherit the earth." They shall not want 
that with quietness work and mind their own business. Plainhearted Jacob 
has pottage enough, when Esau the cunning hunter is ready to perish for 
hunger. 



154 PSALM XXXI Y. 



1 1 Come, ye children, hearken unto me : 
I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 

12 What man is he that desireth life, 

A?id loveth many days, that he may see good ? 

13 Keep thy tongue from evil, 

And thy lips from speaking guile. 

14 Depart from evil, and do good ; 
Seek peace, and pursue it. 

15 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, 
And his ears are open unto their cry. 

16 The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, 
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 

17 The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, 
And delivereth them out of all their troubles. 

18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; 
And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous : 
But the Lord delivereth him out of them all. 

20 He keepeth all his bones : 
Not one of them is broken. 

21 Evil shall slay the wicked : 

And they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. 

22 The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants : 

And none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. 

David, in this latter part of the psalm, undertakes to teach children ; though 
a man of war, and anointed to be king, he did not think it below him. Though 
now he had his head so full of cares, and his hands of business, yet he could 
find heart and time to give good counsel to young people from his own expe- 
rience. It doth not appear that he had now any children of his own, at least 
none that were grown up to a capacity of being taught, but by Divine inspiration 
he instructs the children of his people. Those that were in years would not be 
taught by him, though he had offered them his service, Ps. xxxii. 8 ; but he has 
hopes that the tender branches will be more easily bent, and that children and 
young people will be more tractable, and therefore he calls together a congre- 
gation of them ; ver. 10, " Come, ye children," that are now in your learning 
age, and are now to lay up a stock ot knowledge which you must live upon all 
your days : ye children that are foolish and ignorant, and need to be taught. 
Perhaps he intends especially those children whose parents neglected to instruct 
and catechise them; and it is as great a piece of charity to put those children 
to school, whose parents are not in a capacity to teach them, as to feed those 
children whose parents have not bread for them. Observe, 1. What he expects 
from them ; " Hearken unto me," leave your play, lay by your toys, and hear what 
I have to say to you; not only give me the hearing, but observe and obey me. 
2. What he undertakes to teach them ; " the fear of the Lord," inclusive of all the 
duties of religion. David was a famous musician, a statesman, a soldier, but 
he doth not say to the children, I will teach you to play on the harp, or to handle 
the sword or spear, or draw the bow, or I will teach you the maxims of state 
policy, but, "I will teach you the fear of the Lord ;" which is better than all arts \ 
and sciences, better than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. That is it which we f 
should be solicitous both to learn ourselves and to teach our children. 

First. He supposeth that we all aim to be happy; ver. 12, " What man is he I 
that desireth life," that is, as it follows, not only to see many days, but to see 
good, comfortable days. Non est vivere, sed valere vita, — 'it is not being, but ; I 
well-being, that constitutes life.'" It is asked, Who wisheth to live a long and 
pleasant life ? and it is easily answered, Who doth not ? Surely this must look 
farther than time, and this present world; for man's life on earth at best 
consists but of few days, and those full of trouble. What man is he that would 



PSALM XXXIY 



be eternally happy? that would see many days, as many as the days of heaven ; 
that would see good in that world where all bliss is in perfection, without the 
least alloy ; who would see that good before him now by faith and hope, and 
enjoy it shortly? Who would? alas, very few r have that in their thoughts. 
Most ask, " Who will shew us any good?" but few ask, " W^hat shall we do to 
inherit eternal life ? " This question implies there are some such. 

Secondly. He prescribes the true and only way to happiness, both in this 
world and that to come, ver. 13, 14. Would we pass comfortably through the 
world, and out of the world, our constant care must be to keep a good con- 
science. And in order to that, 1. We must learn to bridle our tongues, and 
be careful what we say ; that we never speak amiss to God's dishonour, or 
our neighbour's prejudice: " Keep thy tongue from evil" speaking, lying, and 
slandering. So great a way doth this go in religion, that "if any offend not in 
word, the same is a perfect man ;" and so little a way doth religion go without 
this, that he that "bridles not his tongue, his religion is vain." 2. We must 
be upright and sincere in every thing we say, and not double-tongued ; our 
words must be the indications of our minds, our lips must be kept from speaking 
guile, either to God or man. 3. We must leave all our sins, and resolve we will 
have no more to do with them. "Depart from evil," from evil works, and evil 
workers; from the sins others commit, and which we have formerly allowed 
ourselves in. 4. It is not enough not to do hurt in the world, but we must 
study to be useful, and live to some purpose. We must not only "depart from 
evil," but we must " do #ood ;" good for ourselves, especially for our own souls, 



for another world : and as we have ability and opportunity we must do good 
to others also. 5. .Because nothing is more contrary to that love which never 
fails, which is the summary both of law and gospel, both of grace and glory, 
than strife and contention, which brings confusion and every evil work, we 
must " seek peace and pursue it." Have a peaceable disposition ; study the 
things that make for peace;" do nothing to break the peace, and to make 
mischief. If peace seem to flee from us, we must pursue it ; " follow peace with 
all men ;" stick at no pains, no expense, to preserve and recover peace ; be willing 
to deny ourselves a great deal both in honour and interest for peace sake. 
These excellent directions in the way to life and good, are transcribed into 
the New Testament, and made part of our gospel duty, 1 Pet iii. 10, 11 ; and, 
perhaps, David in warning us that we speak no guile, reflects upon his own sin 
in changing his behaviour. They that truly repent of what they have done 
amiss will warn others to take heed of doing likewise. 

Thirdly. He enforceth these directions by setting before us the happiness of 
the godly in the love and favour of God, and the miserable state of the wicked 
under his displeasure. Here is life and death, good and evil, the blessing and 
the curse, plainly stated before us, that we may choose life, and live: see 
Isa. iii. 10, 11. 

1. " Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them;" however they may bless 
themselves in their own way. 

1st. God is against them, and then they cannot but be miserable. Sad is the 
case of that man who by sin has made his Maker his enemy, his destroyer. " The 
face of the Lord is against them that do evil," ver. 16. Sometimes God is said 
to turn his face from them, Jer. xviii. 17, because they have forsaken him; 
here he is said to set his face against them, because they have fought against 
him. And for certain, God is able to outface the most proud and daring sinners, 
and can frown them into hell. 

2nd. Ruin is before them. This will follow of course, if God be against 
them, for he is able both to kill and to cast into hell. First. The land of the 
living shall be no place for them or theirs. When God sets his face against 
them, he shall not only cut them off, but "cut off the remembrance of them ;" 
shall when they are alive bury them in obscurity, when they are dead shall 
bury them in oblivion. He shall root out their posterity, by whom they 
should be remembered ; he shall pour disgrace upon their achievements, which 
they gloried in, and for which they thought they should have been remembered. 
It is certain there is no lasting honour but that which comes from God. 
Secondly. There shall be a sting in their death ; " Evil shall slay the wicked," 
ver. 21. Their death shall be miserable; and so it will certainly be, though 
they die in a bed of down, or in the bed of honour. Death to them has a curse 
in it, and is the king of terrors : to them it is an evil, an only evil. It is very 
well observed by Dr. Hammond,' that the evil here which slays the wicked, is 
the same word in the singular number that is used, ver. 19, for the afflictions 
of the righteous, to intimate that godly people have many troubles, and yet 
they do them no hurt ; but are made to work for good to them, for God will 
deliver them out of them all; whereas wicked people have fewer troubles, 
fewer evils befall them, perhaps but one, and yet that one may prove their utter 
ruin. One trouble with a curse in it kills and slays, and doth execution ; but 




156 PSALM XXXIV. 

many, with a blessing in them, are harmless, nay, gainful. Thirdly. Desolation 
will be their everlasting portion. _ They that are wicked themselves oftentimes 
hate the righteous, name and thing, have an implacable enmity to them and 
their righteousness; but they shall be desolate, shall be condemned as guilty, 
and laid waste for ever, shall be for ever forsaken and abandoned of God and 
all good angels and men ? and those that are so are desolate indeed. 

2. Yet, " Say to the righteous, it shall be well with them; "all good people 
are under God's special favour and protection. We are here assured of that, 
under a great variety of instances and expressions. 

1st. God takes special notice of good people, and takes notice who have their 
eyes ever to him, and who make conscience of their duty to him. " The eyes of 
the Lord are upon the righteous," ver. 15 ; to direct and guide them, to protect 
and keep them. Parents that are very fond of a child, will not let it be out 
of their sight ; none of God's children are ever from under his eye, but on them 
he looks with a singular complacency, as well as with a watchful and tender 
concern. 

2nd. They are sure of an answer of peace to their prayers. All God's people 
are a praying people, and they cry in prayer, which notes great importunity ; 
but is it to any purpose? Yes; First. God takes notice of what we say; 
yer. 17, they " cry, and the Lord heareth them," and hears them so as to make 
it appear he has a regard to them. "His ears are open to their prayers ;" to 
receive them all, and to receive them readily, and with delight. Though he has 
been a God hearing prayer ever since men began to call upon the name of the 
Lord, yet his ear is not heavy. There is no rhetoric, nothing charming, in a cry, 
yet God's ears are open to it, as the tender mother's to the cry of her sucking 
ctrld, which another would take no notice of. " The righteous cry, and the 
Lord heareth," ver. 17. This intimates that it is the constant practice of good 
people, when they are in distress, to cry unto God ; and it is their constant 
comfort that God hears them. Secondly. He not only takes notice of what we 
say, but is ready to us for our relief, ver. 18; he "is nigh to them that are of 
a broken heart, and saveth thein." Note, ]st. It is the cnaracter of the 
righteous, whose prayers God will hear, that they are of a broken heart and 
a contrite spirit, that is, humbled for sin, and emptied of self ; they are low in 
their own eyes, and have no confidence in their own merit and sufficiency, but 
in God only. 2nd. Those who are so have God nigh unto them to comfort 
and support them ; that the spirit may not be broken more than is meet, lest 
it should fail before him : see Isa. lvii. 15. Though God is high, and dwells on 
high, yet he is near to those who, being of a contrite spirit, know how T to value 
his favour, and will save them from sinking under their burthens ; he is near 
them to good purpose. 

3. They are taken under the special protection of the Divine government; 
ver. 20, " He keepeth all his bones," — not only his soul but his body ; not only 
his body in general, but every bone in it, — "not one of them is broken." He 
that has a broken heart shall not have a broken bone; for David himself had 
found thatwdien he had a contrite heart the broken bones were made to rejoice, 
Ps. li. 8, 17. One would not expect to meet with anything of Christ here, and 
yet this scripture is said to be fulfilled in him, Jno. xix. 36, when the soldiers 
broke the legs of the two thieves that were crucified with him, but did not 
break his, they being under the protection of this promise as well as the type, 
even the paschal lamb, "a bone of him shall not be broken;" the promi&es 
being made good to Christ, through him are sure to all the seed. It doth not 
follow but that a good man may have a broken bone, but many a time, by the 
watchful providence of God concerning him, it is wonderfully prevented, and 
the preservation of his bones is the effect of this promise; and if he ha\e a 
broken bone, sooner or later it shall be made whole ; at farthest at the resurrec- 
tion, when that which is sown in weakness shall be raised in power. 

4. They are, and shall be, delivered out of their troubles. 1st. It is supposed 
that they have their share of crosses in this world, perhaps a greater share than 
others. In the world they must have tribulation, that they may be conformed 
both to the will of God and to the example of Christ ; ver. 19, " Many are the 
afflictions of the righteous;" witness David and his afflictions, Ps. cxxxii. 1. 
There are those that hate them, ver. 21, and they are continually aiming to do 
them a mischief. Their God loves them, and therefore corrects them ; so that, 
between the mercy of Heaven and the malice of hell, the afflictions of the right- 
eous must needs be many. 2nd. God has engaged for their deliverance and 
salvation : " He delivereth them out of all their troubles," ver. 17 ; and again, 
ver. 19 ; he saveth them, ver. 18, so that though they may fall into trouble it 
shall not be their ruin. This promise of their deliverance is explained, ver. 22 ; 
whatever troubles befall them. First. They shall not hurt their better part ; 
" The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants," from the power of the grave, 
Ps. xlix. 15, and from the sting of every affliction. He keeps them from sinning in 
their troubles, which is the only thing that w ould do them a mischief, and keeps 
them from despair, and from being put out of the possession of their own souls. 



PSALM XXXV. 157 

Secondly. They shall not hinder their everlasting bliss ; " none of them that trust 
in him shall be desolate," that is, they shall not be comfortless, for they shall not 
be cut off from their communion with God. jN'o man is desolate but he whom 
God has forsaken, nor is any man undone till he is in hell. Those that are 
God's faithful servants, — that make it their care to please him, and their busi- 
ness to honour him, ana in doing so trust him to protect and reward them, — 
and with good thoughts of him refer themselves to him, have reason to be easy, 
whatever befalls them, for they are safe, and shall be happy. 

In singing these verses let us be confirmed in the choice we have made of the 
ways of God ; let us be quickened in his service, and greatly encouraged by the 
assurances he has given of the particular care he takes of all those that faith- 
fully adhere to him, 

PSALM XXXV. 

David in this psalm appeals to the righteous Judge of heaven and earth, against his 
enemies that hated and persecuted him ; it is supposed that Saul and his party are the 
persons he means, for with them he had the greatest struggles. J. He complains to 
God of the injuries they did him ; they strove with him, fought against him, ver. 1 ; 
persecuted him, ver. 3; sought his ruin, ver. 4, 7; accused him falsely, ver. 11; 
abused him basely, ver. 15, 16; and all his friends, ver. 20; and triumphed over him, 
ver. 21, 25, 26. II. He pleads his own innocency, that he never gave them any provo- 
cation, ver. 7, 19; but, on the contrary, had studied to oblige them, ver. 12 — 14. 
111. He prays to God to protect and deliver him, and appear lor him, ver. 1,2; to 
comfort him, ver. 3; to be nigh to him, and rescue him, ver. 17, 22; to. plead his 
cause, ver. 23, 24; to defeat all the designs of his enemies against him, ver. 3, 4; and 
to disappoint their expectations of his fall, ver. 19, 25, 26; and, lastly, to countenance 
all his friends, and encourage them, ver. 27. IV. He prophesies the destruction of 
his persecutors, ver. 4—6, 8. V. Hepromiseth himself that he shall yet see better days, 
ver. 9, 10 ; and promiseth God that he will then attend him with his praises, ver. 18, 28. 
In singing this psalm, and praying over it, we must take heed of applying it to any 
little peevish quarrels and enmities of our own; and of expressing by it any un- 
charitable, revengeful resentments of injuries done to us; for Christ has taught "us to 
forgive our enemies, and not to pray against them, but to pray for them, as he diu ; 
but, 1. We may comfort ourselves with the testimony of our consciences concerning 
our innocency, with reference to those that are any way injurious to us, and with hopes 
that God will in his own way and time right us, and in the mean time support us. 
2. We ought to apply it to the public enemies of Christ and his kingdom, typified by 
David and his kingdom, to lesent the indignities done to Cnrist's honour; to pray to 
God to plead the just and injured cause of Christianity and serious godliness, and 
to believe that God will in due time glorify his own name in the ruin of all the 
irreconcilable enemies of his church, that will not repent to give him glory. 

A Psalm of David. 

PLEAD my cause, 0 Lord, with them that strive with me: 
Fight against them that fight against me. 

2 Take hold of shield and buckler, 
And stand up for mine help. 

3 Draw out also the spear, 

And stop the way against them that persecute me : 
Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. 

4 Let them be confounded and put to shame 
That seek after my soul : 

Let them be turned back and brought to confusion 
That devise my hurt. 

5 Let them be as chaff before the wind : 
And let the angel of the Lord chase them. 

6 Let their way be dark and slippery : 

And let the angel of the Lord persecute them. 

7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, 
Which without cause they have digged for my soul. 



158 



PSALM XXXV. 



8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares ; 
And let his net that he hath hid catch himself: 
Into that very destruction let him fall. 

9 And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord : 
It shall rejoice in his salvation. 

10 All my bones shall say, 

Lord, who is like unto thee, [for him, 

Which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong 
Yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him ? 

In these verses we have, 

First. David's representation of his case to God, setting forth the restless 
rage and malice of his persecutors. He was God's servant, expressly appointed 
by him to be what he was, followed his conduct, and aimed at his glory in the 
way of duty, had " lived," as St. Paul speaks, " in all good conscience before 
God unto this day ;" and yet there were those that strove with him, that did 
their utmost to oppose his advancement, and made all the interest tliey could 
against him ; they fought against him, ver. 1 ; not only undermined him closely 
and secretly, but openly avowed their opposition to him, and set themselves 
to do him all the mischief they could. They persecuted him with an unwearied 
enmity, sought after his soul,"ver. 4, that is, hislife, no less would satisfy their 
bloody minds ; they aimed to disquiet his spirit, and put that into disorder. 
Nor was it a sudden passion against him that they harboured, but an inveterate 
malice; they devised his hurt, laid their heads together, and set their wits on 
work, not only to do him a mischief, but to find out ways and means to ruin 
him. They treated him, who was the greatest blessing of his country, as if he 
had been the curse and plague of it ; hunted him as a dangerous beast of prey ; 
they digged a pit for him, and laid a net in it, that they might have him at their 
mercy, ver. 7. They took a great deal of pains in persecuting him, for they 
digged a pit, Ps. vii. 15, and very close and crafty they were in carrying on their 
designs; the old serpent taught them subtlety; they hid their net from David 
and his friends, but in vain, for they could not hide it from God. And, lastly, 
He found himself an unequal match for them. His enemy, especially Saul, was 
too strong for him, ver. 10 ; for he had the army at his command, and assumed 
to himself the sole power of making laws, and giving judgment, attainted and 
condemned whom he pleased, carried not a sceptre, but a javelin in his hand, to 
cast at any man that stood in his way ; such was the manner of the king, and 
all about him must do as he bade them, right or wrong. The king's word is a 
law, and every thing must be carried with a high hand ; he has fields, and vine- 
yards, and preferments, at his dispose, 1 Sam. xxii. 7; but David is poor and 
needy, has nothing to make friends with, and therefore has none to take his 
part, out men (as we say) of broken fortunes, 1 Sam. xxii. 2, and therefore no 
marvel that Saul spoiled him of what little he had got, and the interest he had 
made. If the kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and his anointed, 
who can contend with them? Note, It is no new thing for the most righteous 
men, and the most righteous cause, # to meet with many mighty and malicious 
enemies ; Christ himself is striven with, and fought against, and war made upon 
the holy seed; and we are not to marvel at the matter, it is a fruit or the old 
enmity in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman. 

Secondly. His appeal to God concerning his integrity, and the justice of his 
cause. If a fellow subject had wronged him, he might have appealed to his 
prince, as St. Paul did to Caesar ; but, when his prince wronged him, he appealed 
to his God, who is Prince and Judge of the kings of the earth. "Plead my 
cause, O Lord," ver. 1. Note, A righteous cause may with the greatest satis- 
faction imaginable be laid before a righteous God, and referred to him to give 
judgment upon it ; for he perfectly knows the merits of it, holds the balance 
exactly even ; and with him there is no respect of persons. God knew that they 
were without cause his enemies, and that they had without cause digged pits 
for him, ver. 7. Note, It will be a comfort to us, when men do us wrong, if our 
consciences can witness for us that we have never done them any. It was so to 
St. Paul, Acts xxv. 10, " To the Jews have I done no wrong." We are apt to 
justify our uneasiness at the injuries men do us, that we never gave them any 
cause to use us so ; whereas this should, more than any thing, make us easy, for 
then we may the more securely expect that God will plead our cause. 

Thirdly. His prayer to God, to manifest himself both for him and to him in 
trial, i. For him. He prays that God would fight against his enemies, so as to 
disable them to hurt him, and defeat their designs against him, ver. J. That he 



PSALM XXXV. 159 

would take hold of shield and buckler, for the Lord is a man of war, Ex. xv. 3 ; 
and that he would stand up for his help, ver. 2, for he had few that would stand 
up for him; and, if he had never so many, they would stand him in no stead 
without God. That God would stop their way, that they might not undertake 
him when he fled from them ; this prayer we may put up against our persecutors 
that God would restrain them, and stop their way. 2. To him. " Say unto my 
soul, I am thy salvation," that is, Let me have inward comfort under all these 
outward troubles, to support my soul, which they strike at. Let God be my 
salvation, not only my Saviour out of my present troubles, but my everlasting 
bliss; let me have that salvation not onljr which he is the author of, but which 
consists in his favour ; and let me know it, let me have the comfortable assur- 
ance of it, in my own breast. If God by his Spirit witness to our spirits that he 
is our salvation, we have enough, we need desire no more to make us happy ; 
and this is a powerful support when men persecute us. If God be our friend, 
no matter who is our enemy. 

Fourthly. His prospect of the destruction of his enemies, which he prays for, 
—not in malice or revenge. We find how patiently he bore Shimei's curses : " So 
let him curse, for the Lord has bidden him ;" and we cannot suppose that he that 
was so meek in his conversation should give vent to any intemperate heat or 
passion in his devotion ; but by the spirit of prophecy he foretells the just judg- 
ments of God that would come upon them for their great wickedness, their 
malice, cruelty, and perfidiousness, and especially their enmity to the counsels of 
God, the interests of religion, and that reformation which they knew David, 
if ever he had power in his hand, would be an instrument of. They seemed to 
be hardened in their sins, and to be of the number of those who have sinned 
unto death, and are not to be prayed for, Jer. vii. 16 ; xi. 14 ; xiv. 11; 1 Jno. v. 16. 
As for Saul himself, it is probable David knew that God had rejected him, and 
had forbidden Samuel to mourn for him, 1 Sam. xvi. 1. _ And these predictions 
look farther, and read the doom of the enemies of Christ and his kingdom, as 
appears by comparing, Rom. xi. 9, 10. 

He here prays. 1. Against his many enemies: ver. 4—6, "Let them be con- 
founded," &c. Or, as Dr. Hammond reads it, " They shall be confounded, they 
shall be turned back.' This may be taken as a prayer for their repentance, for 
all penitents are put to shame for their sins, and turned back from them ; or, 
if they were not brought to repentance, that they might be defeated and dis- 
appointed in their designs against him, and so put to shame. -But though they 
should in some degree prevail, yet he foresees that it would be to their own ruin 
at last ; they shall be as chaff before the wind, so unable will wicked men be to 
stand before the judgments of God, and so certainly will they be driven away 
by them, Ps. i. 4. Their way shall be dark and slippery, ' darkness and slipperi- 
ness,' (so the margin reads it;) the way of sinners is so, for they w r alk in darkness, 
and in continual danger of falling into sin, into hell; it will prove so at last, for 
"their foot shall slide in due time," Deu. xxxii. 35. But this is not the worst of 
it ; even chaff before the wind may perhaps be stopped and find a place of rest, 
and though the way be dark and slippery it is possible a man may keep footing; 
but it is here foretold that the angel of the Lord shall chase them, ver. 5, so 
that they shall find no rest ; shall persecute them, ver. 6, so that they cannot 
possibly escape the pit of destruction. As God's angels encamp about them 
that fear him, so they encamp against them that fight against him. They are 
the ministers of his justice as well as of his mercy. Those that make God their 
enemy make all the holy angels their enemies. 2. He prays against his one 
mighty enemy ; ver. 8, Let destruction come upon him." It is probable he 
means Saul, who laid, snares for him, and aimed at his destruction. David 
vowed his hand should not be upon him, he would not be judge in his own cause ; 
but at the same time foretold that the Lord would smite him, 1 Sam. xxvi. 10; 
and here, that the net he had hid should catch himself, and into that very 
destruction he should fall, which was remarkably fulfilled in the ruin of Saul, 
for he had laid a plot to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines, 
1 Sam. xviii. 25; that was the net which he hid for him, under pretence of 
doing him honour; and in that very net was he himself taken, for he fell by the 
hand of the Philistines, when his day came to fall. 

Fifthly. His prospect of his own deliverance, which, having committed his cause 
to God, he did not doubt of, ver. 9, 10. 1. He hoped that he should have the 
comfort of it ; " My soul shall be joyful," not in mine own ease and safety, but 
" in the Lord," and in his favour ; in his promise and in his salvation, according 
to the promise. Joy in God, and in his salvation, is the only true, solid, satis- 
fying joy. They whose souls are sorrowful in the Lord, that sow in tears, and 
sorrow after a godly sort, need not question but that in due time their souls 
shall be joyful in the Lord, for gladness is sown for them, and they shall at last 
enter into the joy of their Lord. 2. He promised that then God should have 
the glory of it ; ver. 10, " All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee ? 99 
1st. He will praise God with the whole man, with all that is within him, and 



160 PSALM XXXY. 

with all the strength and vigour of his soul, intimated by his bones, which are 
within the body, and are the strength of it. 2nd. He will praise him as one of 
peerless and unparalleled perfection ; we cannot express how great and guod 
God is, and therefore must praise him, by acknowledging him a nonsuch; 
'Lord, who is like unto thee?" No such patron of oppressed innocencv, no 
such punisher of triumphant tyranny. The formation of our bones so wonder- 
fully, so curiously, Ecci. xi. 5, Ps. cxxxix. 16, the serviceableness of our bones, 
and the preservation of them, and especially the lite which at the resurrection 
shall be breathed upon the dry bones, and make them flourish as an herb, oblige 
every bone in our bodies, if it could speak, to say, "Lord, who is like unto 
thee?" and willingly to undergo any services or sufferings for him. 

1 1 False -witnesses did rise up ; 

They laid to my charge things that I knew not. 

1 2 They rewarded me evil for good 
To the spoiling of my soul. 

13 But as for me, 

When they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: 

I humbled my soul with fasiing ; 

And my prayer returned into mine own bosom. 

14 I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or 

brother : 

I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his 
mother. [selves together : 

15 But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered them- 
Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, 

and I knew it not ; 
They did tear me, and ceased not : 

1 6 With hypocritical mockers in feasts, 
They gnashed upon me with their teeth. 

Two very ill things David here lays to the charge of his enemies, to make good 
his appeal to God against them — perjury and ingratitude. 

First. Perjury, ver. 11. When Saul would have David attainted of treason, 
in order to his being outlawed, perhaps he did it with the formalities of a legal 
prosecution, produced witnesses which swore some treasonable wojj^s or overt 
acts against him, and he being not present to clear himself, — or if he had, it had 
been all one, — Saul adjudged him a traitor; this he complains of here as the 
highest piece of injustice imaginable. " False witnesses did rise up," who would 
swear anything; "they laid to my charge things that 1 knew not," nor ever 
thought of. See how much the honours, estates, liberties, and lives, even of the 
best men, lie at the mercy of the worst, against whose false oattis innocency itself 
is no fence ; and what reason we have to acknowledge with thankfulness the 
hold God has of the consciences even of bad men, to which it is owing that there 
is not more mischief done that way than is. This instance of the wrong done to 
David was typical, and had its accomplishment in the Son of David, against 
whom false witnesses did arise, Mat. xxvi. 60 ; and if we be at any time charged 
with what we are innocent of, let us not think it strange, as though some 
new thing happened to us; so persecuted they the prophets, even the great 
Prophet. 

Secondly. Ingratitude. Call a man ungrateful and you can call him no worse. 
This was the character of David's enemies, ver. 12, " They rewarded me evil for 
good." A great deal of good service he had done to his king, — witness his harp, 
witness Goliath's sword, witness the foreskins of the Philistines, — and yet his 
king vowed his death, and his country is made too hot for him. This is' to the 
spoiling of his soul ; that is, this base unkind usage robs him of his comfort, and 
cuts him to the heart more than anything else. Now, he had not only deserved 
well of the public, but of those particular persons that were now most bitter 
against him. Probably it was then well known who he meant: it may be Saul 
himself for one, whom he was sent for to attend upon when he was melancholy 
and ill, and to whom he was serviceable to drive away the evil spirit, not with 
his harp, but with his prayers; to others of the courtiers it is likely he had 



PSALM XXXV. 161 

shewed this respect while he lived at court, who now were of all others most 
abusive to him. Herein he was a type of Christ, to whom this wicked world was 
very ungrateful; Jno. x. 32, "Many good works have I shewed you from my 
Father, for which of those do you stone me?" David here shews, 

1. How tenderly, and with what a cordial affection he had carried it towards 
them in their afflictions ; ver. 13, 14, "they were sick." Note, Even the palaces 
and courts of princes are not exempt from the jurisdiction of death, and the 
visitation of sickness. Now when these people were sick, 1st. David mourned 
for them, and sympathised with them in their grief. They were nothing akin to 
him, he was under no obligations to them, would lose nothing by their death, 
but perhaps be a gainer by it, and yet he behaved himself as though they had 
Deen his nearest relations, purely from a principle of compassion and humanity. 
David was a man of war, and of a bold, stout spirit, and yet was thus susceptible 
of the impressions of sympathy, forgot the bravery of the hero, and seemed 
wholly made up of love and pity. It was a rare composition of hardiness and 
tenderness, courage and compassion, in the same breast. Observe, He took on 
as for a brother or mother, which intimates that it is our duty, and well becomes 
us, to lay to heart the sickness, and sorrow, and death of our near relations. 
Those that do not are justly stigmatized as without natural affection. 2nd. He 
prayed for them. He discovered not only the tender affection of a man, but the 
pious affection of a saint. He was concerned for their precious souls; and, since 
he could not otherwise be helpful to them, he helped them with his prayers to 
God for mercy and grace ; and the prayers of one who had so great an interest 
in heaven were of more value than perhaps they knew and considered. With 
his prayers he joined humiliation and self-affliction, both in his diet — he fasted, 
at least from pleasant bread, and in his dress— he clothed himself with sackcloth, 
thus expressing his grief, not only for their affliction, but for their sin ; for this 
was the guise and practice of a penitent. We ought to mourn for the sins of 
those that do not mourn for them themselves. His fasting also put an edge upon 
his praying, and was an expression of the ardency of it : he was so intent in his 
devotions that he had no appetite to meat, nor would allow himself time for 
eating. " My prayer returned into mine own bosom ; " that is, I had the com- 
fort of having done my duty, and of having approved myself a loving neighbour, 
though I could not thereby win upon them, nor make them my friends. We 
shall not lose by the good offices we have done to any, how ungrateful soever 
they are, for our rejoicing will be this, the testimony of our conscience. 

2. How basely and insolently, and with what a brutish enmity, and worse 
than brutish, they had carried it towards him ; ver. 15, 16, " In mine adversity they 
rejoiced." When he fell under the frowns of Saul, was banished the court, and 
persecuted as a criminal, they were pleased, were glad at his calamities, and got 
together in their drunken clubs to make themselves and one another merry 
with the disgrace of this great favourite. Well might he call them abjects, for 
nothing could be more vile and sordid than to triumph in the fall of a man of 
such unstained honour and consummate virtue. But this was not all, 1st. They 
tore him, rent his good name without mercy, said all the ill they could of him, 
end fastened upon him all the reproach their cursed wit and malice could reach 
to. 2nd. They gnashed upon him with their teeth ; that is, they never spoke 
of him but with the greatest indignation imaginable, as those that would have 
eaten him up, if they could. David was the fool in the play, and his disappoint- 
ment all the table-talk of the hypocritical mockers at feasts ; it was the song of 
the drunkards ; the comedians, who may fitly be called hypocritical mockers, 
(for what doth a hypocrite signify but a stage-player ?) and whose comedies it 
is likely were acted at feasts and balls, chose David for their subject, bantered 
and abused him, while the auditory, in token of their agreement with the plot, 
hummed, and gnashed upon him with their teeth. Such has often been the hard 
fate of the best of men. The apostles were made a spectacle to the world. 
David was looked upon with ill-will for no other reason but because he was 
caressed by the people. It is a vexation of spirit which attends even a right 
work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour, Eccl. iv. 4 ; and " who can 
stand before envy ?" Pr. xxvii. 4. 

17 Lord, how long wilt thou look on? 
Kescue my soul from their destructions, 
My darling from the lions. 

18 1 will give thee thanks in the great congregation 
I will praise thee among much people. 

19 Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice 

over me : [out a cause 

Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me With- 
in 



162 PSALM XXXV. 

20 For they speak not peace : 

But they devise deceitful matters against them that are 
quiet in the land. 

21 Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, 
And said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it. 

22 This thou hast seen, 0 Lord : 

Keep not silence : 0 Lord, be not far from me. 

23 Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, 
Even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. 

24 Judge me, 0 Lord my God, according to thy righteous- 
And let them not rejoice over me. |~ness ; 

25 Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it : 
Let them not say, We have swallowed him up. 

26 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together 
That rejoice at mine hurt : 

Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour 
That magnify themselves against me. 

27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, 
That favour my righteous cause : 

Yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, 
Which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant 

28 And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness 
And of thy praise all the day long. 

In these verses, as before, 

First. David describes the great injustice, malice, and insolence of his perse- 
cutors, pleading this # with God as a reason why he should protect him from 
them, and appear against them. 1 . They were very unrighteous. They were his 
enemies wrongfully, for he never gave them any provocation ; they hated him 
without a cause ; nay, for that for which they ought rather to have loved and 
honoured him. This is quoted with application to Christ, and is said to be fulfilled 
in him, Jno. xv. 25, " They hated me without cause." 2. They were very rude. 
They could not find it in their hearts to shew him common civility ; "they speak 
not peace;" if they meet him, they had not the good manners to give him the 
time of day, like Joseph's brethren, that could not speak peaceably to him, 
Gen. xxxvii. 4. 3. They were very proud and scornful: ver. 21, "They opened 
their mouth wide against me ;" that is, they shouted and huzzaed when they saw 
his fall ; they bawled after him when he was forced to quit the court, " Aha, 
aha," this is the day we longed to see. 4. They were very barbarous and base ; 
for they trampled upon him when he was down, rejoiced at his hurt, and mag- 
nified themselves against him, ver. 26. Turba Remi sequitur fortunam, ut sem- 
per, et odit damnatos, — ' The Roman crowd, varying their opinions with every 
turn of fortune, are sure to execrate the fallen.' Thus, when the Son of David 
was run upon by the rulers, the people cried, " Crucify him, crucify him." 
5. They set themselves against all the sober good people that adhered to David; 
ver. 20, "They devise deceitful matters" to trepan and ruin "them that are 
quiet in the land."^ Note, 1st. It is the character of the godly in the land, that 
they are the quiet in the land ; that they live in all dutiful subjection to govern- 
ment and governors, in the Lord, and endeavour as much as in them lies to live 
peaceably with all men, however they have been misrepresented as enemies to 
Caesar, and hurtful to kings and provinces. " I am for peace," Ps. cxx. 7. 2nd. 
Though the people of God are and study to be a quiet people, yet it has been 
the common practice of their enemies to devise deceitful matters against them. 
All the hellish arts of malice and falsehood are made use of to render them 
odious or despicable, their words and actions misconstrued, even that which 
they abhor fathered upon them, laws made to ensnare them, Dan. vi. 4, and all 
to ruin them and root them out. They that hated David thought scorn, like 



PSALM XXXV. 163 

Haman, to lay hands on him alone, but contrived to involve all the religious 
people of the land in the same ruin with him. 

Secondly. He appeals to God against them, the God to whom vengeance 
belongs. Appeals to his knowledge ; ver. 22, " This thou hast seen." They had 
falsely accused him, but God, that knows all things, knew that he did not falsely 
accuse them, nor make them worse than really they were. They had carried on 
their plots against him with a great deal of secrecy; ver. 15, 1 knew it not till 
long after, when they themselves gloried in it ; but thine eye was upon them in 
their close cabals, and thou art a witness of all they have said and done against 
me and thy people. He appeals to God's justice. 64 Awake to my judgment, 
even to my cause," and let it have a hearing at thy bar, ver. 23. " Judge me, 

0 Lord my God:" that is, pass sentence upon this appeal, "according to the 
righteousness" of thy nature and government: see this explained by Solomon, 

1 Kin. viii. 31, 32; When thou art appealed to, "'hear in heaven, and judge, by 
condemning the wicked, and justifying the righteous." 

Thirdly. He prays earnestly to God to appear graciously for him and his 
friends against his and their enemies, that by his providence the struggle might 
issue to the honour and comfort of David, and to the conviction and confusion 
of his prosecutors. 

1. He prays that God would act for him, and not stand by as a spectator; 
ver. 17, Lord, how long wilt thou look on?" how long wilt thou connive at the 
wickedness of the wicked? Rescue my soul from the destructions they are 
plotting against it ; rescue my darling, my only one, from the lions. My soul 
is my only one, and therefore the greater is the shame if I neglect it, and the 
greater the loss if I lose it ; it is my only one, and therefore ought to be my 
darling, ought to be carefully protected and provided for. It is my soul that is 
in danger, Lord, rescue it ; it doth in a peculiar manner belong to the Father of 
spirits, therefore claim thine own ; it is thine, save it. " Lord, keep not silence !" 
as if thou didst consent to what is done against me, " Lord, be not far from me ! " 
ver. 22, as if I were a stranger that thou art not concerned for ; let not me be 
beheld afar off, as the proud are. 

2. He prays that his enemies might not have cause to rejoice; ver. 19, "Let 
them not rejoice over me," and again, ver. 24 ; not so much because it would be 
a mortification to him to be trampled upon by the abjects, but because it would 
turn to the dishonour of God, and the reproach of his confidence in God; it 
would harden the hearts of his enemies in their wickedness, and confirm them 
in their enmity to him, and would be a great discouragement to all the pious 
Jews that were friends to his righteous cause. He prays that he might never 
be in such imminent danger as that they should " say in their hearts, Ah, so 
would we have it," ver. 25, much more that he might not be reduced to such 
extremity as that they should say, " We have swallowed him up," for then they 
will reflect upon God himself. But, on the contrary, that they might be " ashamed 
and brought to confusion together," ver. 26, as before, ver. 4; he desires his inno- 
cency might be so cleared, as that they might be ashamed of the calumnies with 
which they had loaded him, that his interest might be so confirmed as that they 
might be ashamed of their designs against him and their expectations of his ruin, 
that they might either be brought to that shame which would be a step towards 
their reformation, or that that might be their portion which would be their 
everlasting misery. 

3. He prays that his friends might have cause to rejoice and give glory to God, 
ver. 27. Notwithstanding the arts that were used to blacken David and make him 
odious, and to frighten people from owning him, there were some that favoured 
his righteous cause, that knew he was wronged, and bore a good affection to 
him; and he prays for them, 1st. That they might rejoice with him in his joys. 
It is a great pleasure to all that are good to see an honest man and an honest 
cause prevail and prosper; and those that heartily espouse the interests of God's 
people, and are willing to take their lot with them, even when they are run 
down and trampled upon, shall in due time shout for joy and be glad, for the 
righteous cause will at length be a victorious cause. 2nd. That they might join 
with him in his praises. " Let them say continually, The Lord be magnified," by 
us and others, " who hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant." Note, 
First. The great God hath pleasure in the prosperity of good people, not only 
of his family, the church, in general, but of every particular servant in his family : 
he hath pleasure in the prosperity both of their temporal and of their spiritual 
affairs, and delights not in their griefs ; for he doth not afflict willingly, and we 
ought therefore to have pleasure in their prosperity, and not to envy it. Secondly. 
When God in his providence shews his good- will to the prosperity of his ser- 
vants, and the pleasure he takes in it, we ought to acknowledge it with thank- 
fulness to his praise, and to say, " The Lord be magnified." 

Lastly. The mercy he hoped to win by prayer he promiseth to wear with 
praise ; " I will give thee thanks," as the author of my deliverance, ver. 18, and 
* my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness," the justice of thy judgments, and 



164 



PSALM XXXVI. 



the equity of all thy dispensations ; and this, 1. Publicly, as one that took a 

pleasure in owning his obligations to his God. So far was he from being ashamed 
of them, he will do it in the great congregation, and among much people, that 
God might be honoured, and many edified. 2. Constantly. He will speak God's 
praise every day, (so it may be read,) and all the daylong; for it is a subject 
that will never be exhausted, no, not by the endless praises of saints and 
angels. 



It is uncertain when, and upon what occasion, David penned this psalm ; probably when 
he was struck at either by Saul or by Absalom, for in it he complains of the malice of hia 
enemies against him, but triumphs in the goodness of God to him. We are here led to 
consider, and it will do us good to consider seriously, I. The sinfulness of sin, and how 
mischievous it is, ver. 1 — i. II. The goodness of God, and how gracious he is: 1. To 
all his creatures in general, ver. 5, 6 ; 2. To his own people in a special manner, 
ver. 7 — 9 ; with which the psalmist is encouraged to pray for all the saints, ver. 10 ; for 
himself in particular, and his own preservation, ver. 11 ; and to triumph in the certain 
fall of his enemies, ver. 12. If in singing this psalm our hearts be duly affected with 
the hatred of sin, and satisfaction in God's lovingkindness, we sing it with grace 
and understanding. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord. 



HE transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, 



JL That there is no fear of God before his eyes. 

2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, 
Until his iniquity be found to be hateful. 

3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit : 
He hath left off to be wise, and to do good. 

4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed ; 

He setteth himself in a way that is not good ; 
He abhorreth not evil. 

David in the title of this psalm is styled the servant of the Lord ; why in this, 
and not in any other, except in Psalm xviii., title, no reason can be given ; but 
so he was, not only as every good man is God's servant, but as a king, as a 
prophet, as one employed in serving the interests of God's kingdom among 
men, more immediately and more eminently than any other in his day. He 
glories in it, Ps. cxvi. 16. It is no disparagement, but an honour to the greatest 
of men, to be the servants of the great God ; it is the highest preferment a man 
is capable of in this world. David in these verses describes the wickedness of 
the wicked ; whether he means his persecutors in particular, or all notorious 
gross sinners in general, is not certain. But we have here sin in its causes, and 
siii in its colours ; in its root, and in its branches. 

First. Here is the root of bitterness from which all the wickedness of the 
wicked comes. It takes rise, 

1. From their contempt of God, and the want of a due regard to him; ver. 1, 
"The transgression of the wicked" (as it is described afterwards, ver. 3, 4,) 
"saith within my heart," that is, makes me to conclude within myself, that 
"there is no fear of God before his eyes," for if there were he would not talk 
and act so extravagantly as he doth ; he would not, he durst not. break the laws 
of God, and violate his covenants with him, if he had any awe ot his majesty, or 
dread of his wrath. Fitly therefore is it brought into the form of indictments 
by our law, that the criminal, not having the fear of God before his eyes, did so 
and so. The wicked did not openly renounce the fear of God, but their trans- 
gression whispered it secretly into the minds of all those that knew any thing 
of the nature of piety and impiety. David concluded concerning those who 
lived at large, that they lived without God in the world. 

2. From their conceit of themselves, and a cheat they wilfully put upon their 
own souls ; ver. 2, " He flattereth himself in his own eyes," that is, while he goes 
on in sin he thinks he doth wisely and well for himself^ and either doth not see, 
or will not own, the evil and danger of his wicked practices. He " calls evil good, 
and good evil ;" his licentiousness he pretends to be but his just liberty ; his fraud 
passeth for his prudence and policy, and his persecuting the people of God he 
suggests to himself is a piece of necessary justice. If his own conscience 
threaten him for what he doth, he saith, " God will not require it, I shall 
have peace though I go on." Note, Sinners are self- destroyers by being self- 



PSALM XXXVI. 




PSALM XXXYI. 165 

flatterers. Satan could not deceive them if they did not deceive themselves. 
But will the cheat last always ? No ; the day is coming when the sinner will be 
undeceived, when his iniquity shall be found to be hateful. Iniquity is a hateful 
thing ; it is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and which his pure 
and jealous eye cannot endure to look upon. It is hurtful to the sinner himself, 
and therefore ought to be hateful ; but it is not so, he rolls it under his tongue 
as a sweet morsel, because of the secular profit and sensual pleasure which 
perhaps attends it; yet "the meat in his bowels will be turned, it will be the 
gall of asps," Job xx. 13, 14. When their consciences are convinced, and sin 
appears in its true colours, and makes them a terror to themselves ; when the 
cup of trembling is put into^ their hands, and they are made to drink the dregs 
of it, then their iniquity will be found hateful, and their self-flattery their 
unspeakable folly, and an aggravation of their condemnation. 

Secondly. Here are the cursed branches which spring from this root of bitter- 
ness. The sinner defies God, and even deifies himself, and then what can be 
expected but that he should go all to nought? These two were the first inlets 
of sin. Men do not fear God, and therefore they flatter themselves, and then, 

1. They make no conscience of what they say ; true or false, right or wrong ; 
ver. 3," The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit;" contrived to do. 
wrong, and yet to cover it with specious and plausible pretences. It is no 
marvel if those that deceive themselves contrive how to deceive all mankind; 
for who will they be true to that are false to their own souls ? 

2. What little good there has been in them is gone. The sparks of virtue 
extinguished, their convictions baffled, their good beginnings come to nothing ; 
" they have left off to be wise and to do good." They seemed to have been 
under the direction of wisdom, and the government of religion, but they have 
broken these bonds in sunder ; they have shaken off their religion, and "there- 
with their wisdom. Note, They that leave off to do good leave off to be wise. 

3. Having left off to do good, they contrive to do hurt, and to be vexatious to 
those about them that are good, and do good; ver. 4, "He deviseth mischief 
upon his bed." Note, 1st. Omissions make way for commissions. When men 
leave off doing good, leave off praying ? leave off their attendance on God's ordi- 
nances, and their duty to him ? the devil easily makes them his agents, his instru- 
ments to draw those that will be drawn into sin, and those that will not, to 
draw them into trouble. Those that leave off to do good begin to do evil ; the 
devil being an apostate from his innocency, soon became a tempter to Eve, and 
a persecutor of righteous Abel. 2nd. It is bad to do mischief, but it is worse to 
devise it; to do it deliberately and with resolution, to set the wits a work to 
contrive to do it most effectually^ to do it with plot and management ; with tha 
subtlety as well as the malice ol the old serpent. To devise it upon the bed, 
where we should be meditating upon God and his word, Mic. ii. 1, this argues 
the sinner's heart fully set in him to do evil. 

4. Having entered into the way of sin, that way that is not good, that neither 
has good in it, nor good at the end of it, they persist, and resolve to persevere in 
that way. He sets himself to execute the mischief he has devised, and nothing 
shall be withholden from him which he has purposed to do ; though it be never 
so contrary both to his duty and to his true interest. If sinners did not steel 
their hearts, and brazen their faces with obstinacy and impudence, they could 
not go on in their evil ways, in such a direct opposition to all that is just and 
good. 

5. Doing evil themselves, they have no dislike at all of it in others. "He 
abhorreth not evil/' but on the contrary takes pleasure in it, and is glad to see 
others as bad as himself. Or this may speak his impenitency in sin. They 
that have done evil, if God give them repentance, abhor the evil they have done, 
and themselves because of it ; it is bitter in the reflection, however sweet it was 
in the commission : but these hardened sinners have such seared, stupined con- 
sciences, that they never reflect upon their sins afterwards with any regret or 
remorse, but stand to what they have done, as if they could justify it before God 
himself. 

Some think David in all this particularly means Saul, who had cast off the 
fear of God, and left off all goodness ; who pretended kindness to him, when he 
gave him his daughter to wife, but at the same time was devising mischief 
against him. But we are under no necessity of limiting ourselves so in the 
exposition of it ; there are too many among us to whom the description agrees, 
which is to be greatly lamented. 

5 Thy mercy, 0 Lord, is in the heavens ; 

And thy faithfulness re ache th unto the clouds. 

6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains ; 
Thy judgments are a great deep : 

0 Lord, thou preservest man and beast. 



166 



PSALM XXXVI. 



7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, 0 God ! 
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the 

shadow of thy wings. 

8 They shall be abundantly satisfied 
With the fatness of thy house ; 
And thou shalt make them drink 
Of the river of thy pleasures. 

9 For with thee is the fountain of life : 
In thy light shall we see light. 

10 0 continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee ; 
And thy righteousness to the upright in heart. 

1 1 Let not the foot of pride come against me, 
And let not the hand of the wicked remove me. 

12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen : 

They are cast down, and shall not be able to rise. 

David, having looked round with grief upon the wickedness of the wicked, 
here looks up with comfort upon the goodness of God; a subject as delightful 
as the former was distasteful, and very proper to be set in the balance against 
it. Observe, 

First. His meditations upon the grace of God. He sees the world polluted, 
himself endangered, and God dishonoured by the transgressions of the wicked ; 
but of a sudden he turns his eye, and heart, and speech to God ; However it 
be, yet thou art good. He here acknowledged, 

1. The transcendent perfections of the Divine nature. Among men we have 
often reason to complain there is no truth nor mercy, Hos. iv. 1, no judgment 
nor justice, Isa. v. 7 ; but all these may be found in God without the least alloy. 
Whatever is missing or amiss in the world, we are sure there is nothing missing, 
nothing amiss, in him that governs it. 

1st. He is a God of inexhaustible goodness; " Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the 
heavens." If men shut up the bowels of their compassion, yet with God, at the 
throne of his grace, we shall find mercy. When men are devising mischief 
against us, God's thoughts concerning us, if we cleave closely to him, are 
thoughts of good. On earth we meet with little content, but a great deal of 
disquiet and disappointment ; but in the # heavens, where the mercy of God 
reigns in perfection, and to eternity, there is all satisfaction. There, therefore, 
if we would be easy, let us have our conversation, and there let us long to be. 
How bad soever the world is, let us never think the worse of God, or of his 
government ; but from the abundance of wickedness that is among men let us 
take occasion, instead of reflecting upon God's purity, as if he countenanced 
sin, to admire his patience, that he bears so much with those that so impudently 
provoke him ; nay, and causeth his sun to shine, and his rain to fall, upon them. 
If God's mercy were not in the heavens, that is, infinitely above the mercies of 
any creature, he would long ere this have drowned the world again: see 
Isa. lv. 8, 9 ; Hos. xi. 9. 

2nd. He is a God of inviolable truth ; " Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the 
clouds." Though God suffers wicked people to do a great deal of mischief, yet 
he is, and will be, faithful to his threatening against sin, and there will come a 
day when he will reckon with them ; he is faithful also to his covenant with his 
people, which cannot be broken, not one jot or tittle of the promises of it defeated, 
by all the malice of earth and hell. This is matter of great comfort to all good 
people, that, though men are false, God is faithful ; men speak vanity, but the 
words of the Lord are pure words. God's faithfulness reacheth so high that it 
doth not change with the weather, as men's doth, for it reacheth to the skies, so 
it should be read (as some think), above the clouds, and all the changes of the 
lower region. 

3rd. He is a God of incontestable justice and equity ; rt Thy righteousness is 
like the great mountains," so immovable and inflexible itself, and so conspicuous 
and evident to all the world ; for no truth is more certain or more plain than 
this, that the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and that he never did, nor ever 
will, do any wrong to any of his creatures. Even when clouds and darkness 
are round about him, yet judgment and justice are the habitation of his throne, 
Ps. xcvii. 2. 



PSALM XXXYL 167 
4th. He is a God of unsearchable wisdom and design ; " Thy judgments are a 
great deep," not to be fathomed with the line and plummet of any finite under- 
standing. As his power is sovereign, which he owes not any account of to us, so 
his method is singular and mysterious, which cannot be accounted for by us. 
" His way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters." We know he doth 
all wisely and well, but what he doth we know not now; it is time enough to 
know hereafter. 

2. The extensive care and beneficence of the Divine providence; "Thou 
preservest man and beast," not only protectest them from mischief, but sup- 
pliest them with that which is needfiri for the support of life. The beasts, 
though not capable of knowing and praising God, yet are graciously provided 
for; their eyes wait on him, and he giveth them their meat in due season. Let 
us not wonder that God gives food to bad men, for he feeds the brute creatures ; 
and let us not fear but that he will provide well for good men. He that feeds 
the young lions will not starve his own children. 

3. The peculiar favour of God to the saints. Observe, 

1st. Their character, ver. 7. They are such as are allured by the excellency 
of God's lovingkindness, to put their trust under the shadow of his wings. 
First. God's lovingkindness is precious to them; they relish it, they taste a 
transcendent sweetness in it, they admire God's beauty and benignity above any 
thing in this world ; nothing so amiable, so desirable. Those know not God 
that do not admire his lovingkindness, and those know not themselves that do 
not earnestly covet it. Secondly. They therefore repose an entire confidence in 
him ; they have recourse to him, put themselves under his protection, and then 
think themselves safe, and find themselves easy, as the chickens under the wings 
of the hen, Mat. xxiii. 37. It was the character of proselytes that they came "to 
trust under the wings of the God of Israel," Ru. ii. 12. And what more proper 
to gather proselytes than the excellency of his lovingkindness? What more 
powerful to engage our complacency to him and on him ? Those that are thus 
drawn by love will cleave to him. 

2nd. Their privilege. Happy, thrice happy, the people whose God is the Lord, 
for in him they have, or may have, or shall have, a complete happiness. 

First. Their desires shall be answered ; ver. 8, " They shall be abundantly 
satisfied with the fatness of thy house;" their wants supplied, their cravings 
gratified, and their capacities filled. In God All-sufficient they shall have 
enough; all that which an enlightened, enlarged soul can desire or receive. 
The gains of the world, and the delights of sense, will surfeit, but never satisfy, 
Isa. lv. 2 ; but the communications of Divine favour and grace will satisfy, but 
never surfeit. A gracious soul, though still desiring more of God, never desires 
more than God. The gifts of providence so far satisfy them that they are content 
with such things as they have ; " I have all, and abound," Phil. iv. 18. The benefit 
of holy ordinances is the fatness of God's house, sweet to a sanctified soul, and 
strengthening to the spiritual and Divine life ; with this they are abundantly 
satisfied; they desire nothing more in this world than to live a life of communion 
with God ; and to have the comfort of the promises. But the full, the abundant 
satisfaction, is reserved for the future state, the house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens. Every vessel will be full there. 

< Secondly. Their joys shall be constant ; " Thou shalt make them drink of the 
river of thy pleasures." There are pleasures that are truly Divine; they are 
thy pleasures ; not only which come from thee as the giver of them, but which 
terminate in thee as the matter and centre of them, which being purely spiritual 
are of the same nature with those of the glorious inhabitants of the upper world, 
and bear some analogy even to the delights of the Eternal Mind. There is 
a river of these pleasures, always full, always fresh, always flowing. There is 
enough for all, enough for each : see Ps. xlvi. 4. The pleasures of sense are 
stinking puddle water ; those of faith are pure and pleasant, clear as crystal, 
Rev. xxii. 1. God has not only provided this river of pleasures for his people, 
but he makes them to drink of it; works in them a gracious appetite to these 
leasures, and by his Spirit fills their souls with joy and peace in believing. In 
eaven they shall be for ever drinking of those pleasures that are at God's right 
hand, satiated with a fulness of joy, Ps. xvi. 11. 

Thirdly. Life and light shall be their everlasting bliss and portion, ver. 9, 
having God himself for their felicity. 1st. In him they have a fountain of life, 
from which those rivers of pleasure flow, ver. 8. The God of nature is the 
fountain of natural life, in him we live and move and have our being ; the God 
of grace is the fountain of spiritual life. All the strength and comfort of a 
sanctified soul, all its gracious principles, powers, and performances, are from 
God; all its sensations of Divine things, and all its motions towards them, he is 
the spring and author of them all ; he " quickeneth whom he will," and whoso- 
ever will may come and take from him of the waters of life freely. He is the 
fountain of eternal life. The happiness of glorified saints consists in the vision 
and fruition of him and in the immediate communications of his love without 



163 



PSALM XXXVII. 



interruption or fear of cessation. 2nd. In him they have light in perfection, 
"wisdom, and knowledge, and joy, all included in this light. In thy light we 
shall see light," that is, 1. In the knowledge of thee in grace, and the vision 
of thee in glory, we shall have that which will abundantly suit and satisfy our 
understandings. That Divine light which shines in the Scripture, and espe- 
cially in the face of Christ, the light of the world, has all truth in it. When 
we come to see God face to face within the veil, we shall see light in per- 
fection, we shall know enough then, 1 Cor. xiii. 12 ; 1 J?io. iii. 2. 2. In com- 
munion with thee now. By the communications of thy grace to us, and the 
return of our devout affections to thee, and in the fruition of thee shortly in 
heaven, we shall have a complete felicity and satisfaction. In thy favour we 
have all the good we can desire. This is a dark world, we see little comfort 
in it, but in the heavenly light there is true light, and no false light, light that 
is lasting and never wastes. In this world we see God, and enjoy him by 
creatures and means, but in heaven God himself shall be with us, Rev. xxi. 6 ; 
and we shall see and enjoy him immediately. 

Secondly. We have here ITavid's prayers, intercessions, and holy triumphs, 
grounded upon these meditations. 

1. He intercedes for all saints, begging that they may always experience the 
benefit and comfort of God's favour and grace, ver. 10. 1st. The persons he 
prays for are those that know God, that are acquainted with him, acknowledge 
nim, and avouch him for theirs ; and the upright in heart, that are sincere in 
their profession of religion, and faithful both to God and man. Those that 
are not upright with God do not know him as they should. 2nd. The blessing 
he begs for them is God's lovingkindness, (that is, the tokens of his favour 
towards them,) and his righteousness, (that is, the workings of his grace in them,) 
or his lovingkindness and righteousness is his goodness according to promise; 
it is mercy and truth. 3rd. The manner in which he desires this blessing may 
be conveyed is, O continue it, draw it out, as the mother draws out her breasts 
to the child, and then the child draws out the milk from the breasts. Let it be 
drawn out to a length equal to the line of eternity itself. The happiness of the 
saints in heaven will be in perfection, and yet in continual progression, as some 
think: for the fountain there will be always full, and the streams always flow- 
ing, in these is continuance, Isa. lxiv. 5. 

2. He prays for himself, that he might be preserved in his integrity and com- 
fort ; ver. 11, "Let not the foot of pride come against me," to trip up my heels, 
or trample upon me ; and " let not the hand of the wicked," which is stretched 
out against me, prevail to " remove me/' either from my purity and integrity by 
any temptation, or from my peace and comfort by any trouble. Let not those 
that fight against God triumph over those who desire to cleave to him. They 
that have experienced the pleasure of communion with God cannot but desire 
that nothing may ever remove them from him. 

3. He rejoiceth in hope of the downfal of all his enemies in due time, ver. 12. 
There where they thought to have gained the point against me, they are them- 
selves fallen, taken in that snare which they laid for me. There, in the other 
world, so some, there where the saints stand in the judgment, and have a place 
in God's house, the workers of iniquity are cast in the judgment, are cast down 
into hell ? into the bottomless pit, out of which for certain they shall never be 
able to rise from under the insupportable weight of God's wrath and curse. It 
is true we are not to rejoice when any particular enemy of ours falls ; but the 
final overthrow of all the workers of iniquity will be the everlasting triumph 
of glorified saints. 

PSALM XXXVII. 

This psalm is a sermon, and an excellent, useful sermon it is, calculated not, as most of the 
psalms, for our devotion, but for our conversation. There is nothing in it of prayer or 
praise, but it is all instruction ; it is Maschil, a teaching psalm ; it is an exposition of 
some of the hardest chapters in the book of Providence, the advancement of the wicked, 
and the disgrace of the righteous, a solution of the difficulties that arise thereupon, and 
an exhortation to carry ourselves as becomes us under such dark dispensations. The 
work of the prophets (and David was one) was to explain the law. Now the law of 
Moses had promised temporal blessings to the obedient, and denounced temporal 
miseries against the disobedient, which principally referred to the body of the people, 
the nation as a nation ; for, when they came to be applied to particular persons, many 
instances occurred of sinners in prosperity, and saints in adversity : to reconcile those 
instances with the word that God had spoken, is the scope of the prophet in this psalm, 
in which, I. He forbids us to fret at the prosperity of the wicked in their wicked ways, 
ver. 1, 7, 8. II. He gives very good reasons why we should not fret at it: 1. Because 
of the scandalous character of the wicked, ver. 12, 14, 2i, 32, notwithstanding their 
prosperity, and the honourable character of the righteous, ver. 21, 26, 30, 31 ; 2. Because 
of the destruction and ruin which the wicked are nigh to, ver. 2, 9, 10, 20, 35, 36, 38, 
and the salvation and protection which the righteous are sure of from all the malicious 
designs of the wicked, ver. 13, 15, 17, 28, 33, 39,40; 3. Because of the particular mercy 



PSALM XXXVII. 



169 



God has in store for all good people, and the favour he shews them, ver. 11, 16, IS, 19, 
22 — 25.28,29. 37. III. He prescribes very good remedies against this sin of envying 
the prosperity of the wicked, and great encouragement to use those remedies, ver. 3 — 6, 
27, 34. In singing this psalm, we must teach and admonish one another rightly to 
understand the providences of God, and to accommodate ourselves to them ; at all times 
carefully to do our daty, and then patiently to leave the event with God, and to believe 
that, how black soever things may look for the present, it shall be well with them that 
fear God, that fear before him. 

A Psalm of David. 




^EET not thyself because of evildoers, 
Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. 



2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, 
And wither as the green herb. 

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good ; [fed. 
So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be 

4 Delight thyself also in the Lord ; 

And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 

5 Commit thy way unto the Lord ; 

Trust also in him ; and he shall bring it to pass. 

6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, 
And thy judgment as the noonday. 

The instructions here given are very plain, much need not be said for the 
exposition of them; but there is a deal to be done for the reducing of them to 
practice, and there they will look best. 

First. We are here cautioned against discontent at the prosperity and success 
of evil-doers : ver. 1, 2, " Fret not thyself, neither be thou envious." We may 
suppose that David speaks this to himself first, and preaches it to his own heart, 
in his communing with that upon his bed, for the suppressing of those corrupt 
passions which he found working there, and then leaves it in writing, for in- 
struction to others that might be in the like temptation. That is preached 
best, and with most probability of success to others, which is first preached to 
ourselves. Now ; 1. When we look abroad, we see the world full of evil-doers, 
and workers of iniquity, that flourish and prosper, that have what they will, 
and do what they will, that live in ease and pomp themselves, and have power 
in their hands to do mischief to those about them. So it was in David's time, 
and therefore, if it is so still, let us not marvel at the matter, as though it were 
some new or strange thing. 2. When we look within, we find ourselves in 
temptation to fret at this, and to be envious against these scandals and bur- 
thens, these blemishes and common nuisances of this earth. We are apt to fret 
at God, as if he were unkind to the world, and unkind to his church, in per- 
mitting such men to live and prosper, and prevail as they do. W r e are apt to 
fret ourselves with vexation at their success in their evil projects; we are apt 
to envy them the liberty they take in getting wealth, and perhaps by unlawful 
means, and in the indulgence of their lusts, and to wish that we could shake oft' 
the restraints of conscience^ and do so too. "We are tempted to think them the 
only happy people, and to incline to imitate them, and to join ourselves with 
them, that we may share in their gains, and eat of their dainties ; and this is 
that which we are warned against : Fret not thyself, neither be thou envious." 
Fretfulness and envy are sins that are their own punishments, they are the 
uneasiness of the spirit, and the rottenness of the bones ; it is therefore in 
kindness to ourselves that we are w r arned against it. Yet that is not all; for, 
3. When we look forward with an eye of faith, w^e shall see no reason to envy 
wicked people their prosperity, for their ruin is at the door, and they are ripen- 
ing apace for it, ver. 2. They flourish but as the grass, and as the green herb, 
which nobody envies or frets at. The flourishing of a godly man is like that 
of a fruitful tree, Ps. i. 3; but that of the wicked man like grass and herbs, 
which are very short-lived. 1st. They will soon wither of themselves. Out- 
ward prosperity is a fading thing, and so is the life itself, to which it is confined. 
2nd. They will sooner be cut down by the judgments of God. Their triumph- 
ing is short, but their w r eeping and wailing will be everlasting. 

Secondly. W r e are here counselled to live a life of confidence and complacency 
in God, and that will keep us from fretting at the prosperity of evil-doers. If 
we do well for our own souls, we shall see little reason to envy those that do 



170 



PSALM XXXVII. 



so ill for theirs. Here are three excellent precepts which we are to be ruled 

by, and to enforce them tkree precious promises which we may rely upon. 

1. We must make God our hope in the way of duty, and then we shall have 
a comfortable subsistence in this world, ver. 3. 1st. It is required that we "trust 
in the Lord, and do good;" that we confide in God, and conform to him. The 
life of religion lies much in a believing reliance on God, his favour, his provi- 
dence, his promise, his grace, and a diligent care to serve him and our genera- 
tion according to his will. We must not think to trust in God, and then live as 
we list ; no, it is not trusting God, but tempting him, if we do not make con- 
science of our duty to him ; nor must we think to do good, and then to trust 
to ourselves and our own righteousness and strength ; no, we must both trust 
in the Lord, and do good. And then, 2nd. It is promised that we shall be 
well provided for in this world; " So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily 
thou shalt be fed." He doth not say, so shalt thou get preferment, dwell in a 
palace and be feasted — what needs that '? a man's life consists not in the abund- 
ance of these things — but thou shalt have a place to live in, and that "in the 
land," in Canaan, the valley of vision; and thou shalt have food convenient for 
thee. This is more than we deserve ; it is as much as a good man will indent for, 
Gen. xxviii. 20; and it is enough for one that is going to heaven. Thou shalt 
have a settlement, a quiet settlement, and a maintenance, a comfortable main- 
tenance : " Verily thou shalt be fed." Some read it,' Thou shalt be fed by faith,' 
as the just are said to live by faith ; and it is good living, good feeding upon the 
promises. "Verily thou shalt be fed," as Elijah in the famine, with what is 
needful for thee. God himself is a shepherd, a feeder to all those that trust in 
him, Ps. xxiii. 1. 

2. We must make God our heart's delight, and then we shall have our 
heart's desire, ver. 4. We must not only depend upon God, but solace ourselves 
in him. We must be well pleased that there is a God, that he is such a one 
as he has revealed himself to be, and that he is our God in covenant. We 
must delight ourselves in his beauty, bounty, and benignity; our souls must 
return to him, and repose in him as their rest, and their portion for ever. 
Being satisfied of his lovingkindness, we must be satisfied with it, and make 
that our exceeding joy, Ps. xliii. 4. We were commanded, ver. 3, to do good ; 
and then follows this command, to delight in God, which is as much a privilege 
as a duty. If we make conscience of obedience to God, we may then take the 
comfort of a complacency in him ; and even this pleasant duty of delighting in 
God has a promise annexed to it, which is very full and precious, enough to 
recompense the hardest services; "He shall give thee the desires of thy heart." 
He has not promised to gratify all the appetites of the body, and the humours 
of the fancy, but to grant all the desires of the heart, all trie cravings of the 
renewed sanctified soul. What is the desire of the heart of a good man? It 
is this, to know, and love, and live to God, to please him, and to be pleased 
in him. 

3. We must make God our guide, and submit in every thing to his conduct 
and dispose ; and then all our affairs, even those that seem most intricate and 
perplexed, shall be made to issue well, and to our satisfaction, ver. 5, 6. 

1st. The duty is very easy, and if we do it aright it will make us easy. 
" Commit thy way unto the Lord ; " ' roll thy way upon the Lord,' so the mar- 
gin reads it, Pr. xvi. 3 ; Ps. lv. 22, " Cast thy burthen upon the Lord," that is, 
the burthen of thy care, 1 Pet. v. 7. We must roll it off ourselves, so as not to 
ariiict and perplex ourselves with thoughts about future events, Mat. vi. 25; 
not to cumber and trouble ourselves either with contrivance of the means or 
with expectation of the end ; but refer it to God, leave it to him by his wise and 
good providence to order and dispose of all our concerns as he pleaseth. ' Reveal 
thy way unto the Lord,' (so the Seventy ;) that is, by prayer spread thy case and 
all thy cares about it before the Lord, as " Jephthah uttered all his words 
before the Lord in Mizpeh," Jud. xi. 11; and then trust in him to bring it to a 
good issue, with a full satisfaction that all is well that God doth. We must do 
our duty, that must be our care, and then leave the event with God ; " Sit still, 
and see how the matter will fall," Ru. iii. 18. We must follow providence, and 
not force it ; subscribe to Infinite Wisdom, and not prescribe. 

2nd. The promise is very sweet. First. In general, he shall bring that to 
pass, whatever it is, which thou hast committed to him, if not to thy contri- 
vance, yet to thy content. He will find means to extricate thee out of thy 
straits, to prevent thy fears, and bring about thy purposes to thy satisfaction. 
Secondly. In particular, he will take care of thy reputation, and bring thee out 
of thy difficulties, not only with comfort, but with credit and honour. " He 
shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon- 
day," ver. 6, that is, he shall make it to appear that thou art an honest man, 
and that is honour enough. 1st. It is implied that the righteousness and judg- 
ment of good people may for a time be clouded and eclipsed, either by remark- 
able rebukes of Providence, (Job's great afflictions darkened his righteousness.) 
or by the malicious censures and reproaches of men, -who put them under ill 



PSALM XXXVII. 171 

characters, which they no way deserve, and lay to tneir charge things which 
they know not. 2nd. It is promised that God will in due time roll away the 
reoroach they are under, clear up their innocency, and bring forth their right- 
eousness to their honour ; perhaps in this world, at farthest in the great day, 
Mat. xiii. 43. Note, If we take care to keep a good conscience, we may leave 
it to God to take care of our good name. 

7 Best in the Lord, and wait patiently for him : 

Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, 
Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 

8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath : 
Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. 

9 For evildoers shall be cut off : [the earth. 
But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit 

10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be : 

Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall 

] 1 But the meek shall inherit the earth ; [not be. 

And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. 

12 The wicked plotteth against the just, 
And gnasheth upon him with his teeth. 

13 The Lord shall laugh at him : 

For he seeth that his day is coming. [their bow, 

14 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent 
To cast down the poor and needy, 

And to slay such as be of upright conversation. 

15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart, 
And their bows shall be broken 

16 A little that a righteous man hath 

Is better than the riches of many wicked. 

17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken : 
But the Lord upholdeth the righteous. 

1 8 The Lord knoweth the days of the upright : 
And their inheritance shall be for ever. 

19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time : 
And in the clays of famine they shall be satisfied. 

20 But the wicked shall perish, [lambs : 
And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of 
They shall consume ; into smoke shall they consume away. 

In these verses we have, 

First. The foregoing precepts inculcated ; for we are so apt to disquiet our- 
selves with needless, fruitless discontents and distrusts, that it is necessary there 
should be precept upon precept, and line upon line, to suppress them, and arm 
us against them. 

1. Let us compose ourselves by believing in God : " Rest in the Lord, and 
wait patiently for him," ver. 7 ; that is, be well reconciled to all he doth, and 
acquiesce in it, for that is best that is, because it is what God has appointed ; 
and be well satisfied that he will still make all to work for good to us, though 
we know not how or which way. * Be silent to the Lord,' so the word is ; not 
with a sullen, but a submissive silence. A patient bearing what is laid upon 
us, and a patient expectation of what is farther appointed for us, is as much our 
interest as it is our duty ; for it will make us always easy, and there is a great 
deal of reason for it ; for it is making a virtue of necessity. 



172 PSALM XXXVII. 

2. Let us not discompose ourselves at what we see in this world : " Fret not 
thyself because of him who prospers in his " wicked " way ;" that, though he is 
an ill man, yet thrives, and grows rich and great in the world. JN T o, nor because 
of him who doth mischief with his power and wealth, and "brings wicked 
devices to pass," against those that are virtuous and good ; who seems to have 
gained his point, and to have run them down: If thy heart begins to rise at it, 
stroke down thy folly, and cease from anger, ver. 8 ; check the first stirrings of 
discontent and envy, and do not harbour any hard thoughts of God and his 
providence upon this account ; be not angry at any thing that God doth, but for- 
sake that wrath; it is the worst kind of wrath that can be. " Fret not thyself in 
any wise to do evil;" that is, do not envy them their prosperity, lest thou be 
tempted to fall in with them, and to take the same evil course tnat they take 
to enrich and advance themselves, or some desperate course to avoid them and 
their power. Note, A fretful, discontented spirit lies open to many temptations, 
and those that indulge it are in danger of doing evil. 

Secondly. The foregoing reasons taken from the approaching ruin of the 
wicked, notwithstanding their prosperity, and the real happiness of the 
righteous, notwithstanding their troubles, are here much enlarged upon, and 
the same things repeated in a pleasing variety of expression. We were cau- 
tioned, ver. 7, # not to envy the wicked, either their worldly prosperity, or the 
success of their plots against the righteous ; and the reasons here given respect 
these two temptations severally. 

I. Good people have no reason to envy the worldly prosperity of wicked peo- 
ple, nor to grieve or be uneasy at it. 

1st. Because the prosperity of the wicked will soon be at an end; ver. 9, 
** Evildoers shall be cut off," by some sudden stroke of Divine justice, in the 
midst of their prosperity. What they have got by sin will not only flow away 
from them, Job xx. 28, but they shall be carried away with it. See the end of 
these men, Ps. lxxiii. 17 ; how dear their ill-got gain will cost them, and you will 
be far from envying them, or from being willing to espouse their lot for better, 
for worse. Their ruin is sure, and it is very near ; ver. 10, " Yet a little while 
and the wicked shall not be" what they now are ; " they are brought into deso- 
lation in a moment," Ps. lxxiii. 19. Have a little patience, for "the Judge 
stands before the door," Jas.v. 8, 9. Moderate your passion, "for the Lord 
is at hand," Phil. iv. 5. And when it comes it will be an utter ruin, he and his 
shall be extirpated; the day that comes shall leave him neither root nor branch, 
Mai. iv. 1. " Thou shalt diligently consider his place," where but the other day 
he made a mighty figure, "but it shall not be;" you will not find it, he shall 
leave nothing valuable, nothing honourable behind him. To the same purpose, 
ver. 20, " The wicked shall perish ;" their death is their perdition, because it is 
the period of all their joy, and a passage to endless misery. "Blessed are the 
dead that die in the Lord ;" but undone, for ever undone, are the dead that die 
in their sins. The wicked are the enemies of the Lord ; so they make them- 
selves who will not have him to reign over them, and as such he will reckon 
with them; " they shall consume as the fat of lambs, they shall consume into 
smoke." Their prosperity, which gratifies then- sensuality, is like the fat of 
lambs ; not solid or substantial, but loose and washy ; and when their ruin 
comes they shall fall as sacrifices to the justice of God, and be consumed as 
the fat of the sacrifices was upon the altar, whence it ascended in smoke. The 
day of God's vengeance on the wicked is represented as a " sacrifice of the 
fat of the kidneys of rams," Isa. xxxiv. 6 ; for he will be honoured by the ruin 
of his enemies, as he was by the sacrifices. Damned sinners are sacrifices, 
Mar. ix. 49. This is a good reason why we should not envy them their pros- 
perity ; while they are fed to the full, they are but in the fattening for the day 
of sacrifice, "like a lamb in a large place," Hos. iv. 16 ; and the more they pros- 
per the more will God be glorified in their ruin. 

2nd. Because the condition of the righteous even in this life is every way 
better and more desirable than that of the wicked, ver. 16. In general, "a 
little that a righteous man has " of the honour, wealth, and pleasure of this 
w r orld, "is better than the riches of many wicked." Observe, (1.) The 
wealth of the world is so dispensed by the Divine providence, that it is often 
the lot of good people to have but a little of it, and of wicked people to have 
abundance of it ; for thus God would shew us that the things of this world are 
not the best things, for if they were those would have most that are best 
and dearest to God. (2.) That a godly man's little is really better than a 
wicked man's much: see Pr. xv. 16, 17; xvi. 8; xxviii. 6. A godly man's 
estate, though never so little, is better than a wicked man's estate,* though 
never so much, for it comes from abetter hand; from a hand of special love, 
and not merely from a hand of common providence; it is enjoyed by a better 
title, God gives it to them by promise. Gal. hi. 18; it is theirs by virtue of their 
relation to Christ, who is the heir of all things ; and it is put to a better use : it is 
sanctified to them by the blessing of God; "'unto the pure all things are pure,* 
Tit. i. 15. A little, wherewith God is served and honoured, is better than a 



PSALM XXXY1I. 173 

great deal prepared for Baal, or for a base lust. The promises here made to the 
righteous secure them such a happiness as that they need not envy the prosperity 
of evil-doers. Let them know to their comfort, 

First. That they shall inherit the earth; that is, as much of it as Infinite 
Wisdom sees good for them ; they have the promises of the life that now is. 
1 Tim. iv. 8. If all the earth were necessary to make them happy, they should 
have it. All is theirs, even the world, and things present, as well as things to 
come, 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22. They have it by inheritance, a safe and honourable 
title, not by permission only, and connivance. When evil-doers are cut off, the 
righteous sometimes inherit what they gathered; " The wealth of the sinner 
is laid up for the just," Job xxvii. 17. This promise is here made, 1st. To those 
that live a life of faith ; ver. 9, " Those that wait upon the Lord" as dependants 
on him, expectants from him, and supplicants to him, "they shall inherit the 
earth," as a token of his present favour to them,, and an earnest of better things 
intended for them in the other world. God is a good master, that provides 
plentifully and well, not only for his working servants, but for his waiting 
servants. 2nd. To those that live a quiet and peaceable life ; ver. 11, " The meek 
shall inherit the earth." They are in least danger of being injured and dis- 
turbed in the possession of what they have; and they have most satisfaction 
in themselves, and consequently the sweetest relish of their creature comforts. 
Our Saviour nas made this a Gospel promise, and a confirmation of the blessing 
he pronounced on the meek, Mat. v. 5. 

Secondly. That they shall " delight themselves in the abundance of peace," 
ver. 11. Perhaps they nave not abundance of wealth to delight in, but they have 
that which is better, — abundance of peace, inward peace and tranquillity of mind. 
Peace with God, and then peace in God ; that great peace which they have 
that love God's law, whom nothing shall offend, Ps. cxix. 165 ; that abundance 
of peace which is in the kingdom of Christ, Ps. lxxii. 7 ; that peace which the 
world cannot give, Jno. xiv. 27 ; and which the wicked cannot have, Isa. lvii. 21. 
This they shall delight themselves in, and in it they shall have a continual feast, 
while they that have abundance of wealth do but cumber and perplex them- 
selves with it, and have little delight in it. 

Thirdly. That God knows their days, ver. 18. He takes particular notice of 
them, of all they do, and of all that happens to them. He keeps account of the days 
of their service, and not one day's work shall go unrewarded; and of the days of 
their suffering, that for those also they may receive a recompence. He knows 
their fair days, and hath pleasure in their prosperity ; he knows their cloudy and 
dark days, the days of their affliction, and " as the day is so shall the strength 
ne." 

Fourthly. That " their inheritance shall be for ever." Their time on earth is 
reckoned by days,which will be soon numbered ; God takes cognizance of them, 
and gives them the blessings of every day in its day, but it was never intended 
that their inheritance should be confined within the limits of those days ; no, 
that must be the portion of an immortal soul, and therefore must last as long 
as that lasts, and will run parallel with the longest line of eternity itself : "their 
inheritance shall be for ever ; " not their inheritance in the earth, but that in- 
corruptible, indefeasible one, which is laid up for them in heaven. They that 
are sure of an everlasting inheritance in the other world have no reason to 
envy the wicked their transitory possessions and pleasures in this world. 

Fifthly. That in the worst of times it shall go well with them ; ver. 19, " They 
shall not be ashamed" of their hope and confidence in God, nor of the pro- 
fession they have made of religion ; for the comfort of that will stand them 
in stead, and be a real support to them in evil times. When others droop, they 
shall lift up their heads with joy and confidence : even "in the days of famine," 
when others are dying for hunger round about them, " they shall be satisfied," 
as Elijah was. Some way or other, God will provide food convenient for them, 
or give them hearts to be satisfied and content without it ; so that, if they shoula 
be "hardly bestead and hungry," they shall not (as the wicked do) "fret them- 
selves, and curse their king, and their God," Isa. viii. 21 ; but rejoice in God as the 
God of their salvation, even when the fig-tree doth not olossom, Hab. iii. 17, 18. 

2. Good people have no reason to fret at the success of the designs of the 
wicked against the just in some measure and degree. Suppose they do bring 
some of their wicked devices to pass, which makes us fear they will gain their 
point, and bring them all to pass ; yet let us cease from anger, and not fret our- 
selves, so as to think of giving up the cause. For, 

1st. Their plots will be their shame, ver. 12, 13. It is true "the wicked 
plotteth against the just;" there is a rooted enmity in the seed of the wicked 
one against the righteous seed. Their aim is, if they can, to destroy their 
righteousness, if that fail, then to destroy them. To this end, they have acted 
with a great deal both of cursed policy and contrivance, they plot, they practise 
against the just; and of cursed zeal and fury, "they gnash upon them with 
their teeth : " so desirous are they, if they could get it into their power, to eat 



174 PSALM XXXVII. 

them up ; and so full of rage and indignation are they, because it is not in their 
power. But by all this they do but make themselves ridiculous; "The Lord 
shall laugh at them," Ps. ii. 4, 5. They are proud and insolent ; but God shall 
pour contempt upon them. He is not only displeased with them, but he despiseth 
them and all their attempts as vain and ineffectual, and their malice as impotent, 
and in a chain, for " he sees that his day is coming ;" that is, First. The day 
of God's reckoning, the day of the revelation of his righteousness, which now 
seems clouded and eclipsed. Men have their day now, "This is your hour/' 
Lu. xxii. 53 ; but God will have his day shortly ; a day of recompences, a day 
which will set all to rights, and render that ridiculous which now passeth for 

glorious. " It is a small thing to be judged of men's judgment," 1 Cor. iv. 3. God's 
ay will give a decisive judgment. Secondly. The day of their ruin, the wicked 
man's day, the day set for his fall: that day is coming, — which notes delay, it is 
not yet come, but certainly it will come. The believing prospect of that day 
will enable trie virgin the daughter of Zion to despise the rage of her enemies, 
and laugh them to scorn, Isa. xxxvii. 22. 

2nd. Their attempts will be their destruction, ver. 14, 15. See here, First. 
How barbarous they are in their designs against good people. They prepare 
instruments of death, the sword and the bow, no less will serve ; they hunt for 
the precious life ; that which they design is to cast down and slay, it is the blood 
of the saints they thirst after. They carry on the design very far, and it is near 
to be put in execution, they have drawn the sword and bent the bow ; and all 
these military preparations are made against the helpless, the poor and needy, 
which speaks them very cowardly ; and against the guiltless, such as be of 
upright conversation, that never gave them any provocation, nor offered injury 
to them or any other person, which speaks them very wicked. Uprightness 
itself will be no fence against their malice. But, Secondly. How justly their 
malice recoils upon themselves ; " Their sword shall turn into their own heart/' 
which implies the preservation of the righteous from their malice, and the 
filling up of the measure of their own iniquity by it. Sometimes that very 
thing proves to be their own destruction which they projected against their 
harmless neighbours. However, God's sword, which their provocations have 
drawn against themselves, will give them their death's wound. 

3rd. Those that are not suddenly cut off, yet shall be so disabled to do any 
farther mischief that the interests of the church shall be effectually secured* 
u Their bows shall be broken," ver. 15 ; the instruments of their cruelty shall 
fail them, and they shall lose those whom they had made tools of to serve their 
bloody purposes with ; nay, " their arms shall be broken," so that they shall not 
be able to go on with their enterprises. " But the Lord upholdeth the right- 
eous :" so that they neither sink under the weight of their afflictions nor are 
run down by the violence of their enemies. He upholdeth them both in their 
integrity and in their prosperity ; and they that are so upheld by the Rock of 
ages have no reason to envy the wicked the support of their broken reeds. 

21 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again : 
But the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth. 

22 For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth ; 
And they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. 

23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord : 
And he delighteth in his way. 

21 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down : 
For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. 

25 I have been young, and now am old; 

Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, 
Nor his seed begging bread. 

26 He is ever merciful, and lendeth ; 
And his seed is blessed. 

27 Depart from evil, and do good; 
And dwell for evermore. 

28 For the Lord loveth judgment, 
And forsake th not his saints; 
They are preserved for ever: 



PSALM XXXVII. 175 
But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. 

29 The righteous shall inherit the land, 
And dwell therein for ever. 

30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, 
And his tongue talketh of judgment. 

3 1 The law of his God is in his heart ; 
None of his steps shall slide. 

32 The wicked watcheth the righteous,, 
And seeketh to slay him. 

33 The Lord will not leave him in his hand, 
Nor condemn him when he is judged. 

These verses are much to the same purpose with the foregoing verses of this 
psalm ; for it is a subject worthy to be dwelt upon. Observe here, 

First. What is required of us as the way to our happiness ; which we may 
learn both from the characters here laid down and the directions here given. 
If we would be blessed of God, 

1. We must make conscience of giving everybody their own; for "the wicked 
borroweth, and payeth not again," ver. 21. It is the first thing which the Lord 
our God requires of us, that we do justly, and render to all their due. It is not 
only a shameful, paltry thing, but a sinful, wicked thing, not to repay what we 
have borrowed. Some make this an instance not so much of the wickedness 
of the wicked as of the misery and poverty to which they are reduced by the 
just judgment of God; that they shall be necessitated to borrow for their 
supply, and then be in no capacity to repay again, and so lie at the mercy of 
their creditors. And, whatever some men seem to think of it, as it is a great sin 
for those that are able to deny the payment of their just debts, so it is a great 
misery not to be able to pay them. 

2. we must be ready to all acts of charity and beneficence. For, as it is an 
instance of God's goodness to the righteous, that he puts it into the power of 
his hand to be kind and to do good, (and so some understand it, God's blessing 
increaseth his little to that degree that he has abundance to spare for the 
relief of others,) so it is an instance of the goodness of the righteous man, that 
he has a heart proportionable to his estate ; he " sheweth mercy, and giveth," 
ver. 21. " He is ever merciful," or every day, or all the day, merciful, " and 
lendeth ; " and sometimes there is as true charity in lending as in giving ; and 
giving and lending are then acceptable to God, when they come from a 
merciful disposition in the heart, which, if it be sincere, will be constant, and 
will keep us from being weary of well-doing. He that is truly merciful will 
be ever merciful. 

3. We must leave our sins, and engage in the practice of serious godliness ; 
ver. 27, "Depart from evil and do good;" cease to do evil, and abhor it; learri 
to do well, and cleave to it. This is true religion. 

4. We must abound in good discourse, and with our tongues must glorify 
God and edify others. That is part of the character of a righteous man, ver. 30, 
that his mouth speaketh wisdom ; not only he speaks wisely, but he speaks 
•wisdom, like Solomon himself, for the instruction of those about him; his 
tongue talketh not of things idle and impertinent, but of judgment, that is, of 
the word and providence of God, and the rules of wisdom for the right ordering 
of the conversation. Out of the abundance of a good heart will the mouth 
speak that which is good, and to the use of edifying. 

5. We must have our wills brought into an entire subjection to the will 
and word of God; ver. 31, "The law of God," of his God, "is in his heart;" 
and in vain do we pretend that God is our God, if we do not receive his law 
into our hearts, and resign ourselves to the government of it. It is but a jest 
and a mockery to speak wisdom, and to talk of judgment, ver. 30, unless we 
have the law in our hearts, and we think as we speak. The law of God must 
be a commanding, ruling principle in the heart ; it must be a light there, a spring 
there, and then the conversation will be regular and uniform ; none of his steps 
will slide ; it will effectually prevent backsliding into sin, and the uneasiness 
that follows from it. 

Secondly. What is assured to us as instances of our happiness and comfort, 
upon these conditions. 

1. That we shall have the blessing of God, and that blessing shall be the 
spring, and sweetness, and security of all our temporal comforts and enjoy- 
ments ; ver. 22, " Such as be blessed of God," as all the righteous are, with 



176 PSALM XXXVII. 

a Father's blessing, by virtue of that "shall inherit the earth," or the land, for 
so the same word is translated, ver. 29; the land of Canaan, that glory of all 
lands. Our creature comforts are then comforts indeed to us, when we sea 
them flowing from the blessing of God, from his favour, his promise, and his 
covenant with us; a.nd if we are sure of the blessing of God we are sure no: 
to want any thing that is good for us in this world. The earth shall vield us 
her increase, if God, as our own God, give us his blessing, Ps. lxvii. 6. And 
as those whom God blesseth are thus blessed indeed, for they shall inherit the 
land, so those whom he curseth are cursed indeed, and they shall be cut off and 
rooted out. And their extirpation by the Divine curse will set off the esta- 
blishment of the righteous by the Divine blessing, and be a foil to it. 

2. That God will direct and dispose of our actions and affairs, so as may be 
most for his glory ; ver. 23, " The steps of a good man are ordered by the JLord." 
By his grace and Holy Spirit he directs the thoughts, affections, and designs 
of good men ; he has all hearts in his hand, but theirs by their own consent ; 
by his providence he overrules the events that are concerning them, so as to 
make their way plain before them, both what they should do and what they 
may expect. Observe, God orders the steps of a good man ; not only his way 
in general, by his written word, but his particular steps by the whispers of 
conscience, saying, " This is the way, walk in it." He doth not always shew 
him his way at a distance, but leads him step by step, as children are led, and 
so keeps him in a continual dependence upon his conduct.- And this, 1st. 
Because he delighteth in his way, and is well pleased with the paths of right- 
eousness wherein he walks. "The Lord knows the way of the righteous," 
Ps. i. 6 ;_ knows it with favour, and therefore directs it. 2nd. That he may 
delight in his w r ay. Because God orders his way according to his own will, 
therefore he delights in it ; for, as he loves his own image upon us, so he is 
well pleased with what we do under his conduct. 

3. That God will keep us from being ruined by our falls, either into sin or 
into trouble ; ver. 24, " Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down." 
1st. It is possible a good man may be overtaken in a fault, but the grace of God 
shall recover him to repentance, so that " he shall not be utterly cast down." 
Though he may for a time lose the joys of God's salvation, yet they shall be 
restored to him ; for God shall uphold him with his hand, uphold him with his 
free Spirit, The root shall be kept alive, though the leaf wither ; and there 
will come a spring after the winter. 2nd. It is possible a good man may be in 
distress, his affairs embarrassed, his spirits sunk, but " he shall not be utterly 
cast down;" God will be the strength of his heart, when his fle^h and heart 
fail, and will uphold him with his comforts, so that the spirit he has made shall 
not fail before him. 

4. That we shall not want the necessary supports of this life ; ver. 25, " I have 
been young, and now am old ;" and of all the changes I have seen in men's out- 
ward condition, and the observations I have made upon them, " 1 never saw the 
righteous forsaken " of God and man, as I have sometimes seen wicked people 
abandoned both by heaven and earth; nor do I ever remember to have seen the 
seed of the righteous reduced to that extremity as to beg their bread. David 
had himself begged his bread of Ahimelech the priest, but it was when Saul 
hunted him ; and our Saviour has taught us to except the case of persecution 
for righteousness' sake out of all the temporal promises, Mar. x. 30, because 
that has such peculiar honours and comforts attending it, as make it rather 
a gift (as the apostle reckons it, Phil. i. 29,) than a loss or grievance. But there 
are very few instances of good men, or their families, that are reduced to such 
extreme poverty as many wicked people bring themselves to by their wicked- 
ness. He had not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread 
forsaken, so some expound it. If they do want, God will raise them up friends 
to supply them, without a scandalous exposing of themselves to the reproach 
of common beggars ; or if they go from door to door for meat, it shall not be 
with despair, as the wicked man "that wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where 
is it?" Job xv. 23. Nor shall he be denied, as the prodigal, that would fain 
have filled his belly, but no man gave unto him," Lu. xv. 16. Nor shall he 
grudge if he be not satisfied, as David's enemies, when they wandered up and 
down for meat, Ps. lix. 15. Some make this promise relate especially to those 
that are charitable and liberal to the poor, and to intimate that David never 
observed any that brought themselves to poverty by their charity, but it is 
withholding more than is meet that tendeth to poverty, Pr. xi. 24. 

5. That God will not desert us, but graciously protect us in our difficulties 
and straits ; ver. 28, " The Lord lbveth judgment," that is, he delights in doing 
justice himself, and he delights in those that do justice, and therefore "he for- 
saketh not his saints" in affliction/when others make themselves strange to them, 
and become shy of them; but he takes care that they be preserved for ever, 
that is, that the saints in every age be taken under his protection, that the suc- 
cession be preserved to the end of time, and that particular saints be preserved 



PSALM XXXVII. 177 

from all the temptations, and through all the trials, of this present time, to that 
happiness which shall be for ever. He will preserve them to his heavenly 
kingdom, that is a preservation for ever, 2 Tim. iv. 18 : Ps. xii. 7. 

6. That we shall have a comfortable settlement in tnis world, and in a better 
when we leave this. That we shall dwell for evermore, ver. 27, and not be cut 
off, as the seed of the wicked, ver. 28. That we shall inherit the land which 
the Lord our God gives us, and dwell therein for ever, ver. 29. They shall not 
be tossed that make God their rest, and are at home in him. But on this earth 
there is no dwelling for ever, no continuing city ; it is in heaven only, that city 
which hath foundations, that the righteous shall dwell for ever ; that will be 
their everlasting habitation. 

7. That we shall not become a prey to our adversaries that seek our ruin, 
ver. 32, 33. There is an adversary that takes all opportunities to do us a mis- 
chief; a wicked one that watcheth the righteous, as a roaring lion watcheth 
his prey, and seeketh to slay him. There are wicked men that do so, that are 
very subtle ; they watch the righteous, that they may have an opportunity to 
do them a mischief effectually, and may have a pretence wherewith to justify 
themselves in the doing of it, and very spiteful, for they seek to slay him ; but 
it may very well be applied to the wicked one, the devil, that old serpent, who 
has his wiles to entrap the righteous, — his devices, which we should not be 
ignorant of : that great red dragon that seeks to slay them ; that roaring lion 
that goes about continually, restless and raging, and seeking whom he may 
devour. But it is here promised that he shall not prevail, neither Satan nor 
his instruments. 1st. He shall not prevail as a field adversary. " The Lord 
will not leave him in his hand ; " he will not permit Satan to do what he would, 
nor will he withdraw his strength and grace from his people, but will enable 
them to resist and overcome him, and their faith shall not fail, Lit. xxii. 31, 32. 
A g_ood man may fall into the hands of a messenger of Satan, and be sorely 
buffeted, but God will not leave him in his hands, 1 Cor. x. 13. 2nd. He shall 
not prevail as a law adversary. " God will not condemn him when he is 
judged," though urged to do it by the accuser of the brethren, that " accuseth 
them before our God day and night." His false accusations will be thrown 
out, as those exhibited against Joshua, Zee. hi. 1, 2, "The Lord rebuke thee, 
O Satan." "It is God that justifieth;" and then, "who shall lay any thing 
to the charge of God's elect ? " 

34 Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, 
And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land : 
When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. 

35 I have seen the wicked in great power, 
And spreading himself like a green bay tree. 

36 Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not : 
Yea, I sought him, but he tfould not be found. 

37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright : 
For the end of that man is peace. 

38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together : 
The end of the wicked shall be cut off. 

39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord : 
He is their strength in the time of trouble. 

40 And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them : 
He shall deliver them from the wicked, 

And save them, because they trust in them. 

The psalmist's conclusion of this sermon (for that is the nature of this poem) 
is of the same purport with the whole, and inculcates the same things. 

First. The duty here pressed upon us is still the same ; ver. 34, "Wait on the 
Lord, and keep his way;" that is, duty is ours, and we must mind it, and make 
conscience of it ; keep God's way, and never turn out of it, nor loiter in it ; 
keep close, keep going. But events are God's, and we must refer ourselves 
to him for the disposal of them ; we must wait on the Lord, attend the motions 
of his providence, carefully observe them, and conscientiously accommodate 
ourselves to them. If we make conscience of keeping God's way, we may 
with cheerfulness wait on him, and commit to him our way ; and we shall tind 

M 



178 PSALM XXXVII. 

him a good master, both to his working servants and to his waiting servants. 

Secondly. The reasons to enforce this duty are much the same too ; taken 
from the certain destruction of the wicked and the certain salvation of the 
righteous. This good man being tempted to envy the prosperity of the wicked, 
that he might fortify himself against the temptation, goes into the sanctuary 
of God, and leads us thither, Ps. lxxiii. 17; there he understands their end, ana 
thence gives us to understand it, and by comparing that with the end of the 
righteous baffles the temptation, and puts it to silence. Observe, 

1. The misery of the wicked at last, however they may prosper awhile. "The 
end of the wicked shall be cut off," ver. 38; and that cannot be well that will 
undoubtedly end so ill. The wicked in their end will be cut on 7 from all good, 
and all hopes of it ; a final period will be put to all their joys, and they will 
be for ever separated from the fountain of life to all evil. 1st. Some instances 
of the remarkable ruin of wicked people David had himself observed in this 
world : that the pomp and prosperity of sinners would not secure them from 
the judgments of God, when their day was come to fall; ver. 35, 36, " I have 
seen a wicked man," (the word is singular,) suppose Saul, or Ahithophel, (for 
David was an old man when he penned this psalm.) "in great power," 'formid- 
able,' so some render it, " the terror of the mighty in the land of the living," 
carrying all before him with a high hand, and seeming to be firmly fixed, and 
finely flourishing; "spreading himself like a green bay tree," which produceth 
all leaves and no fruit ; like a native, home-born Israelite, (so Dr. Hammond,) 
likely to take root. But what became of him ? Eliphaz long before had 
learned when he saw the foolish taking root to curse his habitation, Job v. 3; 
and David saw cause for it, for this bay-tree is withered away as soon as the 
fig-tree Christ cursed; "He passed away as a dream," as a shadow; such was 
he and all the pomp and power he was so proud of. He was gone in an instant ; 
" He was not; I sought him" with wonder, "but he could not be found." He 
had acted his part, and then quitted the stage; and there was no miss of him. 
2nd. The total and final ruin of sinners, of all sinners^ will shortly be made 
as much a spectacle to the saints as they are now sometimes made a spectacle 
to the world; ver. 34, " When the wicked are cut off," and cut off they certainly 
will be, " thou shalt see it," with awful adorations of the Divine justice. " The 
transgressors shall be destroyed together," ver. 28. In this world God singles 
out here one sinner, and there another, out of many, to be made an example, in 
teri'orem, but in the day of judgment there will be a general destruction of all 
the transgressors, and not one shall escape. Thay that have sinned together 
shall be damned together ; "Bind them in bundles to burn them." 

2. The blessedness of the righteous at last. Let us see what will be the end 
of God's poor despised people. 

1st. Preferment. There nave been times, the iniquity of which has been such 
that men's piety has baulked their preferment in this world, and put them quite 
out of the way of raising estates; but those that keep God's way may be 
assured that in due time he will exalt them to inherit the land, ver. 34 ; he 
will advance them to a place in the heavenly mansions, to dignity, and honour, 
and true wealth in the new Jerusalem ; to inherit that good land, that land 
of promise, of which Canaan was a type. He will exalt them above all con- 
tempt and danger. 

2nd. Peace; ver. 37, Let all people " mark the perfect man, and behold the 
upright;" take notice of him to admire him, and imitate him - keep your eye 
upon him to observe what comes of him, and you will find that ''the end of 
that man is peace." Sometimes the latter end of his days proves more comfort- 
able to him than the beginning was ; the storms blow over, and he is comforted 
again after the time that he was afflicted. However, if all his days continue 
dark and cloudy, perhaps his dying day may prove comfortable to him, and his 
sun may set bright ; or, if it should set under a cloud, yet his future state will 
be peace, everlasting peace. They that walk in their uprightness while they 
live shall enter into peace when they die, Jsa. lvii. 2. A peaceful death has 
concluded the troublesome life of many a good man ; and all is well that thus 
ends everlastingly well. Balaam himself wished that his death and his last end 
might be like that of the righteous, Num. xxiii. 10. 

3rd. Salvation ; ver. 39, 40, " The salvation of the righteous," (which may be 
applied to the great salvation of which the prophets inquired and searched 
diligently, 1 Pet. i. 10,) that " is of the Lord." It will be the Lord's doing. The 
eternal salvation, that salvation of God which those shall see that order their 
conversation aright, Ps. 1. 23, that is of the Lord too. And he that intends 
Christ and heaven for them, will be a God all-sufficient to them. " He is their 
strength in time of trouble," to support them under it, and carry them through 
it. '* Fie shall help them, and deliver them;" help them to do their duties, to 
bear their burthens, and to maintain their spiritual contiicts ; help them to bear 
their troubles well, and get good by them, and in due time shall deliver them 
out of their troubles. " He shall deliver them from the wicked" that would run 
them down, and swallow them up ; shall secure them there where " the wicked 



PSALM XXXVIII. 179 

cease from troubling." " He shall save them ;" not only keep them safe, but make 
them happy, "because they trust in him;" not because they have merited it 
from him, but because they have committed themselves to him, and reposed 
a confidence in him, and have thereby honoured him, 

PSALM XXXYIII. 

This is one of the penitential psalms. It is full of grief and complaint from the beginning 
to the end. David's sins and his afflictions are the cause of his grief, and the matter 
of his complaint. It should seem he was now sick and in pain, which minded him of 
his sins, and helped to humble him for them ; he was at the same time deserted by his 
friends, and persecuted by his enemies, so that this psalm is calculated for the depth of 
distress, and a complication of calamities. He complains, I. Of God's displeasure, 
and of his own sin, which provoked God against him, ver. 1 — 5. II. Of his bodily 
sickness, ver. 6 — 10. III. Of the unkindness of his friends, ver. 11. IV. Of the 
injuries which his enemies did him, pleading his good carriage towards them, yet con- 
fessing his sins against God, ver. 12 — 20. Lastly. He concludes the psalm with earnest 
prayers to God for his gracious presence and help, ver. 21, 22. In singing this psalm 
we ought to be much affected with the malignity of sin ; and if we have not such 
troubles as here are described, we know not how soon we may have, and therefore must 
sing of them by way of preparation; and we know that others have them, and therefore 
we must sing of them by way of sympathy. 

A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. 

OLORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath : 
Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 

2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, 
And thy hand presseth me sore. 

3 There is no soundness in my flesh [bones 
Because of thine anger ; neither is there any rest in my 
Because of my sin. 

4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head : 
As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. 

5 My wounds stink and are corrupt 
Because of my foolishness. 

6 I am troubled ; I am bowed down greatly ; 
I go mourning all the day long. 

7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease : 
And there is no soundness in my flesh. 

8 I am feeble and sore broken: 

I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. 

9 Lord, all my desire is before thee ; 
And my groaning is not hid from thee. 

10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me : 

As for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. 

1 1 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore ; 
And my kinsmen stand afar off. 

The title of this psalm is very observable. It is a psalm " to bring to remem- 
brance." The 70th psalm, which was likewise penned in a day of affliction, is 
so entitled. It is designed, 1. To bring to his own remembrance. We will 
suppose it penned whenhe was sick, and in pain, and then it teacheth us that 
times of sickness are times to bring to remembrance; to bring the sin to 
remembrance for which God contendeth with us ; to awaken our consciences 
to deal faithfully and plainly with us, and set our sins in order before us for 
our humiliation. "In a day of adversity consider." Or we may suopose it 



ISO PSALM XXXVIII. 

penned after his recovery, but designed as a record of the convictions he was 
under, and the workings of his heart when he was in affliction, that upon every 
review of this psalm he might call to mind the good impressions then made 
upon him, and make a fresh improvement of them. To the same purpose was 
" the writing of Hezekiah when he had been sick." 2. To put others in mind 
of the same things which he was himself mindful of, and to teach them what 
to think, and what to say, when they are sick and in affliction ; let them think 
as he did. and speak as he did. 

First. He deprecates the wrath of God, and his displeasure, in his affliction ; 
ver. 1, " O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath." With this same petition he 
began another prayer, for the visitation of the sick, Ps. vi. 1. This was most 
upon his heart, and should be most upon ours, when we are in affliction, that, 
however God rebukes and chastens us, it may not be in wrath and displeasure ; 
for that will be wormwood and gall m the affliction and misery. Those that 
would escape the wrath of God must pray against that, more than any out- 
ward affliction ; and be content to bear any outward affliction, while it comes 
from and consists with the law of God. 

Secondly. He bitterly laments the impressions of God's displeasure upon his 
soul: ver. 2, "Thine arrows stick fast in me." Let Job's complaint, ch. vi. 4, 
expound David's here. By the arrows of the Almighty, he means the terrors 
of God, which did set themselves in array against him. He was under a very 
melancholy, frightful apprehension of the wrath of God against him for his sins, 
and thought he could look for nothing but judgment and fiery indignation to 
devour him. God's arrows, as they are sure to hit the mark, so they are sure 
to stick where they hit, to stick fast, till he is pleased to draw them out, and 
to bind up with his comforts the wound he has made with his terrors. This will 
be the everlasting misery of the damned; the arrows of God's wrath will stick 
fast in them, and the wound will be incurable. " Thy hand," thy heavy hand, 
"presseth me sore," and I am ready to sink under it ; it not only lies hard upon 
me, but it lies long; and who knows the power of God's anger, the weight of 
his hand ! Sometimes God shot his arrows and stretched forth his hand for 
David, Ps. xviii. 14; but now against him; so uncertain is the continuance of 
Divine comforts, where yet the continuance of Divine grace is assured. He 
complains of God's wrath, as that which inflicted the bodily distemper he w r as 
under ; ver. 3, " There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger." The 
bitterness of it, infused in his mind, affected his body; but that was not the 
worst ; it caused" the disquietness of his heart, by reason of which he forgot the 
courage of a soldier, the dignity of a prince, and all the cheerfulness of the 
sweet psalmist of Israel, and roared terribly, ver. 8. Nothing will disquiet 
the heart of a good man so much as the sense of God's anger; which shews 
what a fearful thing it is to fall into his hands. The way to keep the heart ■ 
quiet is to keep ourselves in the love of God, and to do nothing to offend him. 

Thirdly. He acknowledgeth his sin to be the procuring, provoking cause 
of all his troubles, and groans more under the load of guilt than any other load, 
ver. 3. He complains his flesh had no soundness, his bones had no rest, so great 
a toss was he in. It is " because of thine anger," tnat kindles the fire which burns 
so fierce ; but in the next words he justifies God herein, and takes all the blame 
upon himself : It is " because of my sin." I have deserved it, and so have brought 
it upon myself : " mine own iniquities do correct me." If our trouble be the 
fruit of God's anger, we may thank ourselves, it is our sin that is the cause 
of it. Are we restless? It is sin that makes us so. If there were not sin in 
our souls there would be no pain in our bones, no illness in our bodies. It is 
sin, therefore, that this good man complains most of. 

1. As a burthen, a heavy burthen; ver. 4, "Mine iniquities are gone over my 
head," as proud waters over a man that is sinking and drowning, or as a heavy 
burthen upon my head, pressing me down, more than I am able to bear or 
to bear up under. Note, Sin is a burthen. The power of sin dwelling in us 
is a weight, Heb. xii. 1 ; all are clogged with it, it keeps men from soaring 
upwards and pressing forward ; all the saints are complaining of it as a body 
of death they are loaded with, Rom. vii. 24. The guilt of sin committed by us 
is a burthen, a heavy burthen; it is a burthen to God, he is pressed under 
it, Am. ii. 13 ; a burthen to the whole creation, which groans under it, 
Rom. viii. 21, 22. It will, first or last, be a burthen to the sinner himself, 
either a burthen of repentance, when he is pricked to the heart for it, labours 
and is heavy laden under it, or a burthen of ruin, when it sinks him to the 
lowest hell, and will for ever detain him there ; it will be a talent of lead upon 
him, Zee. v. 8. Sinners are said to bear their iniquity. Threatenings are 
burthens. 

2. As wounds, dangerous wounds ; ver. 5, " My wounds stink and are cor- 
rupt;" as wounds in the body rankle and fester, and grow foul for want of 
being dressed and looked after ; and it is through my own foolishness. Sins 
are wounds, Gen. iv. 23, painful, mortal wounds. Our wounds, by sin. are 
oftentimes in a bad condition, no care taken of them, no application made to 



PSALM XXXVIII. 181 

them, and it is owing to the sinner's foolishness, in not confessing sin. 
Ps. xxxii. 3, 4. A slight sore neglected may prove of fatal consequence, and 
so may a slight sin, slighted and left unrepented of. 

Fourthly. He bemoans himself because of his afflictions, and gives ease to 
his grief by giving vent to it, and pouring^ out his complaint before the Lord. 

1. He was troubled in mind, his conscience was pained, and he had no rest 
in his own spirit; and a wounded spirit who can bear? He was troubled, or 
distorted, bowed down greatly, and went mourning all the day long, ver. 6. He 
was always pensive and melancholy, which made him a burthen and terror 
to himself. His spiritwas feeble and sore broken, and his heart disquieted, 
ver. 8. Herein David, in his sufferings, was a type of Christ, who, being in his 
agony, cried out, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful." This is a sorer affliction 
than any other in this world ; whatever God is pleased to lay upon us, we have 
no reason to complain, as long as he preserves to us the use of our reason, and 
the peace of our consciences. 

2. He was sick and weak in body ; his loins filled with a loathsome disease, 
some swelling, or ulcer, or inflammation ; some think a plague-sore, such as 
Hezekiah's boil ; and there was no soundness in his flesh, but, like Job, he was 
all over distempered. See, 1st. What vile bodies these are which we carry 
about with us, and what grievous diseases they are liable to, and what an 
offence and grievance they may soon be made by some diseases to the souls that 
animate them, as they always are a cloud and clog. 2nd. That the bodies both 
of the greatest and of the best of men have in them the same seeds of diseases 
that the bodies of others have, and are liable to the same disasters. David him- 
self, though so great a prince, and so great a saint, was not exempt from the 
most grievous diseases ; there was no soundness even in his flesh ; probably 
this was after his sin in the matter of Uriah, and thus did he smart in his fiesh 
for his fleshly lusts. When at any time we are distempered in our bodies, we 
ought to remember how God has been dishonoured in and by our bodies. He 
was feeble and sore broken, ver. 8. His heart panted, and was in a continual 
palpitation, ver. 10. His strength and limbs failed him; as for the light of ins 
eyes, that was gone from him, either with much w T eeping, or by a denuxion 
of rheum upon them, or through the lowness of his spirits, and the frequent 
returns of a deliquium. Note, Sickness will tame the strongest body, and the 
stoutest spirit. David was famed for his courage and great exploits; and yet, 
when God contended with him by bodily sickness, and the impressions ot his 
wrath upon his mind, his hair is cut, his heart fails him, and he is become weak 
as water. Therefore, let not the strong man glory in his strength, nor any man 
set grief at detiance, however it may be thought at a distance. 

3. His friends were unkind to him; ver. 11, "My lovers" (such as had been 
merry with him in the day of his mirth) now "stand aloof from my sore." They 
would not sympathize with him in his griefs, nor so much as come within hear- 
ing of his complaints; but, like the priest and Levite, Lu. x. 31, "passed by 
on the other side." Even his kinsmen, that were bound to him by blood and 
alliance, stood afar off. See # what little reason we have to trust in man, or 
to wonder if we be disappointed in our expectations of kindness from men. 
Adversity tries friendship, and separates between the precious and the vile. 
It is our wisdom to make sure a Friend in heaven, who will not stand aloof 
from our sore, and from Avhose love no tribulation or distress shall be able 
to separate us. David in his troubles was a type of Christ in his agony, Christ 
on his cross, feeble and sore broken, and then deserted by his friends and 
kinsmen, who beheld afar off. 

Lastly. In the midst of his complaints he comforts himself with the cognizance 
God graciously took both of his griefs and of his prayers ; ver. 9, " Lord, all my 
desire is before thee;" thou knowest what I want, and w r hat I would have, "my 
groaning is not hid from thee." Thou knowest the burthens I groan under, 
and the blessings I groan after. The groanings which cannot be uttered are not 
hid from Him that searcheth the heart, and knows what is the mind of the 
spirit, Rom. viii. 26, 27. In singing this, and praying it over, whatever burthen 
lies upon our spirits, we should by faith cast it upon God, and all our care 
concerning it, and then be easy. 

12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me : 
And they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, 
And imagine deceits all the day long. 

13 But I, as a deaf man, heard not ; 

And / was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. 

14 Thus I was as a man that heareth not, 
And in whose mouth are no reproofs. 



1-:- 



PSALM XXXVIII. 



15 Foi in thee, 0 Lord, do I hope : 
Thou wilt hear, 0 Lord my God. 

1 6 For I said, Hear me, 

Lest otherwise they should rejoice over me : [me. 
When my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against 

17 For I am ready to halt, 

And my sorrow is continually before me 

1 8 For I will declare mine iniquity ; 
I will be sony for my sin. 

1 9 But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong : 
And they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. 

20 They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; 
Because I follow the thi?ig that good is. 

2 1 Forsake me not, 0 Lord : 

0 my God, be not far from me. 

22 Make haste to help me, 
0 Lord my salvation. 

In these verses, 

First. David complains of the power and malice of his enemies, who, it should 
seem, not only took occasion from the weakness of his body, and the trouble 
of his mind, to insult over him, but took advantage from thence to do him 
a mischief. He hath a great deal to say against them, which he humbly offers 
as a reason why God should appear for nim, as Ps. xxv. 19, " Consider mine 
enemies." * 

1. They are very spiteful and cruel ; " They seek my hurt ;" nay, "they seek 
after my life," ver. 12. That life which was so precious in the sight of the'Lord, 
and all good men ; was aimed at, as if it had been forfeited, or a public nuisance. 
Such is the enmity of the serpent's seed against the seed of the woman: it 
would wound the head, though it can but reach the heel. It is the blood of 
the saints that is thirsted alter. 

2. They are very subtle and politic. They lay snares, they imagine deceits, and 
herein they are restless and unwearied : they do it all the day long ; they speak 
mischievous things one to another ; that is, every one has something or other 
to propose, that may be a mischief to me. Mischief covered and carried on by 
deceit may well be called a snare. 

3. They are very insolent and abusive. "V> r hen my foot slippeth;" that is, 
when I fall into any trouble, or when I make any mistake,, misplace a word, or 
take a false step, "they magnify themselves against me;" they are pleased with 
it, and promise themselves that it will ruin my interest, and that if I slip I shall 
certainly fall and be undone. 

4. They are not only unjust, but very ungrateful ; " They hate me wrongfully," 
ver. 19. I never did them any ill turn, nor so much as bore them any ill-will, 
nor ever gave them any provocation : nay, "they render evil for good," ver. 20. 
Many a kindness I have done them, for which 1 might have expected a return 
of kindness; but "for my love they are my adversaries," Ps. cix. 4; such a 
rooted enmity there is in the hearts of wicked men to goodness for its own sake, 
that they hate it, even then when they themselves have the benefit of it; they 
hate prayer, even in those that pray for them ; and hate peace, even in those 
that would be at peace with them : but very ill-natured those are whom no 
courtesy will oblige, but they are rather exasperated by it. 

5. They are very impious and devilish; they are my adversaries purely because 
"I follow the thing that good is." They hated him not only for his kindness 
to them, but for his devotion and obedience to God; they hated him because 
they hated God, and all that bear his image. If we suffer ill for doing well, we 
must not think it strange; from the beginning it was so. Cain slew Abel 
because his works were righteous. Nor must we think it hard, because it will 
not be always so ; for so much the greater will our reward be. 

6. They are many and mighty ; they are lively, they are strong, they are 
multiplied; ver. 19, "Lord, how they are increased that trouble me," Ps "in. L. 
Holy David was weak and faint, his heart panted, and his strength failed; he 



PSALM XXXVIII. 183 

was melancholy and of a sorrowful spirit, and persecuted by nis friends; but 
at the same time his wicked enemies were strong and lively, and their number 
increased. Let us not, therefore, pretend to judge of* men's characters by their 
outward condition ; none knows love or hatred by all that is before them. It 
should seem that David in this, as in other complaints he makes of his enemies, 
has an eye to Christ, whose persecutors were such as are here described, — 
perfectly lost to all honour and virtue. None hate Christianity but such as have 
first divested themselves of the first principles of humanity, and broken through 
its most sacred bonds. 

Secondly. He reflects with comfort upon his own peaceable and pious 
behaviour* under all the injuries and indignities that were done him. It is then 
only that our enemies do us a real mischief, when thev provoke us to sin, 
(Neh. vi. 13,) when they prevail to put us out of the possession of our own souls, 
and drive us from God and our duty. If by Divine grace we are enabled to pre- 
vent this mischief, we quench their fiery darts, and save ourselves harmless : 
if still we hold fast our integrity and our peace, who can hurt us ? This David 
did here. 

1. He kept his temper, and was not ruffled or discomposed by any of the 
slights that were put upon him. or the mischievous things that were said or 
done against him; ver. 13, 14, "I, as a deaf man, heard not;" 1 took no notice 
of the affronts put upon me, did not resent them, nor was put into disorder 
by them; much less did I meditate revenge, or study to return the injury. 
Note, The less notice we take of the unkindness and injuries that are done us, 
the more we consult the quiet of our own minds. Being deaf, he was dumb, 
as a man in whose mouth there are no reproofs ; he was as silent as if he had 
nothing to say for himself, for fear of putting himself into a heat, and incensing 
his enemies yet more against him; lie would not only not recriminate upon 
them, but not so much as vindicate himself, lest his necessary defence should 
be construed his offence. Though they sought after his life, and his silence 
might be taken for a confession of his guilt, yet he was as " a dumb man, that 
openeth not his mouth." Note, When our enemies are most clamorous, 
ordinarily it is our prudence to be silent, or to say little, lest we make ill 
worse. David could not hope by his mildness to win upon his enemies, or 
by his soft answers to turn away their wrath; for they were men of such base 
spirits that they rendered him evil for good, and yet he carried it thus meekly 
towards them, that he might prevent his own sin, and might have the comfort 
of it in the reflection. Herein David was a type of Christ, who was "as a sheep 
dumb before the shearer," and " when he was reviled, reviled not again;" and 
both are examples to us not to render railing for railing. 

2. He kept close to his God by faith and prayer, and so both supported him- 
self under these injuries, and silenced his own resentments of them. 1st. He 
trusted in God ; ver. 15, " I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth, for in 
thee, O Lord, do 1 hope." I depend upon thee to plead my cause, and clear my 
innocency, and some way or other to put them to silence and shame. His lovers 
and friends, that should have owned him, and stood by him, and appeared as wit- 
nesses for him, withdrew from him, ver. 10. But God is a friend that will never 
fail us, if we hope in him ; " I was as a man that heareth not, for thou wilt 
hear." What need 1 hear and God hear too? as 1 Pet. v. 7, "He careth for 
you," and what need you care and God care too ? ' Thou wilt answ eiy so some, 
and therefore I will say nothing. Note, It is a good reason why we should bear 
reproach and calumny with silence and patience, because God is a witness to all 
the wrong that is done us, and in due time will be a witness for us. and against 
those that do us wrong ; therefore let us be silent, because if we be then we 
may expect that God will appear for us, for that is an evidence we trust in him ; 
but if we undertake to manage for ourselves, we take God's work out of his 
hands, and forfeit the benefit of his appearing for us. Our Lord Jesus, there- 
fore, " when he suffered, threatened not," because he " committed himself to 
him that judgeth righteously," 1 Pet. ii. 23, and we shall lose nothing at last by 
doing so. * Thou shalt answer, Lord, for me.' 2nd. He called upon God*; 
ver. 16, " For 1 said, Hear me," that is supplied; " I said so," as ver. 15, "in thee 
do I hope, for thou wilt hear, lest they should rejoice over me;" I comforted 
myself with that, when I was apprehensive that they would run me down. It 
is a great support to us, when men are false and unkind, that we have a God to 
gO r to ? whom we may be free with, and who will be faithful to us. 

Thirdly. He here bewails his own follies and infirmities. 

1st. He was very sensible of the present workings of corruption in him, and 
that he was now ready to repine at the providence of God, and to be put into a 
passion by the injuries men did him : " I am ready to halt," ver. 17. This will 
best be explained by a reflection like this which the psalmist made upon him- 
self in a like case, Ps. lxxiii. 2, " My feet were almost gone, when 1 saw the 
prosperity of the wicked," so here, " I was ready to halt," ready to say, " I have 
cleansed my hands in Tain." His sorrow was continual; "All the day lcn fo - 



184 



PSALM XXXIX. 



nave I been plagued,"Ps. ixxiii. 13, 14, and it was continually before him: he 
could not forbear poring upon it, and that made him almost ready to halt 
between religion and irreligion. The fear of this drove him to his God ; " In 
thee do I hope," not only that thou wilt plead my cause, but that thou wilt 
prevent my falling into sin. Good men, by setting their sorrow continually 
before them, have oeen ready to halt, who by setting God always before them, 
have kept their standing. 

2nd. He remembered against himself his former transgressions, acknowledg- 
ing that by them he had brought these troubles upon himself, and forfeited the 
Divine protection. Though before men he could justify himself, before God he 
will judge and condemn himself; ver. 18, "I will declare mine iniquity," and 
not cover it; " I will be sorry for my sin," and not make a light matter of it; 
and this helped to make him silent under the rebukes of Providence and the 
reproaches of men. Note, If we be truly penitent for sin, that will make us 
patient under affliction, and particularly under unjust censures. Two things 
are required in repentance: 1st. Confession of sin; "I will declare mine ini- 
quity ; I will not only in general own myself a sinner, but I will make a par- 
ticular acknowledgment of what I have done amiss. _ We must declare our sins 
before God freely and fully, and with their aggravating circumstances, that we 
may give glory to God, and take shame to ourselves. 2nd. Contrition for sin. 
I will be sorry for it. Sin will have sorrow ; every true penitent grieves tor the 
dishonour he has done to God ; and the wrong he has done to himself; 4 1 wili 
be in care.' or 4 fear about my sin,' so some, in fear, lest it ruin me, and in care to 
get it pardoned. 

Fourthly. He concludes w T ith very earnest prayers to God for his gracious 
presence with him, and seasonable powerful succour in his distress; ver. 21, 22, 
" Forsake me not, O Lord," though my friends forsake me, and though 1 deserve 
to be forsaken by thee ; " be not far from me," as my unbelieving heart is ready 
to fear thou art. Nothing goes nearer to the heart of a good man in affliction 
than to be under the apprehension of God's deserting him in wrath; nor doth 
any thing therefore come more feelingly from his heart than this prayer, 
" Lord, be not thou far from me ; make haste for my help," for I am ready to 
perish, and in danger of being lost, if relief do not come quickly. God gives us 
leave not only to call upon him when we are in trouble, but to hasten him. He 
pleads, Thou art my God, whom 1 serve, and on whom I depend to bear me out; 
and my salvation, who alone art able to save me, w ho hast engaged thyself by 
promise to save me, and from whom alone I expect salvation. Is any afflicted? 
let him thus pray, let him thus plead, let him thus hope, in singing this psalm. 



David seems to have been in a great toss when he penned this psalm, and, upon some 
account or other, very uneasy; for it is with some difficulty that he conquers his 
passion, and composeth his spirit himself to take that good counsel which he had 
given to others, Ps. xxxvii., to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him, without 
fretting ; for it is easier to give the good advice than to give the good example of quiet- 
ness under affliction. What was the particular trouble which gave occasion for the 
conflict David was now in, doth not appear. Perhaps it was the death of some dear 
friend or relation that was the trial of his patience, and that suggested to him these 
meditations of mortality ; and at the same time it should seem he himself was weak and 
iil, and under some prevailing distemper. His enemies likewise were seeking advan- 
tages against him, and watched for his halting that they might have something to 
reproach him for. Thus aggrieved, I. He relates the struggle that was in his breast 
between grace and corruption, between passion and patience, ver. 1 — 3. II. He medi- 
tates upon the doctrine of man's frailty and mortality, and prays to God to instruct him 
in it, ver. 4 — 6. III. He applies himself to God for the pardon of his sins, the removal 
of his afflictions, and the lengthening out of his life till he was ready for death, 
ver. 7 — 13. This is a funeral psalm, and very proper for the occasion. In singing of it, 
we should get our hearts duly affected with the brevity, uncertainty, and calamitous 
state of human life; and those on whose comforts God has by death made breaches, 
will find this psalm of great use to them, in order to their obtaining what we ought 
to aim much at under such an affliction, which is to get it sanctified to us for our 
spiritual benefit, and to get our hearts reconciled to the holy will of God in it. 



PSALM XXXIX. 



To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. 




SAID, I will take heed to iny ways, 
That I sin not with iny tongue : 
I will keep my mouth with a bridle, 
While the wicked is before me. 



PSALM XXXIX. 185 

2 I was dumb with silence, 

I held my peace, even from good ; 
And my sorrow was stirred. 

3 My heart was hot within me, 
While I was musing the fire burned : 
Then spake I with my tongue, 

4 Lord, make me to know mine end, 
And the measure of my days, what it is ; 
That I may know how frail I am. 

5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth ; 
And mine age is as nothing before thee : [Selah 
Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. 

6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew : 

Surely they are disquieted in vain : [them. 
He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather 

David here recollects, and leaves upon record, the workings of his heart under 
his afflictions, and it is good for us to do so, that what was thought amiss may 
be amended, and what was well thought of may be improved the next time. 

First. He remembered the covenants he had made with God to walk circum- 
spectly, and to be very cautious both of what he did and what he said. When 
at any time we are tempted to sin. and are in danger of falling into it, we must 
call to mind the solemn vows we nave made against sin, against that particular 
sin we are upon the brink of. God can and will mind us of them; Jer. ii. 20, 
" Thou saidst, I will not transgress," and therefore we ought to mind ourselves 
of them. So David did here. 

1. He remembers that he had resolved in general to be very cautious and cir- 
cumspect in his walking ; ver. 1, " I said, I will take heed to my ways;" and it 
was well said, and what he would never unsay, and therefore must never gain- 
say. Note, 1st. It is the great concern of every one of us to take heed to 
our ways, that is, to walk circumspectly, while others walk at all adventures. 
2nd. We ought stedfastly to resolve that we will take heed to our ways, and 
frequently to renew that resolution. Fast bind, fast find. 3rd. Having resolved 
to take heed to our ways, we must upon all occasions mind ourselves of that 
resolution, for it is a covenant never to be forgotten, but which we must be 
always mindful of. 

2. He remembers that he had in particular covenanted against tongue sins. 
That he would not sin with his tongue, that he would not speak amiss, either to 
offend God, or " offend the generation of the righteous," Ps. lxxiii. 15. It is not 
so easy as we could wish not to sin in thought; but if an evil thought should 
arise in his mind he would lay his hand upon his mouth, and suppress it, that it 
should go no farther; and this is so great an attainment, that "if any offend not 
in word, the same is a perfect man," and so needful a one, that he who " seems 
to be religious, but bridles not his tongue, his religion is vain." David had 
resolved, 1st. That he would at all times watch against tonguesins. " I will 
keep a bridle," or muzzle, "upon > my mouth." A bridle upon it, as upon an 
unruly horse, to guide and direct it, to check and curb it, to keep it in the right 
way, and on a good pace : see Jas. iii. 3. Watchfulness in the habit is the bridle 
upon the head ; watchfulness in the act and exercise is the hand upon the bridle, 
a muzzle upon it, as upon an unruly dog that is fierce and doth mischief. By 
particular stedfast resolution, corruption is restrained from breaking out at the 
lips, and so is muzzled. 2nd.. That he woidd double his guard against them, 
when there was most danger of scandal, "when the wicked is before me." 
When he was in company with the wicked, he would take heed of saying any 
thing that might harden them, or give occasion to them to blaspheme. If good 
men light into bad company, they must take heed what they say. Or, " when 
the wicked is before me," that is ; in my thoughts, when he was contemplating 
the pride and power, the prosperity and nourishing estate of evil-doers, he was 
tempted to speak amiss, and therefore then he would take special care what he 
said. Note, The stronger the temptation to a sin is, the stronger the resolution 
must be against it. 

Secondly. Pursuant to these covenants he made a shift, with much ado, to 
bridle his tongue ; ver. 2, " I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from 
good." His silence was commendable, and the greater the provocation was, the 



186 PSALM XXXIX. 

more praiseworthy was his silence. Watchfulness and resolution in the strength 
of God's grace will do more towards the bridling of the tongue than we can 
imagine, though it be an unruly evil. But what shall we say of his keeping 
silence even from good? Was it his wisdom that he refrained good discourse 
when the wicked were before him, because he would not cast pearls before 
swine ? 1 rather think it was his weakness ; because he might not say any thing 
he would say nothing, but ran into an extreme, which was a reproach to the 
law r , for that prescribes a mean between extremes. The same law which for- 
bids all corrupt communications requires that which is good, and to the use of 
edifying, Eph. iv. 29. 

Thirdly. The less he spoke the more he thought, and the more warmly. Bind- 
ing the distempered part did but draw the humour to it. " My sorrow was 
stirred, my heart was hot within me," ver. 3. He could bridle his tongue, but 
he could not keep his passion under, though he suppressed the smoke that was 
as a fire in his bones ; and while he was musing upon his afflictions, and upon 
the prosperity of the wicked, the fire burned. Note. Those that are of a fretful, 
discontented spirit, ought not to pore much, for while they suffer their thoughts 
to dwell upon the causes of their calamity the fire of their discontent is fed 
with fuel, and burns the more furiously. Impatience is a sin that has its ill 
cause within ourselves, and that is musing, and its ill effect upon ourselves, 
and that is no less than burning. If, therefore, we would prevent the mis- 
chief of ungoverned passions, we must redress the grievance of ungoverned 
thoughts. 

Fourthly. When he did speak at last, it was to the purpose. At the last 1 
spake with my tongue. And some make what he said to be the breach of 
his good purpose, and that in what he said he sinned with his tongue; and so 
they make what follows to be a passionate wish that he might die, like Elijah, 
1 Kin. xix. 4, and Job, ch. vi. 8 ; but 1 rather take it to be, not the breach of 
his good purpose, but the reformation of his mistake in carrying it too far: he 
had kept silence from good, but now he would so keep silence no longer. He 
had nothing to say to the wicked that were before him, for to them he knew not 
how to place his words, but, after long musing, the first word he said was a 
prayer, and a devout meditation upon a subject which it will be good for us all 
to tnink much of. 

1. He prays to God to make him sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of 
life, and the near approach of death ; ver. 4, " Lord, make me to know mine end, 
and the measure of my days." He doth not mean, Lord, let me know how Ions: I 
shall live, and when I shall die ; we could not in faith pray such a prayer, for 
God has now r here promised to let us know, but has in wisdom locked up that 
knowledge among the secret things which belong not to us, nor would it be 
good for us to know it ; but, " Lord, make me to know my end," is, Lord, give 
me wisdom and grace to consider it, Deu. xxxii. 29, and to improve what 1 know 
concerning it. " The living know that they shall die," Eccl. ix. 5, but few care 
for thinking of it ; we have therefore need to pray, that God by his grace would 
conquer that aversion which is in our corrupt hearts to the thoughts of death. 
Lord, make me to consider, 1st. What death is. It is my end, the end of 
my life, and all the employments and enjoyments of life; it is the end of all men, 
Eccl. vii. 2. It is a final period to our state of probation and preparation, and 
an awful entrance upon a state of recom pence and retribution. To a wicked 
man, it is the end of all his joys ; to a godly man, it is the end of all his griefs. 
Lord, give me to know my end; that is, to be better acquainted with death, and 
to make it more familiar to me, Job xvii. 14 ; and to be more affected with the 
greatness of the change, Lord, give me to consider what a serious thing it is to 
die. 2nd. How near it is. Lord, give me to consider the measure of my days, 
that they are measured in the counsel of God, the end is a fixed end, so the word 
signifies. (" My davs are determined," Job xiv. 5,) and that the measure is but 
short; My days will soon be numbered and finished. W r hen we look upon death 
as a thing at a distance, we are tempted to adjourn the necessary preparations 
for it; but when we consider how short life is we shall see ourselves concerned 
to do what our hand finds to do, not only with all our might, but with all pos- 
sible expedition. 3rd. That it is continually working in us. Lord, give me to 
consider how frail I am, how scanty the stock of life is, and how faint the 
spirits, which are as the oil to keep that lamp burning. W^e find, by daily expe- 
rience, that the earthly house of this tabernacle is mouldering and going to 
decay ; Lord, make us to consider this, that we may secure mansions in the 
house not made with hands. _ i . 

2. He meditates upon the brevity and vanity of life, pleading it with God for 
relief under the burthens of life, as Job often, and pleading it with himself for 
his quickening to the business of life. m 

1st. Man's life on earth is short r and of no continuance, and that is a reason 
why we should sit loose to it, and prepare for the end of it ; ver. 5, " Be- 
hold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth," the breadth of four fingers, 
a certain dimension, a small one, and the measure whereof we have always 



PSALM XXXIX. 1S7 

about us, always before our eyes. We need no rod, no Dole, no measuring: line, 
■wherewith to take the dimension of our days, nor any skill in arithmetic where- 
with to compute the number of them ; no, we have the standard of them at our 
fingers'-end, and there is no multiplication of it ; it is but one handbreadth in 
all. Our time is short, and God has made it so ; for the number of our months 
is with him. It is short, and he knows it to be so ; it is as nothing before thee. 
He remembers how short our time ia, Ps. lxxxix. 47. It is nothing in compari- 
son with thee, so some. All time is nothing to God's eternity, much less our 
share of time. 

2nd. Man's life on earth is vain, and of no value, and therefore it is folly to be 
fond of it. and wisdom to make sure of a better life. Adam is Abel, man is 
vanity, in nis present state ; is not what he seems to be, has not what he pro- 
mised himself. He and all his comforts lie at a continual uncertainty, and if there 
were not another life after this, all things considered, he were made in vain. 
He is vanity, that is, he is mortal, he is mutable. Observe how emphatically 
this truth is expressed here. First. Every man is vanity, without exception ; 
high and low, rich and poor, all meet in this. Secondly. He is so at his best 
estate, when he is young, and strong, and healthful, in wealth and honour, and 
the height of prosperity : when he is most easy, and merry, and secure, and 
thinks his mountain stands strong. Thirdly. He is altogether vanity, as vain as 
you can imagine. All man is all vanity, so it may be read ; every thing about 
him is uncertain, nothing is substantial and durable but what relates to the new- 
man. Fourthly. Verily; he is so. This is a truth of undoubted certainty, but 
which we are very unwilling to believe, and need to have solemnly attested to 
us, a.s indeed it is by frequent instances. Fifthly. Selah is annexed, as a note 
commanding; observation. Stop here, and pause a while, that you may take 
time to consider and apply this truth, that every man is vanity. We ourselves 
are so. 

Now for the proof of the vanity of man, as mortal, he here instances in three 
things, and shews the vanity of each of them, ver. 6. 1st. The vanity of our joys 
and honours; "Surely every man walketh" (even when he walks in state, when 
he walks in pleasure) in a shadow, in an image, "in a vain show." AY hen he 
makes a figure, his fashion passeth away, and his g^reat pomp is but great fancy, 
Acts xxv. 23. It is but a show, and therefore a vain show, like the rainbow, the 
gaudy colours of which must needs vanish, and disappear quickly, when the 
substratum is but a cloud, a vapour ; such is life, Jas. iv. 14, and therefore such 
are all the gaieties of it. 2nd. The vanity of our griefs and fears ; " Surely they 
are disquieted in vain." Our disquietments are often groundless ; we vex our- 
selves without any just cause, and the occasions of our trouble are many times 
the creatures of our own fancy and imagination : and they are always fruitless ; 
we disquiet ourselves in vain, for we cannot, with all our disquietment, alter 
the nature of things, nor the counsel of God. Things will be as they are, when 
we have disquieted ourselves never so much about them. 3rd. The vanity of 
our cares and toils. He takes a great deal of pains to heap up riches, and they 
are but like heaps of muck in the furrows of the field, good for nothing unless 
they be spread. But when he has filled his treasures with his trash he knows 
not who shall gather them, nor to whom they shall descend when he is gone ; 
for he shall not take them away with him. He asks not, For whom do 1 labour? 
and that is his folly, Feci. iv. 8. But if he did ask he could not tell whether 
he should be a wise man or a fool, a friend or a foe, Feci. ii. 19. " This is 
vanity." 

7 And now, Lord, what wait I for ? 
My hope is in thee. 

8 Deliver me from all my transgressions : 
Make me not the reproach of the foolish. 

9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth ; 
Because thou didst it. 

10 Eemove thy stroke away from me : 

I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. 

1 1 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, 
Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth : 
Surely every man is vanity. Selah 

12 Hear my prayer, 0 Lord, 
And give ear unto my cry ; 



188 PSALM XXXIX. 

Hold not thy peace at my tears : 

For I am a stranger with thee, 

And a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 
13 0 spare me, that I may recover strength, 

Before I go hence, and be no more. 

The psalmist having meditated on the shortness and uncertainty of life, and 
the vanity and vexation of spirit that attends all the comforts of life, here, in 
these verses, turns his eyes and heart heavenward. When there is no solid 
satisfaction to be had in the creature, it is to be found in God, and in com- 
munion with him ; and to him we should be driven by our disappointments in 
the world. David here speaks, 

First. His dependence on God, ver. 7. Seeing all is vanity, and man himself 
is so, I. He despairs of a happiness in the things of the world, and disclaims all 
expectations from it. " Now, Lord, what wait I for ?" Even nothing from the 
things of sense and time; I have nothing to wish for, nothing to hope for from 
this earth. Note, The consideration of the vanity and frailty of human life 
should deaden our desires to the things of this world, and lower our expecta- 
tions from it. If the world be such a thing as this, God deliver me from having 
or seeking my portion in it. We cannot count upon constant health and pros- 
perity, nor upon comfort in every relation, for it is all as uncertain as our con- 
tinuance here. Now, though I have sometimes foolishly promised myself this 
and the other from the world, now I am of another mind. 2. He takes hold of 
happiness and satisfaction in God; " My hope is in thee." Note, When crea- 
ture confidences fail it is our comfort that we have a God to go to. a God to 
trust to, and we should thereby be quickened to take so much the taster hold 
of him by faith. 

Secondly. His submission to God, and his cheerful acquiescence in his holy 
will, ver. 9. If our hope be in God for a happiness in the other world, we may 
well afford to reconcile ourselves to all the dispensations of his providence con- 
cerning us in this world. " I was dumb, I opened not my mouth," in a way of 
complaint and murmuring. He now again recovered that serenity and sedateness 
of mind which was disturbed, ver. 2. Whatever comforts he is deprived of, 
whatever crosses he is burthened with, he will be easy; "because thou didst 
it." It did not come to pass by chance ; but according to thine appointment. 
We may here see, 1. A good God doing all, and ordering all events concerning 
us. Of every event we may say, This is the finger of God, it is the Lord's doing, 
whoever were the instruments. 2. A good man for that reason saying nothing 
against it. He is dumb, he has nothing to object, no question to ask, no dispute 
to raise upon it ; all that God doth is well done. 

Thirdly. His desire towards God, and the prayers he puts up to him; " Is any 
afflicted ? let him pray," as David here. 

L. For the pardoning of his sin and the preventing of his shame, ver. 8. Before 
he prays, ver. 10, " Remove thy stroke from me," he prays, ver. 8, " Deliver me 
from all mine offences," from the guilt I have contracted, the punishment I 
have deserved, and the power of corruption I have been captivated by. When 
God forgives our sins, he delivers us from them, he delivers us from them 
all. He pleads, " Make me not a reproach to the foolish." Wicked people are 
foolish people; and they then shew their folly most when they think to shew 
their wit by scoffing at God's people. When David prays that God would 
pardon his sins, and not make him a reproach, it is to be taken as a prayer for 
peace of conscience ; Lord, leave me not to the power of melancholy, which 
the foolish will laugh at me for. And as a prayer for grace, that God would 
never leave him to himself so far as to do any thing that might make him a 
reproach to bad men. Note, This is a good reason why we should both watch 
and pray against sin, because the credit of our profession is nearly concerned in 
the preservation of our integrity. 

2. For the removal of his affliction, that he might speedily be eased of his 
present burthens ; ver. 10, " Remove thy stroke away from me." Note, When 
we are under the correcting hand of God, our eye must be to God himself, and 
not to any other for relief ; he only that inflicts the stroke can remove it. And 
we may then in faith, and with satisfaction, pray that our afflictions may be 
removed, when our sins are pardoned, Isa. xxxviii. 17, and when as here the 
affliction is sanctified, and has done its work, and we are humbled under the 
hand of God. 

1st. He pleads the great extremity he was reduced to by his affliction, which 
made him the proper object of God's compassion : " I am consumed by the blow 
of thy hand." His sickness prevailed to that degree that his spirits failed, his 
strength was wasted, and his body emaciated. The blow or conflict of thine 



PSALM XL. 189 

hand has brought me even to the gates of death. Note, The strongest, and 
boldest, and best of men cannot bear up under, much less make head against, the 
power of God's wrath. It was not his case only, but any man will find himself 
an unequal match for the Almighty, ver. 11. When God doth at any time con- 
tend with us, when with rebukes he corrects us, First. We cannot impeach the 
equity of his controversy, but must acknowledge that he is righteous in it ; for 
whenever he correcteth man it is for iniquity. Our ways and our doings pro- 
cure the trouble to ourselves, and we are beaten with a rod of our own making. 
It is "the yoke of our transgressions" though it be bound with his hand, 
Lam. i. 14. Secondly. We cannot oppose the effects of his co?itroversy, but he 
will be too hard for us. As we have nothing to move in arrest of his judgment, 
so we have no way of escaping the execution. God's rebukes "make man's 
beauty to consume away like a moth ;" we see it often, we feel it sometimes, how 
much'the body is weakened and decayed by sickness in a little time. The coun- 
tenance is changed; wmere is the ruddy cheek and lip, the r sprightly eye, the 
lively look, the smiling face? It is the reverse of all this.^ What a poor thing is 
beauty, and what fools are they that are proud of it, or in love with it, when it 
will certainly and may quickly be consumed thus? Some make the moth to 
represent man, who is as easily crushed as a moth with the touch of a finger, 
Job iv. 19. Others make it to represent the Divine rebukes, which silently and 
insensibly waste and consume us, as the moth doth the garment. All which 
abundantly proves what he had said before, that surely every man is vanity, 
weak and helpless; so he will be found when God comes to contend with him" 

2nd. He pleads the good impressions made upon him by his affliction. He 
hoped the end was accomplished for which it was sent, and that therefore it 
would be removed in mercy; and unless an affliction hath done its work, though 
it may be removed, it is not removed in mercy. First. It had set him a weeping, 
and he hoped Goa would take notice of that. When " the Lord God called to 
mourning," he answered the call, and accommodated himself to the dispensation, 
and therefore could in faith pray, "Lord, hold not thy peace at my tears, 
ver. 12. He that doth not willingly afflict and grieve the children of men, much 
less his own children, will not hold his peace at their tears, but will either speak 
deliverance for them, (and if he speak it is done,) or in the meantime speak com- 
fort to them, and make them to hear joy and gladness. Secondly. It had set him 
a praying; and afflictions are sent to stir up prayer. If they have that effect, 
and when we are afflicted we pray more, and pray better than before, we may 
hope that God will hear our prayer, and give ear to our cry ; for the prayer 
which by his providence he gives occasion for, and which by his Spirit of grace 
he indites, shall not return void. Thirdly. _ It had helped to wean him from the 
world, and to take his affections off from it. Now he began more than ever to 
look upon himself as a stranger and sojourner here, like all his fathers, not at 
home in this world, but travelling through it to another, to a better, and would 
never reckon himself at home till he came to heaven. He pleads it with God; 
Lord, take cognizance of me, and of my wants and burthens, for I am a stranger 
here, and therefore meet with strange usage ; I am slighted and oppressed as a 
stranger, and whence should I expect relief but from thee, from that other 
country to which I belong ? 

Lastly. He prays for a reprieve yet a little longer; ver. 13, "O spare me, 
ease me, raise me up from this illness, "that I may recover strength" both in 
body and mind, that I may get into a more calm and composed frame of spirit, 
and may be better prepared for another world, before I go hence by death ana 
shall be no more in this world. Some make this to be a passionate wish that 
God would send him help quickly or it would be too late, like that Job x. 20, 21. 
But I rather take it as a pious prayer that God would continue him here till by 
his grace he had made him fit to go hence, and that he might finish the work of 
life before his life was finished. " Let my soul live and it shall praise thee." 



PSALM XL. 

It should seem David penned this psalm upon occasion of his deliverance, by the power 
and goodness of God, from some great and pressing trouble, by which he was in danger 
of being overwhelmed; probably it was some trouble of mind, arising from a sense of 
sin, and of God's displeasure against him for it. Whatever it was, the same Spirit that 
indited his praises for that deliverance was in him at the same time a spirit of pro- 
phecy, testifying of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow : or ever 
he was aware he was led to speak of Christ's undertaking, and the discharge of his 
undertaking, in words that must be applied to Christ only; and therefore how far the 
praises that here go before that illustrious prophecy, and the prayers that follow, may 
safely and profitably be applied to him, it will be worth while to consider in this psalm. 
I. David records God's favour to him in delivering him out of his deep distress, with 
thankfulness to his praise, ver. 1 — 5. II. Thence he takes occasion to speak of the 
work of our redemption by Christ, ver. 6 — 10. HI. That gives him encouragement to 



190 PSALM XL. 

pray to God for mercy and grace, both for himself and for his friends, ver. 11 — 17. If 
in singing this psalm we mix faith with the prophecy of Christ, and join in sincerity 
with the praises and prayers here offered up, we make melody with our hearts to the 
Lord. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 

I WAITED patiently for the Lord ; 
And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 

2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, 
Out of the miry clay, 

And set my feet upon a rock, 
And established my goings. 

3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, 
Even praise unto our God : 

Many shall see it, and fear, 
And shall trust in the Lord. 

4 Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, 
And respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to 

lies. [thou hast done, 

5 Many, 0 Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which 
And thy thoughts which are to us-ward : 

They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee : 
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than 
can be numbered. 

In these verses we have, 

First. The great distress and trouble that the psalmist was in. This is sup- 
posed, ver. 2, that he was plunged into a horrible pit, and into miry clay ; out of 
which he could not work himself, and in which he found himself sinking yet 
farther. He saith nothing here either of the sickness of his body or the insults 
of his enemies, and therefore we have reason to think it was some inward dis- 
quiet and perplexity of spirit that was now his greatest grievance. Despondency 
of spirit under the sense of God's withdrawings, and prevailing doubts and 
fears about the eternal state, are indeed a horrible pit and miry clay, and have 
been so to many a dear child of God. 

Secondly. His humble attendance upon God, and his believing expectations 
from him in those depths : " I waited patiently for the Lord," ver. 1 ; 4 waiting 
I waited.' He expected relief from no other but from God; the same hand that 
tears must heal, that smites must bind up. Has. vi. 1, or it will never be done. 
From God he expected relief, and he was big with the expectation, not doubting 
but it would come in due time. There is power enough in God to help the 
weakest, and grace enough in God to help the unworthiest of all his people that 
trust in him. But he waited patiently ; which intimates that the relief did not 
come quickly, yet he doubted not but it would come, and resolved to continue 
believing, and hoping, and praying, till it did come. Those whose expectation 
is from God may wait with assurance, but must wait with patience. Now this 
is very applicable to Christ. His agony both in the garden and on the cross was 
the same continued, and it was a horrible pit and miry clay. Then was his soul 
troubled and exceeding sorrowful ; but then he prayed, " Father, glorify thy 
name," "Father, save me;" then he kept hold of his relation to his Father, 
"My God, my God," and thus waited patiently for him. 

Thirdly. His comfortable experience of God"s goodness to him in his distress, 
which he records for the honour of God, and his own and others' encourage- 
ment. 

1. God answered his prayers: "He inclined unto me and heard my cry." 
Those that wait patiently for God, though they may wait long, do not wait in 
vain. Our Lord Jesus "was heard in that he feared," Beb. v. 7. Nay, he was 
sure the Father heard him always. 

2. He silenced his fears, and stilled the tumult of his spirits, and gave him a 
settled peace of conscience, ver. 2. He brought me out of that horrible pit of 
despondency and despair, scattered the clouds, and shone bright upon my soul 
with the assurances of his favour, and not only so, but set my feet upon a* rock, 
and established my goings. Those that have been under the prevalency of a 



PSALM XL. 191 

religious melancholy, and by the grace of God have been relieved, may apply 
this very feelingly to themselves. They are brought up out of a horrible pit, and., 
1st. The mercy is completed by the setting of their feet upon a rock, where they 
find firm footing, are as much elevated with the hopes of heaven as they were 
before cast down with the fears of hell. Christ is the rock on which a poor 
soul may stand fast, and on whose mediation alone, between us and God, we 
can buila any solid hopes or satisfaction. 2nd. It is continued in the establish- 
ment of their goings. Where God has given a stedfast hope, he expects there 
should be a steady, regular conversation, and if that be the blessed fruit of it 
we have reason to acknowledge with abundance of thankfulness the riches and 
power of his grace. 

3. lie filled him with joy, as well as peace, in believing. "He hath put a new 
song in my mouth," that is, he has given me cause to rejoice, and a heart to 
rejoice. He was brought as it were into a new world, and that filled his mouth 
with a new song, even praise to our God ; for to his praise and glory must all 
our songs be sung. Fresh mercies, especially such as we never yet received, 
call for new songs. This is applicable to our Lord Jesus, in his reception to 
paradise, his resurrection from the grave, and his exaltation to the joy and 
glory set before him ; he was brought out of the horrible pit, set upon a rock, 
and had a new song put in his mouth. 

Fourthly. The good improvement that should be made of this instance of 
God's goodness to David. 

1. David's experience would be an encouragement to many to hope in God, 
and for that end he leaveth it here upon record. "Many shall see and fear, 
and trust in the Lord." They shall fear the Lord and his justice, which brought 
David, and the Son of David, into that horrible pit, and shall say, " If this be 
done to the green tree, what shall be done to the dry?" They shall fear the 
Lord and his goodness, in filling the mouth of David, and the Son of David, 
with new songs of joy and praise. There is a holy, reverent fear of God which 
is not only consistent with, but the foundation of, our hope in him. They shall 
not fear him and shun him, but fear him and trust in him, in their greatest 
straits, not doubting but to find him as able and ready to help them as David 
did in his distress. _ God's dealings with our Lord Jesus are our great encou- 
ragement to trust in God. When it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and 
put him to grief for our sins, he demanded our debt from him; and when he 
raised him trom the dead, and set him at his own right hand, he made it to 
appear that he had accepted the payment he made, and was satisfied with 
it ; and what greater encouragement can we have to fear and worship God, 
and to trust in him? see Rom. iv. 25; v. 1, 2. The psalmist invites others to 
make God their hope, as he did, by pronouncing those happy that do so ; ver. 4, 
" Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust," and him only, tnat has 
great and good thoughts of him, and is entirely devoted to him, and respect eth 
not the proud; doth not do as they do that trust in themselves, nor depend 
upon those who proudly encourage others to trust in them, for both the one 
and the other turn aside to lies, as indeed all those do that turn aside from God. 
This is applicable particularly to our faith in Christ. Blessed are they that 
trust in him, and in his righteousness alone, and respect not the proud Pharisees 
that set up their own righteousness in competition with that; that will not be 
governed by their dictates, nor turn aside to lies with ttte unbelieving Jews, 
who submit not to the righteousness of God, Rom. x. 3. Blessed are they that 
escape this temptation. 

2. The joyful sense he had of this mercy led him to observe with thankfulness 
the many other favours he had received from God, ver. 5. When God puts 
new songs into our mouth, we must not forget our former songs, but repeat 
them: "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works, which thou hast 
done, both for me and others. This is but one of many. Many are the benefits 
with which we are daily loaded, both by the providence and by the grace of 
God. 1st. They are his works. Not only the gifts of his bounty, but the 
operations of his power; he works for us, he works in us, and thus he favours 
us with matter not only for thanks, but for praise. 2nd. They are his won- 
derful works. The contrivance of them admirable; his condescension to us in 
bestowing them upon us admirable ; eternity itself will be short enough to be 
spent in the admiration of them. 3rd. His wonderful works are all the product 
of his thoughts to usward. He doth all according to the counsel of. his own 
will, JEph. i. 11; the purposes of his grace, which he purposed in himself, 
Eph. hi. 11. They are the projects of infinite wisdom, the designs of ever- 
lasting love, 1 Cor. ii. 7; Jer. xxxi. 3; thoughts of good, and not of evil, 
Jer. xxix. 11. His gifts and callings will therefore be without repentance, 
because they are not sudden resolves, but the result of his thoughts, his many 
thoughts, to usward. 4th. They are innumerable. They cannot be methodized 
or reckoned up in order. There is an order in all God's works, but they are 
so many that present themselves to our view at once, that we know not where 



192 PSALM XL. 

to begin nor which to name next; the order of them, and their natural refer- 
ences and dependences, and how the links of the golden chain are joined is 
a mystery to us, and what we shall not be able to account for till the veil be 
rent, and the mystery of God finished. Nor can they be counted, not the very 
heads of them. When we have said the most we can of the wonders of Divine 
love to us, we must conclude with an et ccetera, — ' and such like/ and adore the 
depth, despairing to find the bottom. 

6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire ; 
Mine ears hast thou opened : 

Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 

7 Then said I, Lo, I come : 

In the volume of the book it is written of me, 

8 I delight to do thy will, 0 my God : 
Yea, thy law is within my heart. 

9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation : 
Lo, I have not refrained my lips, 0 Lord, thou knowest. 

10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; 
I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation : 
I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth 
from the great congregation. 

The psalmist being struck with amazement at the wonderful works that God 
had done for his people, is strangely carried out here to foretell that work 
of wonder which excelleth all the rest, and is the foundation and fountain of 
ail, that of our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. God's thoughts, which 
were to usward concerning that work, were the most curious, the most copious, 
the most gracious, and therefore above any other to be most admired. This 
paragraph is quoted by the apostle, Heb. x. 5, &c, and applied to Christ, and 
his undertaking for us. As in the institutions, so in the devotions of the Old 
Testament, there is more of Christ than perhaps the Old Testament saints were 
aware of; and when the apostle would shew us the Redeemer's voluntary 
undertaking of his work, he doth not fetch his account out of the book of 
God's secret counsels, which belong not to us, but from the things revealed. 
Observe, 

First. The utter insufficiency of the legal sacrifices to atone for sin in order 
to our peace with God, and our happiness in him. " Sacrifice and offering thou 
didst not desire," that is, thou wouldst not have the Redeemer to offer them ; 
something he must have to offer, but not these, Heb. viii. 3, therefore he must 
not be of the house of Aaron, Heb. vii. 14. Or, in the days of the Messiah burnt- 
offering and sin-offering will no longer be required, but all those ceremonial 
institutions will be abolished. But that is not all ; even while the law con- 
cerning them was in full force, it might be said, God did not desire them, nor 
accept^ them for their own sake. They could not take away the guilt of sin by 
satisfying God's justice ; the life of a sheep, which is so much inferior in value 
to that of a man, [Mat. xii. 12,) could not pretend to be an equivalent, much less 
an expedient to preserve the honour of God's government and laws, and repair 
the injury done to that honour by the sin of man. They could not take away 
the terror of sin by pacifying the conscience, nor the power of sin, by sancti- 
fying the nature; it was impossible, Heb. ix. 9; x. 1 — 4. What there was in 
them that was valuable resulted from their reference to Jesus Christ, of whom 
they were types; shadows indeed, but shadows of good things to come, and 
trials of the faith and obedience of God's people ; of their obedience to the law, 
and their faith in the Gospel. But the substance must come, which is Christ, 
who must bring that glory to God, and that grace to man, which it was 
impossible these sacrifices should ever do. 

Secondly. The designation of our Lord Jesus to the w r ork and office of 
Mediator. "Mine ears hast thou opened," that is, God the Father disposed 
him to the undertaking, Isa. 1. 5. 6, and then obliged him to go through with 
it. ' Mine ear hast thou digged.' it is supposed to allude to the law and custom 
of binding servants to serve for ever, by boring their ear to the door-post : see 
Ex. xxi. 6. Our Lord Jesus was so in love with his undertaking, that he would 
not go out free from it, and therefore engaged to persevere for ever in it. And 
for this reason he is able to save us to the uttermost, because he has engaged 
to serve his Father to the uttermost, who upholds him in it, Isa. xlii. 1. 



PSALM XL. 193 

Thirdly. His own voluntary consent to this undertaking. " Then said I, Lo, 

I come : then, when sacrifice and offering would not do, rather than the work 
should be undone, " I said, Lo, I come/' to enter the lists with the powers of 
darkness, and to advance the interests of God's glory and kingdom. This speaks 
three things : 1. That he freely offered himself to this service, which he was 
under no engagement at all to, prior to his own voluntary susception. It was 
no sooner proposed to him, but with the greatest cheerfulness he consented 
to it, and was wonderfully well pleased with the undertaking; had he not been 
perfectly voluntary in it he could not have been a surety, he could not have 
been a sacrifice; for it is by this will— this animus offer entis,— 'mind of the 
offerer,— that we are sanctified, Heb. x. 10. 2. That he firmly obliged himself 
to it. " I come," that is, I promise to come in the fulness of time. And there- 
fore the apostle saith, it was when he came into the world that he had an actual 
regard to this promise, by which he had engaged his heart to approach unto 
God. He thus entered into bonds not only to shew the greatness of his love, 
but because he was to have the honour of his undertaking before he had fully 
performed it; though the price was not paid, it was secured to be paid, so that 
he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 3. That he frankly 
owned himself engaged. He said, "Lo, I come;" said it all along to the Old 
Testament saints, who therefore knew him by the title of 6 epxo/uevoc, — "he that 
should come." This word was the foundation on which they built their faith 
and hope, and which they looked and longed for the accomplishment of. 

Fourthly. The reason why he came in pursuance of his undertaking. Because 
in the volume of the book it was written of him. 1. In the close rolls of the 
Divine decree and counsel, there it was written, that his ear was opened; and 
he said, " Lo, I come." There the covenant of redemption w r as recorded, the 
counsel of peace between the Father and the Son; and to that he had an eye 
in all he did, the commandment he received of his Father. 2. In the letters 
patent of the Old Testament, Moses and all the prophets testified of him: in 
all the volumes of that book something or other was written of him, which 
he had an eye to, that all might be accomplished, Jno. xix. 28. 

Fifthly. The pleasure he took in his undertaking. Having freely offered 
himself to it, he did not fail, nor was discouraged, but proceeded with ail 
possible satisfaction to himself ; ver. 8, 9, "I delight to do thy will, O my God." 
Jt was to Christ his meat and drink to go on with the work appointed to him, 
Jno. iv. 34, and the reason here given is, "Thy law is within niy_ heart." It is 
written there ; it rules there ; it is an active, commanding principle there : 
it is meant of the law concerning the work and office of the Mediator, what 
he was to do and suffer. This law was dear to him, and had an influence upon 
hirh in his whole undertaking. Note, When the law of God is w T ritten in our 
hearts, our duty will be our delight. 

Sixthly. The publication of the Gospel to the children of men, even in the 
great congregation, ver. 9, 10. The same that as a priest wrought out redemp- 
tion for us, as a prophet by his own preaching first, then by his apostles, and 
still by his Word and Spirit, makes it known to us. The great salvation began 
to be spoken by the Lord, Heb. ii. 3. It is the Gospel of Christ that is preached 
to all nations. Observe, 1. What it is that is preached. It is righteousness, 
ver. 9; God's righteousness, ver. 10 ; the everlasting righteousness which Christ 
has brought in, Dan. ix. 24; compare Rom. i. 16, 17. It is God's faithfulness 
to his promise, and the salvation which had long been looked for; it is God's 
lovingkindness and his truth, — his mercy according to his w r ord. Note, in the 
work of our redemption we ought to take notice how bright all the Divine 
attributes shine, and give to God the praise of each of them. 2. To whom it is 
preached. To the great congregation, ver. 9 ; and again, ver. 10. When Christ 
was here on earth he preached to multitudes, thousands at a time, j^The Gospel 
was preached both to Jews and Gentiles, to great congregations of both. 
Solemn religious assemblies are a Divine institution, and in them the glory of 
God in the face of Christ ought to be both praised to the glory of God and 
preached for the edification of men. 3. How it is preached. Freely and openly ; 

I have not refrained my lips;" I have not hid it: 1 have not'concealed it. 
This intimates, that whoever undertook to preach the Gospel of Christ would 
be in great temptation to hide it, and conceal it, because it must be preached 
with great contention, and in the face of great opposition. But Christ himself 
and those whom he calls to that work, set their faces as a flint, Isa. 1. 7, and 
were wonderfully carried on in it. And it is well for us that they were so, for 
by this means our eyes come to see this joyful light, and our ears to hear this 
jovful sound, which otherwise we might for ever have perished in ignorance of. 

I I Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, 0 Lord : 
Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually pre- 
serve me. 



194 



PSALM XL. 



12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: 

Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, 

So that I am not able to look up ; 

They are more than the hairs of mine head : 

Therefore my heart faileth me. 
] 3 Be pleased, 0 Lord, to deliver me : 

0 Lord, make haste to help me. 
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together 

That seek after my soul to destroy it ; 

Let them be driven backward and put to shame 

That wish me evil. 
1 •) Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame 

That say unto me, Aha, aha. 

1 6 Let all those that seek thee 
Eejoice and be glad in thee : 
Let such as love thy salvation 

Say continually, The Lord be magnified. 

17 But I am poor and needy ; 

Yet the Lord thinketh upon me : 
Thou art my help and my deliverer ; 
Make no tarrying, 0 my God. 

The psalmist having meditated upon the work of redemption, and spoken 
of it in the person ot the Messiah, now comes to make improvement of the 
doctrine of his mediation between us and God, and therefore speaks in his own 
person. Christ having done his Father's will, and finished his work, and 
given orders for the preaching of the Gospel to every creature, we are encou- 
raged to come boldly to the throne of grace for mercy and grace. 

First. This may encourage us to pray for the mercy of God, and to put our- 
selves under the protection of that mercy, ver. 11 : Lord, thou hast not spared 
thy Son, nor withheld him, withhold not thou thy tender mercies then, which 
thou hast laid up for us in him; for wilt thou not with him also freely give 
us all things? Rom. viii. 32. u Let thy Jovingkindness and thy truth continually 
preserve me." The best saints are in continual danger, and see themselves 
undone, if they be not continually preserved by the grace of God; and the 
everlasting lovingkindness and truth of God is that which we have to depend 
upon for our preservation to the heavenly kingdom, Ps. lxi. 7. 

Secondly. This may encourage us in reference to the guilt of sin, that Jesus 
Christ has done that towards our discharge from it which sacrifice and offering 
could not ^do. See here, 1. The frightful sight he had of sin, ver. 12. This 
was it that made the discovery he was now favoured with of a Redeemer very 
welcome to him. He saw his iniquities to be evils, the worst of evils ; he saw 
that they compassed him about; in ail the reviews of his life, and his reflec- 
tions upon each step of it, still he discovered something amiss. The threatening 
consequences of his sin surrounded him : look which way he would he saw some 
mischief or other waiting for him, which he was conscious to himself his sins 
had deserved. He saw them taking hold of him, arresting him, as the bailiff 
doth the poor debtor ; he saw them to be innumerable, and more than the hairs 
of his head. Convinced, awakened consciences are apprehensive of danger, 
from the numberless number of the sins of infirmity, which seem small as hairs, 
but being numerous are very dangerous: " Who can understand his errors tr 
God numbers our hairs, Mat. x. 30, which yet we cannot number, so he keeps 
an account of our sins, which we keep no account of. The sight of sin so 
oppressed him, that he could not hold up his head, " I am not able to look up ;" 
ranch less could he keep up his heart, "therefore my heart fails me." Note, The 
sight of our sins in their own colours would drive us to distraction if we had 
not at the same time some sight of a Saviour. 2. The careful recourse he 
had to God under the sense of sin, ver. 13. Seeing himself brought by his sins 
to the very brink of ruin, eternal ruin, with what a holy passion does he cry 



PSALM XLI. 



195 



out, ,{ Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me," ver. 13. O save me from the wrath 
to come, and the pi tsent terrors I am in through the apprehensions of that 
wrath. I am undone, 1 die, 1 perish, without speedy relief. In a case of this 
nature, where the bliss of an immortal soul is concerned, delays are dangerous : 
therefore, " O Lord, make haste to help me." 

Thirdly. This may encourage us to hope for victory over our spiritual 
enemies, that seek after our souls to destroy them, ver. 14; the roaring lion 
that goes about continually seeking to devour: — if Christ has triumphed over 
them, we through him shall be more than conquerors. In the belief of this 
we may pray with humble boldness, " Let them be ashamed and confounded 
together, and driven backward," ver. 14; "Let them be desolate," ver. 15. 
Both the conversion of a sinner and the glorification of a saint are great dis- 
appointments to Satan; who doth his utmost w^ith all his power and subtlety 
to hinder both. Now, our Lord Jesus having undertaken to bring about the 
salvation of all his chosen, we may in faith pray that both these ways that 
great adversary may be confounded. When a child of God is brought into 
that horrible pit and the miry clay, Satan cries, Aha, aha, thinking he has 
gained his point; but he shall rage when he sees the brand plucked out of the 
fire, and shall be desolate for a reward of his shame. " The Lord rebuke thee, 
O Satan ;*' " The accuser of the brethren is cast out." 

Fourthly. This may encourage all that seek God, and love his salvation, to 
rejoice in him and to praise him, ver. 16. See here, 1. The character of good 
people, conformable to the law r s of natural religion ; they seek God, desire his 
favour, and in all their exigences apply themselves to him, as a people should 
seek unto their God. And conformable to the laws of revealed religon; they 
love his salvation, that great salvation of which the prophets inquired and 
searched diligently, which the Redeemer undertook to work out, when he said, 
"Lo, 1 come." All that shall be saved love the salvation, not only as a salvation 
from hell, but a salvation from sin. 2. The happiness secured to good peopie, 
by this prophetical prayer. They that seek God shall rejoice and be glad in 
him; and with good reason, for he will not only be found of them, but will 
be their bountiful rewarder. They that love his salvation shall be tilled with 
the joy of his salvation; and shall say continually, "The Lord be magnified,"" 
and thus they shall have a heaven upon earth. Blessed are they that are thus 
still praising God. 

Lastly. This may encourage the saints in distress and affliction to trust in 
God, and comfort themselves in him, ver. 17: David himself was one of these: 
"I am poor and needy." A king, perhaps, now on the throne; and vet being 
troubled in spirit, he calls himself poor and needy, lost and undone' without 
a Saviour. In want and distress, "yet the Lord thinketh upon me,"' in and 
through the Mediator, by whom we are made accepted. Men forget the poor 
and needy, and seldom think of them; but God*s thoughts towards them, which 
he had spoken of, ver. 5, are their support and comfort. They may assure 
themselves that God is their help under their troubles, and will be in due time 
their deliverer out of their troubles, and will make no long tarrying; for the 
vision is for an appointed time, and therefore, though it tarry, we may w ait for 
it, for it shall come ; it will come, it will not tarry. 



PSALM XLI. 

God's kindness and truth have often been the support and comfort of the saints, when 
they have had most experience of men's unkindness and treachery; David here found 
them so upon a sick-bed, when he found his enemies very barbarous, but his God very 
gracious. I. He here comforts himself in his communion with God under his sickness, 
by faith receiving and laying hold of God's promises to him, ver. 1 — 3; and lifting up 
his heart in prayer to God, ver. 4. II. He here represents the malice of his enemies 
against him, their malicious censures of him, their spiteful reflections upon him, and 
their insolent carnage towards him, ver. 5 — 9. III. He leaves his case with God. not 
doubting but that he would own and favour him, ver. 10, 11 ; and so the psalm con- 
cludes with a doxology, ver. 13. Is any afflicted with sickness ? let him sing the begin- 
ning of the psalm ; is any persecuted by enemies ? let him sing the latter end of it ; and 
we may, any of us, in singing of it, meditate upon both the calamities and comforts 
of good people in this world. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 

BLESSED is he that considered* the poor : 
The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. 
2 The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive ; 
And he shall be blessed upon the earth : 



190 



PSALM XLI. 



And thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. 

3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languish - 
Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. [ing : 

4 I said, Lord, be merciful unto me : 

Heal my soul ; for I have sinned against thee. 

In these verses we have, 

First. God's promises of succour and comfort to those that consider the poor ; 
and we may suppose that David makes mention of these with application, 
either, I. To his friends, who were kind to him, and very considerate of his 
case, now he was in affliction ; blessed is he that considers poor David. Here 
and there he met with one that sympathized with him, and was concerned for 
him, and kept up their good opinion of him, and respect for him, notwith- 
standing his afflictions ; while his enemies were so insolent and abusive to him. 
On these he pronounceth this blessing, not doubting but that God would 
recompense to them all the kindness they had done him, particularly when they 
also came to be in affliction. The provocations which his enemies gave him 
did but endear his friends so much the more to him. Or, 2. To himself. He 
had the testimony of his conscience for him, that he had considered the poor ; 
that when he was in^ honour and power at court he had taken cognizance of 
the wants and miseries of the poor, and had provided for their relief, and 
therefore was sure God would according to his promise strengthen and comfort 
him in his sickness. Here is a comment upon that promise ; " Blessed are the 
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Observe, 

1st. What the mercy is which is required of us. It is to consider the poor 
or afflicted, whether in mind, body, or estate. These we are to consider with 
prudence and tenderness; we must take notice of their affliction, and inquire 
into their state, must sympathize with them, and judge charitably concerning 
them. We must wisely consider the poor; that is, we must ourselves be 
instructed by the poverty and affliction of others, it must be Maschil to us, that 
is the word here used. 

2nd. What the mercy is that is promised to us, if we thus shew mercy. He 
that considers the poor (if he cannot relieve them, yet he considers them, and 
has a compassionate concern for them, and in relieving _ them doth it con- 
siderately, and with discretion,) God will be sure to consider him. He shall 
not only be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, but he shall be blessed 
upon the earth. This branch of godliness, as much as any other, has the promise 
of the life that now is, and is ordinarily recompensed with temporal blessings ; 
.liberality to the poor is the surest and safest way of thriving. Such maybe sure 
of seasonable and effectual relief from God. 

First. In all troubles. He will deliver them in the day of evil; so that 
when the times are at the worst it shall go well with them, and they shall not 
fall into the calamities in which others are involved ; if any be hid in the day of 
the Lord's anger, they shall. They who thus distinguish themselves from those 
that have hard hearts God will distinguish from those that have hard usage. 
Are they in danger? he will preserve and keep them alive; and to those who 
have a thousand times forfeited their lives, as the best have, it must be acknow- 
ledged a great favour if they have their lives given them for a prey. He doth 
not say they shall be preferred, but they shall be preserved and kept alive, when 
the arrows of death fly thick round about them. Do their enemies threaten 
them? God will not deliver them into the will of their enemies ; and the most 
potent enemy we have can have no power against us, but what is given him 
from above. The good-will of a God that loves us is sufficient to secure us 
from the ill-will of all that hate us, men or devils : and that good- will we may 
promise ourselves an interest in if we have considered the poor, and helped to 
relieve and rescue them. 

Secondly. Particularly in sickness; ver. 3, "The Lord will strengthen him," 
both in body and mind, "upon the bed of languishing," on which he had long 
lain sick, " and he will make all his bed." A very condescending expression, 
alluding to the care of those that nurse and tend sick people, especially of i 
mothers for their children when they are sick, which is to make their beds easy 
for them ; and that bed must needs be well made which God himself has the ! 
making of. He will make all his bed from head to foot, so that no part shall be I 
uneasy ; * he will turn his bed,' (so the word is,) to shake it up, and make it very 
easy, or, he will turn it into a bed of health. Note, God has promised his 
people that he will strengthen them, and make them easy under their bodily 
pains and sicknesses. He has not promised that they shall never be sick, nor 
th-dji they shall not lie long languishing, nor that their sickness shall not be unto 
4eat|i. but he has promised to enable them to bear their affliction with patience, ; 



PSALM XLI. 197 

and cheerfully to wait the issue. The soul shall by his grace be made to dwell 
at ease, when the body lies in pain. 

Secondly. David's prayer directed and encouraged by these promises; ver. 4, 
" 1 said, Heal my soul." It is good for us to keep some account of our prayers, 
that we may not unsay in our practices any thing that we said in our prayers. 
Here is, 1. His humble petition; "Lord, be merciful to me." He appeals to 
mercy, as one that knew he could not stand the test of strict justice. The best 
saints, even those that have been merciful to the poor, have not made God their 
debtor, but must throw themselves on his mercy. When we are under the rod 
we must thus recommend ourselves to the tender mercy of our God; "Lord, 
heal my soul." Sin is the sickness of the soul ; pardoning mercy heals it, 
renewing grace heals it; and this spiritual healing we should be more earnest 
for than for bodily health. 2. His penitent confession ; " I have sinned against 
thee," and therefore my soul needs healing. I am a sinner, a miserable sinner, 
therefore " God be merciful to me," Lu. xviii. 13. It doth not appear that this 
hath reference to any particular gross act of sin, but in general to his many 
sins of infirmity, which his sickness set in order before him, and the dread of 
the consequences of which made him pray, " Heal my soul." 

5 Mine enemies speak evil of me, 

When shall he die, and his name perish ? 

6 And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity : 
His heart gathereth iniquity to itself ; 

When he goeth abroad, he telle th it. 

7 All that hate me whisper together against me : 
Against me do they devise my hurt. 

8 An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him : 
And now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. 

9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which 

did eat of my bread, 
Hath lifted up his heel against me. 

10 But thou, 0 Lord, be merciful unto me, 
And raise me up, that I may requite them. 

11 By this I know that thou favourest me, 
Because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. 

12 And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, 
And settest me before thy face for ever. 

13 Blessed he the Lord God of Israel 

From everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. 

David often complains of the insolent carriage of his enemies towards him 
when he was sick ; which as it was very barbarous in them, so it could not but 
he very grievous to hiim They were not indeed arrived to that modern pitch 
of wickedness, of poisoning his meat or drink, or giving him something to make 
him sick, but when he was sick they insulted over him; ver. 5, "Mine enemies 
speak evil of me," designing thereby to grieve his spirit, to ruin his reputation, 
and so to sink his interest. Observe, 

First. The conduct of David's enemies. 

1. They longed for his death ; " W T hen shall he die, and his name perish" with" 
him. He had but an uncomfortable life, and yet they grudged him that ; but it 
was a useful life. He was upon all accounts the greatest ornament and blessing 
of his country, and yet it seems there were some who were sick of him, as the 
Jews were of Paul, crying out, "Away with such a fellow from the earth." 
We ought not to desire the death of any ; but to desire the death of useful men 
for their usefulness has much in it of the venom of the old serpent. They 
envied him his name, and the honour he had won ; and doubted not but if he 
were dead that would be laid in the dust with him ; yet see how they were 
mistaken. When he had served his generation he did die, Acts xiii. 36, but did 
his name perish ? No ; it lives arid flourishes to this day in the sacred writings, 
and w r ill to the end of time ; for the memory of the just is and shall be blessed. 



1198 PSALM XLI. 

2. They picked up every thing they could to reproach him with ; ver. 6, " If 
he come' to see me," as it has always been reckoned a piece of neighbourly 
kindness to visit the sick, "he speaketh vanity ;" that is, he pretends friendship, 
and that his errand is to mourn with me, and to comfort me ; tells me he is very 
sorry to see me so much indisposed, and wisheth me my health, but it is all 
flattery and falsehood. We complain, and justly, of the want of sincerity in 
our days, and that there is scarce any true friendship to be found among men ; 
but it seems by this the former days were no better than these. David's friends 
were all compliment, and had nothing of that affection for him in their hearts 
which they made profession of ; but that was not the worst of it, it was upon 
a mischievous design that they came to see him, that they might make invidious 
remarks upon every thing he said or did ; and might represent it as they pleased 
to others, with their own comments upon it, so as to render him odious or ridi- 
culous. " His heart gathereth iniquity to itself," puts ill constructions upon 
every thing ; and then when he goes among his companions he tells it them 
that they may tell it others ; "Report, say they, and we will report it," Jer. xx. 10. 
If he made any complaints of his illness, they would reproach him for his 
pusillanimity : if little complaints, for his stupidity. If he prayed, or gave 
them good counsel, they^ would banter it, and call it canting. If he kept silence 
from good when the wicked were before him, they would say he had forgot 
his religion now he was sick. There is no fence against those whose malice thus 
gathers iniquity. 

3. They promised themselves that he would never recover from this sickness, 
nor ever wipe off the odium with which they had loaded him. They whispered 
together against him, ver. 7 ; speaking that secretly in one another's ears which 
they could not for shame speak out, and which if they did, they knew it would 
be confuted. Y> r hisperers and backbiters are put together among the worst of 
sinners, Rom. i. 29. 30. They whispered that their plot against him might not 
be discovered, and so defeated ; there is seldom whispering, we say, but there 
is lying, or some mischief on foot. Those whisperers devised evil to David; 
concluding he would die quickly, they contrived how to break all the measures 
he had concerted for the public good; to prevent the prosecution of them, 
and to undo all that he had hitherto been doing. This he calls devising 
hurt against him; and they doubted not but to gain their point, for "an evil 
disease," ' a thing of Belial^ say they, " cleaveth fast unto him." The reproach 
with which they had loaded his name they hoped would cleave so fast to it, 
that it would perish with him, and then they should gain their point; they went 
by a modern maxim, fortiter calumniari, aliquid adhcerebit, — 4 fling an abun- 
dance of calumny, some will be sure to stick.' Or, this disease he is now 
under will certainly make an end of him; for it is the punishment of some great 
enormous crime, which he will not be brought to repent of, and proves him, 
however he has appeared, a son of Belial. Or, it is inflicted by Satan, who is 
called Belial, the wicked one, 2 Cor. vi. 15. It is (according to a loose way of 
speaking some have) a devilish disease ; and, therefore, it will cleave fast to 
him, and " now that he lieth," now his distemper prevails so far as to oblige 
him'to keep his bed, '"' he shall rise up no more;" we shall be rid of him, and 
divide the spoil of his preferments. We are not to think it strange if, when 
good men are sick, there be those that hope for their death, as well as those 
that fear it, which makes the world not worthy of them, Rev. xi. 10. 

4. There was one particularly, in whom he had reposed a great deal of con- 
fidence, that took part with his enemies, and was as abusive to him as any of 
them ; ver. 9, " my own familiar friend." Probably he means Ahithophel, who had 
been his bosom friend, and prime minister of state, in whom he trusted, as one 
inviolably firm to him, and whose advice he relied nmch upon in dealing with 
his enemies, who did eat of his bread ; that is, with whom he had been very 
intimate, and whom he had taken to sit at the table with him ; nay, whom he 
had maintained and given a livelihood to, and so obliged both in gratitude and 
interest to stick to him. They that had their maintenance from the king's 
palace did not think it meet for them to see the king's dishonour, JEzr. iv. 14, 
much less to do him dishonour; yet this base and treacherous confidant or 
David's forgot all the eaten bread, and lifted up his heel against him that had 
lifted up his head ; not only deserted him, but insulted him, kicked at him, 
endeavoured to supplant him. Those are wicked indeed whom no courtesy 
done them, nor confidence reposed in them, will oblige; and let us not think 
it strange if we receive abuses from such. David did, and the Son of David, 
for of Judas the traitor David here in the Spirit spake; our Saviour himself 
so expounds this, and therefore gave Jndas the sop, that the Scripture might 
be fulfilled; " He that eateth bread with me, has lift up his heel against me," 
Jno. xiii. 18, 26. Nay, have not we ourselves carried it thus perfidiously and 
disingenuously towards God? We eat of his bread daily, and yet lift up the 
heel against him, as Jeshurun that waxed fat and kicked, Deu. xxxii. 15. 

Secondly. Now how did David bear this insolent, ill-natured carriage of his 
enemies tow r ards him? 



PSALM XLI1. 199 

%i He prayed to God that they might be disappointed. Tie said nothing to 
them, but turned himself to God ; " O Lord, be thou merciful to me," for they 
are unmerciful, ver. 10. He had prayed, in reference to the guilt of his sins, 
ver. 4, " Lord, be merciful to me and now again, in reference to the insults 
of his enemies, "Lord, be merciful to me," for that is a prayer will fit every 
case. God's mercy has in it a redress for every grievance. They endeavour 
to run me down, but, Lord, do thou raise me up from this bed of languishing, 
from which they think I shall never rise. " Raise me up, that I may requite 
them;" that is, that I may render them good for evil; so some, for that was 
David's practice, Ps. vii. 4; xxxv. 13. A good man will even wish for an oppor- 
tunity of making it to appear that he bears no malice to those that have been 
injurious to him; but, on the contrary, is ready to do them any good office. 
Or, that as a king I may put them under the marks of my just displeasure, 
banish them the court, and forbid them my table for the future ; which would 
be a necessary piece of justice for warning to others. Perhaps in this prayer is 
couched a prophecy of the exaltation of Christ, whom God raised up that he 
might be a just avenger of all the wrongs done to him and to his people, par- 
ticularly by the Jews, whose utter destruction followed not long after. 

2. He assured himself that they would be disappointed ; ver. 1 1, " By this 
I know that thou favourest me" and my interest, " because mine enemy doth 
not triumph over me." They hoped for his death ; but he found himself, through 
mercy, recovering, and this would add to the comfort of his recovery, 1st. That 
it would be a baulk to his adversaries. They would be crest-fallen, ano^ wretch- 
edly ashamed, and there would be no occasion to upbraid them with their 
disappointment, they would fret at it themselves. Note, Though we may not 
take a pleasure in the fall of our enemies, we may take a pleasure in the frus- 
trating of their designs against us. 2nd. That that would be a token of God*s 
favour to him, and a certain evidence that he did favour him, and would con- 
tinue to do so. Note, When we can discern the favour of God to us in any 
mercy personal or public, that doubles it and sweetens it. 

3. He dependeth upon God who had thus delivered him from many an evil 
w r ork, to preserve him to his heavenly kingdom, as blessed Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 18; 
"And as for me," forasmuch as thou favourest me, as a fruit of that favour, and 
to qualify me for the continuance of it, "thou upholdest me in mine integrity, 
and" in order to that "settest me before thy face," hast thine eye always upon 
me for good ; or, because thou dost, by thy grace, uphold me in my integrity, 
I know that thou wilt in thy glory set me for ever before thy face. Note, 1st. 
When at any time we suffer in our reputation, our chief concern should be 
about our integrity, and then we may cheerfully leave it to God to secure our 
reputation. David knows, if he can but persevere in his integrity, he needs not 
fear his enemies' triumphs over him. 2nd. The best man in the world holds 
his integrity no longer than God upholds him in it, for by his grace we are what 
we are; if we be left to ourselves we shall not only fall, but fall away. 3rd. It 
is a great comfort to us that, however we are weak, God is able to uphold us 
in our integrity, and will do it if we commit the keeping of it to him. 4th. If 
the grace of God did not take a constant care of us, we should not be upheld 
in our integrity. His eye is always upon us, else we should soon start aside 
from him. 5th. Those whom God now upholds in their integrity he will set 
before his face for ever, and make them happy in the vision and fruition of 
himself. " He that endures to the end shall be saved." 

4. The psalm concludes with a solemn doxology, or adoration of God, as 
M the Lord God of Israel," ver. 13. It is not certain whether this verse per- 
tains to this particular psalm ; if so, it teaches us this, that a believing hope 
of our preservation through grace to glory is enough to fill our hearts with 
joy, and our mouths with everlasting praise, even in our greatest straits; or, 
whether it were added as the conclusion of the first book of Psalms, which is 
reckoned to end here ; the like being subjoined to Ps. lxxii. ; lxxxix. ; cvi. ; and 
then it teacheth us to make God the Omega w r ho is the Alpha, to make him the 
end who is the beginning of every good work. We are here taught, 1st. To 
give glory to God as the Lord God of Israel, a God in covenant with his people ; 
that has done great and kind things for them, and has more and better in 
reserve. 2nd. To give him glory as an eternal God, that hath both his being 
and his blessedness "from everlasting and to everlasting." 3rd. To do this with 
great affection and fervour of spirit, intimated in the double seal set to it; 
• Amen, and Amen ; " be it so now, be it so to all eternity, We say Amen to it, 
and let all others say Amen too. 

PSALM XLII. 

If the book of Psalms be, as some have styled it, a mirror or looking-glass of pious and 
devout affections, this psalm in particular deserves as much as any one psalm to be sa 
entitled, and is as proper as any other to kindle and excite such in us. Gracious desires 



200 



PSALM XLIL 



are here strong and fervent ; gracious hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, are here 
struggling, but the pleasing passion comes oil' a conqueror; or we may take it for a 
conflict between sense and faith, sense objecting and faith answering. I. Faith begins 
with holy desires towards God and communion w ith him, ver. 1, 2, II. Sense complains 
of the darkness and cloudiness of the present condition, aggravated by the remem- 
brance of the former enjoyments, ver. 3, 4. III. Faith silenceth the complaint with 
the assurance of a good issue at last, ver. 5. IV. Sense renews its complaints of the 
present dark and melancholy state, ver. 6, 7. V. Faith holds up the heart notwith- 
standing, with hope that the day will dawn, ver. 8. VI. Sense repeats its lamentations, 
ver. 9, 10, and sighs out the same remonstrance it had before made of its grievances. 
VII. Faith gets the last word, ver. 1 1, for the silencing of the complaints of sense ; and 
though it be almost the same with that, ver. 5, yet now it prevails and carries the day. 
The title doth not tell us who was the penman of the psalm, but most probably it was 
David ; and we may conjecture it was penned by him at a time when, either by Saul's 
persecution, or Absalom's rebellion, he was driven from the sanctuary, and cut off 
from the privilege of waiting upon God in public ordinances. The strain of it is 
much the same with Ps. lxiii., and therefore we may presume it was penned by the 
same hand, and upon the same or a like occasion. In singing it, if we be either in 
outward affliction or inward distress, we may accommodate to ourselves the melancholy 
expressions we find here ; if not, we must in singing them sympathize with those 
whose case they speak too plainly, and thank God it is not our own case; but those 
passages in it which express and excite holy desires towards God, and dependence on 
him, we must earnestly endeavour to bring our minds up to. 

To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. 

4 S the hart panteth after the water brooks, 
JTx. So panteth my soul after thee, 0 God. 




harts. British Museum. 



2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : 
When shall I come and appear before God ? 

3 My tears have been my meat day and night, 

While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God ? 

4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in 

me : [to the house of God, 

For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them 
With the voice of joy and praise, 
With a multitude that kept holyday. 



PSALM XLII. 201 
5 Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? 
And why art thou disquieted in me ? 
Hope thou in God : for I shall yet praise him 
For the help of his countenance. 

Holy love to God, as the chief good and our felicity, is the power of godliness, 
the very life and soul of religion, without which all external professions and 
performances are but a shell and carcase ; now here we have some of the 
expressions of that love. Here is, 

First. Holy love thirsting. Love upon the wing, soaring upwards in holy 
desires towards the Lord, and towards the remembrance of his name; ver. 1, 2, 
<; My soul panteth, thirsteth for God," for nothing more than God, but still for 
more and more of him. Now observe, 

1. When it was that David thus expressed his vehement desire towards God. 
It was, 1st. When he was debarred from his outward opportunities of waiting 
on God. When he was banished to the land of Jordan, a great way off from 
the courts of God's house. Note, Sometimes God teacheth us effectually 
to know the worth of mercies by the want of them, and whets our appetites 
to the means of grace by cutting us short in those means ; we are apt to loathe 
that manna when we have plenty of it, which will be very precious to us if 
ever we come to know the scarcity of it. 2nd. W nen ne was deprived in a great 
measure of the inward comfort he used to have in God. He now went mourn- 
ing, but he went on panting. Note, If God by his grace has wrought in us 
sincere and earnest desires towards him, we may take comfort from these, when 
we want those ravishing delights we have sometimes had in God, because 
lamenting after God is as sure an evidence that we love him as rejoicing in God. 
Before the psalmist records his doubts, and fears, and griefs which had sorely 
shaken him, he premiseth this, that he looked upon the living God as his chief 
good, and had set his heart upon him accordingly, and was resolved to live and 
die by him ; and casting anchor thus at first, he rides out the storm. 

2. What is the object of his desire, and what it is he thus thirsts after. 1st- 
He pants after God, he thirsts for God ; not the ordinances themselves, but the 
God of the ordinances. A gracious soul can take little satisfaction in God's 
courts if it do not meet with God himself there ; " O that I knew where I might 
find him !" that I might have more of the tokens of his favour, the graces and 
comforts of his Spirit, and the earnests of his glory. 2nd. He has herein an eye 
to God as the living God, that has life in himself, and is the fountain of life and 
all happiness to those that are his. The living God, not only in opposition to 
dead idols, the works of men's hands, but to all the dying comforts of this 
world, which perish in the using. Living souls can never take up their rest 
any where short of a living God. 3rd. He longs to_ come and appear before 
God, to make himself knowm to him, as being conscious to himself of his own 
sincerity ; to attend on him, as a servant appears before his master, to pay his 
respects to him, and receive his commands ; to give an account to nim, as one 
from whom our judgment proceeds. To appear before God is as much the 
desire of the upright as it is the dread of the hypocrite. The psalmist knew he 
could not come into God's courts but he must come to his charges, for so was 
the law, that none should appear before God empty; yet he longs to come, and 
will not grudge the charges. 

3. What is the degree of this desire. It is very importunate; it is his soul 
that pants, his soul that thirsts ; which speaks not only the sincerity, but the 
strength of his desire. His longing for the water of the well of Bethlehem was 
nothing to this. He compares it to the panting of a hart, or deer, which is 
naturally hot and dry, especially of a hunted buck, after the water brooks. 
Thus earnestly doth a gracious soul desire communion with God, thus impa- 
tient is it in the want of that communion, so impossible it should take up 
with any thing short of that communion, and so insatiable in taking the plea- 
sures of that communion when the opportunity of it returns, still thirsting 
after the full enjoyment of him in the heavenly kingdom. 

Secondly. Holy love mourning for God s present withdrawings, and the want 
of the benefit of solemn ordinances; ver. 3, "My tears have been my meat day 
and night," during this forced absence from God's house. His circumstances 
were sorrowful, and he accommodated himself to them, received the impres- 
sions, and returned the expressions of sorrow ; even the royal prophet was 
a weeping prophet when he wanted the comforts of God's house. His tears 
were mingled with his meat ; nay. they were his meat day and night ; he fed, 
he feasted upon his own tears, when there was such just cause for them ; and 
it was a satisfaction to him that he found his heart so much affected with 
a grievance of this nature. Observe, He did not think it enough to shed a tear 
or two at parting from the sanctuary, to weep a farewell prayer when he took 



202 PSALM XL II. 

his leave ; but as long as he continued under a forced absence from that place 
of his delight he never looked up, but wept day and night. Note, Those that 
are deprived of the benefit of public ordinances constantly miss them, and 
therefore should constantly mourn for the want of them, till they are restored 
to them again. Two things aggravated his grief: 

1. The reproaches with which his enemies teazed him; "They continually 
say unto me, Where is thy God?" 1st. Because he was absent from the ark, 
the token of God's presence. Judging of the God of Israel by the gods of the 
heathen, they concluded he had lost his God. Note, Those are mistaken who 
think that when they have robbed us of our Bibles, and our ministers, and our 
solemn assemblies, they have robbed us of our God ; for, though God has tied 
us to them when they are to be had, he has not tied himself to them. We know 
where our God is, and where to find him, when we knew not where his ark 
is, nor where to find that. Wherever we are there is a way open heavenward. 
2nd. Because God did not presently appear for his deliverance, they concluded 
that lie had abandoned him ; but herein also they were deceived. It doth not 
follow that the saints have lost their God, because they have lost all their other 
friends. However, by this base reflection on God and his people, they added 
affliction to the afflicted, and that was what they aimed at. Nothing is more 
grievous to a gracious soul than that which is intended to shock its hope and 
confidence in God. 

2. The remembrance of his former liberties and enjoyments; ver. 4, 44 Son, 
remember thy good things," is a great aggravation of evil things ; so much do 
our powers of reflection and prospect add to the grievance of this present time. 
David remembered the days of old, and then his soul was poured out in him : he 
melted away, and the thought almost broke his heart. He poured out his soul 
within him in sorrow, and then poured out his soul before God in prayer. But 
what was it that occasioned this colliquation of spirit ? It was not the remem- 
brance of the pleasures at court, or the entertainments of his own house, from 
which he was now banished, that afflicted him; but the remembrance of the 
free access he had formerly had to God's house, and the pleasure he had in 
attending the sacred solemnities there. 1st. He went to the house of God, 
though in his time it was but a tent ; nay, if this psalm was penned, as many 
think it was, at the time of his being persecuted by Saul, the ark was then 
in a private house, 2 Sam. vi. 3 ; but the meanness, obscurity, and inconveni- 
ency of the place did not lessen his esteem of that sacred symbol of the Divine 
presence. David was a courtier, a prince, a man of honour, a man of business, 
and yet very diligent in attending God's house, and joining in public ordinances ; 
even" in the days of Saul, when he and his great men inquired not at it, 
1 Chr. xiii. 3. Whatever others did, David and his house would serve the Lord. 
2nd. He went with the multitude, and thought it no disparagement to his 
dignity to be at the head of a crowd in attending upon God. Nay, this added 
to the pleasure of it, that he was accompanied with a multitude, and therefore 
it is twice mentioned, as that which he greatly lamented the want of now. The 
more the better, in the service of God; it is the liker to heaven, and a sensible 
help to our comfort in the communion of saints ; 3rd. He went with the voice 
of joy and praise, not only with joy and praise in his heart, but with the out- 
ward* expressions of it, proclaiming his joy, and speaking forth the high praises 
of his God. Note, When we wait upon God in public ordinances we have 
reason to do it both with cheerfulness and thankfulness, to take to ourselves 
the comfort, and give to God the glory of our liberty of access to him. 4th. He 
went to keep holy days ; not to keep them in vain mirth and recreation, but 
in religious exercises. Solemn days are spent most comfortably in solemn 
assemblies. 

Thirdly. Holy love hoping ; ver. 5, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul'?'' 
His sorrow was upon a very good account, and yet it must not exceed its due 
limits, nor prevail to depress his spirits; he therefore communes with his own 
heart for his relief. Come, my soul, I have something to say to thee in thy 
heaviness. Let us consider, 1. The cause of it. Thou art cast down, as one 
stooping and sinking under a burthen, Pr. xii. 25. < Thou art disquieted, in con- 
fusion _ and disorder, now, why art thou so? This may be taken either as an 
inquiring question ; Let the cause of this uneasiness be duly weighed, and see 
whether it be a just cause. Our disquietments would many "times vanish 
before a strict scrutiny into the grounds and reasons of them. "Why am I cast 
down? Is there a cause, a real cause? Have not others more cause that do 
not make so much ado? Have not we at the *ame time cause to be encouraged? 
Or, it may be taken as an expostulating question. Those that commune much 
with their own hearts will often have occasion to chide them, as David here. 
Why do I thus dishonour God by my melancholy dejections? Why do I dis- 
courage others, and do so much injury to myself? Can I give a good account 
of this tumult? 2. The cure of it. " Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise 
him." A believing confidence in God is a sovereign antidote against prevailing 
despondency and disquiet of spirit. And therefore when we chide ourselves 



PSALM XLIL 



203 



for our dejections, we must charge ourselves to hope in God. When the son I 
embraces itself, it sinks; if it catch hold on the power and promise of God. it 
keeps the head above water. Hope in God, 1st. That he shall have glory 
from us : " I shall yet praise him." I shall experience such a change in my 
estate, that I shall not want matter for praise ; and such a change in my spirit, 
that I shall not want a heart for praise. It is the greatest honour and happi- 
ness of a man, and the greatest desire and hope of every good man, to be unto 
God for a name and a praise. What is the crown of heaven's bliss but this, 
that there we shall be for ever praising God? And what is our support under 
our present woes but this, that we shall yet praise God, that they shall not 
prevent or abate our endless hallelujahs? 2nd. That we shall have comfort in 
nim. We "shall praise him for the help of his countenance ; " for his favour, and 
the support we have by it, and the satisfaction we have in it. Those that know- 
how to value and improve the light of God's countenance will find in that a 
suitable, seasonable^ and sufficient help in the worst of times, and that which 
will furnish them with constant matter for praise. David's believing expecta- 
tion of this kept him from sinking, nay, it kept him from drooping. His harp 
was a palliative cure of Saul's melancholy; but his hope was an effectual cure 
of his own. 

6 0 my God, my soul is cast down within me : 
Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, 

and of the Hermonites, 
From the hill Mizar. 

7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts ; 
All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 

8 Yet the Lord will command his lovingidndness in the 

daytime, 

And in the night his song shall be with me, 

And my prayer unto the God of my life. [me i 

9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten 
Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the 

enemy ? 

1 0 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me ; 
While they say daily unto me, Where is thy God ? 

1 1 Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? 
And why art thou disquieted within me ? 
Hope thou in God : for I shall yet praise him, 
Who is the health of my countenance, and my God. 

Complaints and comforts here, as before, take their turn, like night and day 
in the course of nature. 

First. He complains of the dejections of his spirit, but comforts himself with 
the thoughts of God, ver. 6. 1. In his troubles his soul was dejected, and he 
goes to God and tells him so : " O my God, my soul is cast down within me." It 
is a great support to us, when upon any account we are distressed, that we have 
liberty of access to God ? and liberty of speech before him, and may open to him 
the causes of our dejection. David had communed with his own heart about 
its own bitterness, and had not as yet found relief ; and therefore he turns to 
God, and opens before him the trouble. Note, When we cannot get relief for 
our burthened spirits by pleading with ourselves, we should try what we can 
do by praying to God, and leaving our case with him. We cannot still these 
winds and waves, but we know who can. 2. In his devotions his soul was 
elevated ; and, finding the disease very painful, he had recourse to that as a 
sovereign remedy. My soul is plunged ; therefore, to prevent its sinking, " I 
will remember thee," meditate upon thee, and call upon thee, and try what 
that will do to keep up my spirit. Note, The way to forget trie sense of our 
miseries is to remember the God of our mercies. It was an uncommon case 
when the psalmist remembered God and was troubled, Ps. lxxvii. 3. Ordi-r 
narily he remembered God and was comforted, and therefore had recourse to 



204 PSALM XLIL 

that expedient now. He was now driven to the utmost borders of the land of 
Canaan, to shelter himself there from the rage of his persecutors, sometimes to 
the country about Jordan, and when discovered there, then to the land of the 
Hermonites, or to a hill called Mizar, or the little hill. But, 1st. Wherever 
he went he took his religion along with him; in all these places he remembered 
God, and lifted up his heart to him, and kept his secret communion with him. 
This is the comfort of the banished, the wanderers, the travellers, of those that 
are strangers in a strange land, unaique ad ccelos tantundem est vice,— wherever 
they; are, there is a way open heavenwards.' 2nd. Wherever he was, he 
retained his affection for the courts of God's house. From the land of Jor- 
dan, or from the top of the hills, he used to look a long look, a longing look, 
towards the place of the sanctuary, and wish himself there. Distance and 
time could not make him forget that which his heart was so much upon, and 
which lay so near it. 

Secondly. He complains of the tokens of God's displeasure against him, but 
comforts himself with the hopes of the return of his favour in due time. 

1. He saw his troubles coming from God's wrath, and that discouraged him ; 
ver. 7, "Deep calls unto deep," one affliction comes upon the neck of another, 
as if it were called to hasten after it; and thy waterspouts give the signal, and 
sound the alarm of war. It may be meant of the terrors and tosses of his 
mind under the apprehensions of God's anger. One frightful thought sum- 
moned another, and made way for it, as is usual in melancholy people. He 
was overpowered and overwhelmed with a deluge of grief, like that of the old 
world when the windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the 
great deep were broken up. Or it is an allusion to a ship at sea, in a great 
storm, tossed by the roaring waves which go over it, Ps. cvii. 25. Whatever 
waves and billows of affliction go over us at any time, we must call them God's 
waves, and his billows, that we may humble ourselves under his mighty hand, 
and may encourage ourselves to hope that, though we be threatened, we shall 
not be ruined ; for the waves and billows are under a Divine check, " The Lord 
on high is mightier than the noise of these many waters." Let not good men 
think it strange if they be exercised with many and various trials, and if they 
come thick upon them God knows what he doth, and so shall they shortly. 
Jonah in the whale's belly made use of these words of David, Jonah ii. 3, (they 
are exactly the same in the original,} and of him they are literally true, " All 
thy waves and thy billows are gone over me ; " for the book of Psalms is con- 
trived so as to reach every one's case. 

2. He expected his deliverance to come from God's favour ; ver. 8, " Yet the 
Lord will command his lovingkindness." Non si male nunc ei olim sic erit, — 
* Things are bad, but they shall not always be so.' After the storm there will 
come a calm, and the prospect of this supported him when deep called unto 
deep. Observe, 1st. "What he promised himself from God. " The Lord will 
command his lovingkindness." He eyes the favour of God as the fountain of all 
the good he looked for, that is life, that is better than life : and with that God 
will gather those from whom he has in a little wrath hid his face, Isa. liv. 7, 8. 
God's conferring of his favour is called his commanding it, which intimates 
both the freeness of it,— we cannot pretend to merit it, but it is bestowed in a 
way of sovereignty ; he gives like a king, — and the efficacy of it, he speaks his 
lovingkindness, and makes us to hear it; "speaks, and it is done." He "com- 
mands deliverance," Ps. xliv. 4; "commands the blessing," Ps. cxxxiii. 3, as 
one having authority. By commanding his lovingkindness, he commands down 
the waves and the billows, and they shall obey him. This he will do in the day- 
time; for God's lovingkindness will make day in the soul at any time. Though 
weeping has endured for a night, a long night, yet joy will come in the morning. 
2nd. What he promised for himself to God. If God command his lovingkind- 
ness for him, he will meet it, and bid it welcome with his < best affections and 
devotions. First. He will rejoice in God ; " In the night his song shall be with 
me." The mercies we receive in the day, we ought to return thanks for at 
night; when others are sleeping, we should be praising God: see Ps. cxix. 62, 
" At midnight will I rise to give thanks." In silence and solitude, when we are 
retired from the hurries of the world, we must be pleasing ourselves with the 
thoughts of God's goodness. Or in the night of affliction, before the day dawns 
in which God commands his lovingkindness, I will sing songs of praise in the 
prospect of it. Even in tribulation the saints can rejoice in hope of the glory of 
God ; sing in hope, and praise in hope, Rom. v. 2, 3. It is God's prerogative to 
give songs in the night, Job xxxv. 10. Secondly. He will seek to God in a con- 
stant dependence upon him, " My prayer shall be to the God of my life." Our 
believing expectation of mercy niust not supersede but quicken our prayers for 
it. God is the God of our life, in whom we live and move, the author and giver 
of all our comforts, and, therefore, to whom should we apply ourselves by- 
prayer but to him ? And from him what good may not we expect ? It would 
put life into our prayers, in them to eye God as the God of our life; for then 
it is for our lives, and the lives of our souls, that we stand up to make request. 



PSALM XLIII. 205 

Thirdly. He complains of the insolence of his enemies, and yet comforts him- 
self in God as his friend, ver. 9—11. 

1. His complaint is, that his enemies oppressed and reproached him, and this 
made a great impression upon him. 1st. They oppressed him to that degree 
that he went mourning from day to day, from place to place, ver. 9. He did not 
break out into indecent passions, though abused as never man was ; but he 
silently wept out his grief, and went mourning. And for this we cannot blame 
him: it must needs grieve a man that truly loves his country, and seeks the 
gooa of it, to see himself run upon, and hardly used, as if he were an enemy to 
it. Yet David ought not from hence to conclude that God had forgotten him 
and cast him off, nor thus to expostulate with him, as if he did him as much 
wrong in suffering him to be trampled upon, as they did that trampled upon 
him. " Why go I mourning ?" and " why hast thou forgotten me?" We may 
complain to God, but we are not allowed thus to complain of him. 2nd. They 
•reproached him so cuttingly, that it was a sword in his bones, ver. 10. He had 
mentioned before what the reproach was that touched him thus to the quick, 
and here he repeats it: "They say daily unto me, Where is thy God?" A 
reproach which was therefore very grievous to him, both because it reflected 
dishonour upon God, and was intended to discourage his hope in God, which 
lie had enough to do to keep up in any measure, and which was but too apt to 
fail of itself. 

2. His comfort is. that God is his rock, ver. 9. A rock to build upon, a rock 
to take shelter in. The Rock of ages, in whom is everlasting strength, would be 
his rock, his strength in the inner man, both for doing and suffering. And to 
him he had access with confidence; to God his rock he might say what he had 
to say, and be sure of a gracious audience. He therefore repeats what he had 
said, ver. 5, and concludes with it; ver. 11, " Why art thou cast down, O my 
soul?" His griefs and fears were clamorous and troublesome, they were not 
silenced, though they were again and again answered; but here at length his 
faith came off a conqueror, and forced the enemies to quit the field. And he 
gains this victory, 1st. By repeating what he had before said ; chiding him- 
self, as before, for his dejections and disquietments, and encouraging himself to 
trust in the name of the Lord, and to stay himself upon his God. Note, It may 
be of great use to us to think our good thoughts over again : and, if we do not 
gain our point with them at first, perhaps we may the second time ; however, 
where the heart goes along with the words, it is no vain repetition. We have 
need to press the same thing over and over again upon our own hearts, and 
all little enough. 2nd. By adding one word to it. There he hoped to praise 
God for the salvation that was in his countenance ; here, I will praise him, 
saith. he, as the salvation of my countenance, from the present cloud that is 
upon it. If God smile upon me. that will make me look pleasant, look up, 
look forward, look round with pleasure. He adds, And my^ God, related to me, 
in covenant with me. All that he is, all that he has, is mine, according to the 
true intent and meaning of the promise.^ This thought enabled him to triumph 
over all his griefs and fears. God's being with the saints in heaven, and being 
their God, is that which will wipe away all tears from their eyes, Rev. xxi. 3, 4. 



PSALM XLIII. 

This psalm, it is likely, was penned upon the same occasion with the former, and having 
no title may be looked upon as an appendix to it. The malady presently returning, he 
had immediate recourse to the same remedy, because he had entered it in his book with 
a probatum est, — ' it has been proved,' upon it. The 2nd verse of this psalm is almost 
the very same with the 9th verse of the foregoing psalm, as the 5th of this is exactly 
the same with the 11th of that. Christ himself, who had the Spirit without measure, 
when there was occasion, prayed a second and third time, saying the same words, 
Mat. xxvi. 44. In this psalm, I. He appeals to God concerning* the injuries that were 
done him by his enemies, ver. 1, 2. II. He prays to God to restore to him the free 
enjoyment of public ordinances again, and promiseth a good improvement of them, 
ver. 3, 4. III. He endeavours to still the tumult of his own spirit with a lively hope 
and confidence in God, ver. 5, which if we labour after in singing this psalm, we smg 
with grace in our hearts. 

JUDGE me, 0 God, and plead my cause 
Against an ungodly nation : 
O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. 
2 For thou art the God of my strength : 

Why dost thou cast me off? [enemy ? 

Why go I mourning because of the oppression of tha 



PSALM XLIII. 



3 O send out thy light and thy truth : 

Let them lead me ; [nacles. 
Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy taber- 

4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, 
Unto God my exceeding joy : 

Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, 
0 God my God. 

5 Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? 
And why art thou disquieted within me ? 
Hope in God : for I shall yet praise him, 

Who is the health of my countenance, and my God. 

David here makes his application to God, by faith and prayer, as his judge, 
his strength, his guide, his joy, his hope, with suitable affections and expres- 
sions. 

First As his judge, his righteous judge, who he knew would judge him, and 
who (being conscious of his own integrity) he knew would judge for him ; ver. 1, 
" Judge me, O God, and plead my cause." There were those that impeached 
him, against them he is defendant, and from their courts, where he stood 
unjustly convicted and condemned, he appeals^ to the court of heaven, the 
supreme judicature; praying to have their judgment given against him 
reversed, and his innocency cleared. There were those that had injured him ; 
against them he is plaintiff, and exhibits his complaint to him who is the 
avenger of wrong, praying for justice for himself, and upon them. Observe, 
1. Who his enemies were with whom he had this struggle. Here was an ill 
body of men, whom he calls an ungodly or unmerciful nation ; and those that 
are unmerciful make it appear that they are ungodly, for those that have any 
fear or love of their Master will have compassion on their fellow servant*. 
And here was one ill man the head of them, a deceitful and unjust man ; most 
probably Saul, who not only shewed no kindness to David, but dealt most per- 
fidiously and dishonestly with him. If Absalom was the man he meant, his 
character was no better. As long as there are such bad men out of hell, 
nations of them, it is not strange that good men who are yet out of heaven 
meet with hard and base treatment. Some think that David, by the spirit of 
prophecy, calculated this psalm for the use of the Jews in their captivity in 
Babylon, and that the Chaldeans are the ungodly nation here meant; and to 
them it was very applicable, but only as other like scriptures, none of which are 
of private interpretation. God might design it for their use, whether David 
did or no. 2. What is his prayer with reference to them. "Judge me." As to 
the quarrel God had with him for sin. he prays, "Enter not into judgment with 
me," for then I shall be condemned : but as to the quarrel his enemies had with 
him, he prays, Lord, "judge me," for I know that I shall be justified ; " Plead 
my cause against them," that is, take my part, and in thy providence appear on 
my behalf. He that has an honest cause may expect that God will plead it. 
Plead my cause so as to deliver me from them, that they may not have their will 
against me. We must reckon our cause sufficiently pleaded, if w r e be delivered, 
though our enemies be not destroyed. 

Secondly. As his strength, his all-sufficient strength ; so he eyes God ; ver. 2, 
" Thou art the God of my strength, my God," my strength, from whom all 
my strength is derived, in whom I strengthen myself, who hast many a time 
strengthened me, and without whom I am weak as water, and utterly unable 
either to do or surfer any thing for thee. David now went mourning, destitute 
of spiritual joys, yet he found God the God of his strength; however, if we 
cannot comfort ourselves in God, we may stay ourselves upon him, and may 
have spiritual supports when we want spiritual suavities. David here pleads 
this with God. Thou art the God on whom I depend as my strength, why then 
dost thou cast me oif? This was a mistake; for God never cast off any that 
trusted in him, whatever melancholy apprehensions they may have of their own 
state. Thou art the God of my strength, why then is mine enemy too strong 
for me; and why go I mourning because of his oppressive power? It is hard 
to reconcile the mighty force of the church's enemies with the almighty power 
of the church's God; but the day will reconcile them, when all his enemies 
shall become his footstool. 

Thirdly. As his guide, his faithful guide; ver. 3, "Lead me, bring me to thy 
holy hill." He prays, 1.' That God by his providence would bring him back 



PSALM XLIV. 207 

from his banishment, and open a way for him again to the free enjoyment of 
the privileges of God's sanctuary. His heart is upon the holy hill and the 
tabernacles, not upon his family comforts, or his court preferments or diver- 
sions; he could bear the want of these, but he is impatient to see God's taber - 
nacles again. Nothing so amiable in his eyes as those; thither he would fain 
be brought back. In order to this, he prays, '* Send out thy light and thy 
truth," that is, let me have this as a fruit of thy favour which is light; and the 
performance of thy promise which is truth; and we need desire no more to 
make us happy than the good that flows from God's favour, and is included 
in his promise. That mercy, that truth is enough, is all; and when we see 
these in God's providences we see ourselves under a very safe conduct. Note, 
Those whom God leads, he leads to his holy hill and to his tabernacles ; those 
therefore who pretend to be led by the Spirit, and yet turn their backs upon 
instituted ordinances, certainly deceive themselves. 2. That God by his grace 
would bring him into communion with himself, and prepare him for the vision 
and fruition of himself in the other world. Some of the Jewish writers by the 
light and truth here understand Messiah the prince, and Elias his forerunner. 
These are come in answer to the prayers of the Old Testament; but we are 
still to pray for God's light and truth, that is, the Spirit of light and truth, who 
supplies the want of Christ's bodily presence, to lead us into the mystery of 
godliness, and to guide us in the way to heaven. When God sends his light and 
truth into our hearts, those will guide us to the upper world in all our devo- 
tions, as well as in all our aims and expectations ; and if we conscientiously 
follow that light and truth they will certainly bring us to the holy hill above. 

Fourthly. As his joy, his exceeding joy. It' God guide him to his tabernacles, 
if he restore him to his former liberties, he knows very well what he has to do, 
"Then will I go unto the altar of God,*' ver. 4; he will get as near as he can 
unto God his exceeding joy. Note, 1. Those that come to the tabernacles 
should come to the altar ; that come to ordinances, should qualify themselves 
to come, and then come to special ordinances, to those that are most affecting 
and most binding. The nearer we come, the closer we cleave, to God, the 
better. 2. Those that come to the altar of God, must see to it that therein 
they come unto God, and draw near to him with the heart, with a true 
heart. We come in vain to holy ordinances, if we do not in them come to the 
holy God. 3. Those that come unto God, must come to him as their exceeding 
joy, not only as their future bliss, but as their present joy; and that not a 
common, but an exceeding joy, far exceeding all the joys of sense and time. 
The phrase in the original is very emphatical, ' Unto God the gladness of my joy/ 
or of my triumph. Whatever we rejoice or triumph in, God must be the joy of 
it, all our joy in it must terminate in him, and must pass through the gift to 
the giver. 4. When we come to God as our exceeding joy, our comforts in him 
must be the matter of our praises of him as God, and our God; "Upon the 
harp will I praise thee, O God, my God." David was an artist at the harp, 
1 Sam. xvi. 16, 18; and with that in which he excelled he would praise God, 
for God is to be praised with the best we have ; it is fit he should be so who is 
the best. 

Fifthly. As his hope, his never-failing hope, ver. 5. Here, as before, David 
quarrels with himself for his dejections and despondencies, and owns he did ill 
to yield to them, and that he had no reason to do so : Why art thou cast 
down, O my soul?" and then quiets himself in the believing expectation he 
had of giving glory to God, " Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him ; " and of 
enjoying glory with God, He is "the health of my countenance, and my God." 
This is what we cannot too much insist upon, for it is what we must live and 
die by. 

PSALM XLIV. 

We are not told either who was the penman of this psalm or when and upon what occa- 
sion it was penned. Upon a melancholy occasion we are sure, not so much to the pen- 
man himself, then we could have found occasions enough for it in the history of David 
and his afflictions, but to the church of God in general ; and therefore, if we suppose it 
penned by David, yet we must attribute it purely to the spirit of prophecy, and must 
conclude that that Spirit, whatever he had, had in view the captivity in Babylon, or the 
sufferings of the Jewish church under Antiochus, or rather the afflicted state cff the 
Christian church in its early days, to which ver. 22 is applied by the apostle, 
Rom. viii. 36, and indeed in all its days on earth, for it is its determined lot that it 
must enter into the kingdom of heaven through many tribulations. And if we have 
any gospel psalms pointing at the privileges and comforts of Christians, why should 
we not have one pointing at their trials and exercises? It is a psalm calculated for 
a day of fasting and humiliation upon occasion of some public calamity, either pressing 
or threatening. In it the church is taught, I. To own with thankfulness to the glory 
of God the great things God had done for their fathers, ver. 1 — 8. II. To exhibit a 
memorial of their present calamitous estate, ver. 9 — 16. III. To file a protestation ©f 



208 



PSALM 



XLIV. 



their integrity and adherence to God notwithstanding, ver. 17 — 22. IV. To lodge a 
petition at the throne of grace for succour and relief, ver. 22 — 26. In singing this 
psalm we ought to give God the praise of what he has formerly done for his people, tc 
represent our own grievances, or sympathize with those parts of the church that are in 
distress, to engage ourselves, whatever happens, to cleave to God and duty, and then 
cheerfully to wait the event. 



What work thou didst in their days, 
In the times of old. 

2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand. 
And plantedst them ; 

How thou didst afflict the people, 

And cast them out. [sword, 

3 For they got not the land in possession by their own 
Neither did their own arm save them : [countenance, 
But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy 
Because thou hadst a favour unto them. 

4 Thou ail my King, 0 God : 
Command deliverances for Jacob. 

5 Through thee will we push down our enemies : 
Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up 

f) For I will not trust in my bow, [against us. 

Neither shall my sword save me. 

7 But thou hast saved us from our enemies, 
And hast put them to shame that hated us. 

8 In God we boast all the day long. 
And praise thy name for ever. Selah. 

Some observe that most of the psalms that are entitled, Maschil, psalms of 
instruction, are sorrowful psalms : for afflictions give instruction, and sorrow 
of spirit opens the ear to them ; " Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and 
teachest." In these verses, the church, though now trampled upon, calls to 
remembrance the days of her triumph, of her triumph in God, and over her 
enemies. This is very largely mentioned here, 1. As an aggravation of the 
present distress. The yoke of servitude cannot but lie very heavy on the necks 
of those that used to wear the crown of victory ; and the tokens of God's dis- 
pleasure must needs be most grievous to those that have been long accustomed 
to the tokens of his favour. 2. As an encouragement to hope that God would 
yet turn again their captivity, and return in mercy to them; and accordingly he 
mixes prayers and comfortable expectations with his record of former mercies. 
Observe, 

First. Their commemoration of the great things God had formerly done for 
them. In general, ver. 1, " Our fathers have told us what w r ork thou didst in 
their days. 1 ' Observe, 1. The many operations of Providence are here spoken 
of as one work. They have told us " the work which thou didst," for there is a 
wonderful harmony and uniformity in all that God doth, and the many wheels 
make but one wheel, Eze. x. 13 ; many w r orks make but one work. 2. It is a debt 
which every age owes to posterity, to keep an account of God's works of won- 
der, and transmit the knowledge of them" to the next generation. Those that 
went before us told us what God did in their days, we are bound to tell those 
that come after us what he has done in our days, and let them do the like jus- 
tice to those that shall succeed them ; thus shall "one generation praise his works 
to another," Ps. cxlv. 4; "The fathers to the children shall make known his 
truth," Isa. xxxviii. 19. 3. We must not onh make mention of the work God 
has done in our own days, but must also acquaint ourselves and our children 
with what he did in the times of old, long before our own days; and of this we 



To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. 




7~E have heard with our ears, 0 God, 



PSALM XLIV. 209 

have in the Scripture a sure word of history, as sure as the word of prophecy. 
4. Children must diligently attend to what their parents tell them ot the won- 
derful works of God, and keep it in remembrance, as that which will be of 
great use to them. 5. Former experiences of God s power and goodness are 
strong supports to faith, and powerful pleas in prayer under present calamities. 
See how Gideon insists upon it, Jud. vi. 13, " Where be all his miracles which 
our fathers told us of?" In particular their fathers had told them, 

1st. How wonderfully God planted Israel in Canaan at first, ver. 2, 3. He 
drove out the natives to make room for Israel, afflicted them, and cast them 
out, gave them as dust to Israel's sword, and as driven stubble to their bow. 
The many complete victories which Israel obtained over the Canaanites, under 
the command of Joshua, were not to be attributed to themselves, nor could 
they challenge the glory of them. First. They were not owing to their own 
merit, but to God's favour and free grace; it was through "the light of thy 
countenance, because thou hadst a favour to them ;" " Not for thy righteousness 
or the uprightness of thy heart doth God drive them out from before thee," 
Deu. ix. 5, 6 ; but because God would " perform the oath which he sware unto 
their fathers," Deu. vii. 8. The less praise this allows us, the more comfort it 
administers to us, that we may see all our successes and enlargements coming 
to us from the favour of God, and the light of his countenance. Secondly. They 
were not owing to their own might, but to God's power engaged for them, 
without which all their own efforts and endeavours had been fruitless. It was 
not by their own sword that they got the land in possession, though they had 
great numbers of mighty men ; nor did their own arm save them from being 
driven back by the Canaanites, and put to shame ; but it was God's right hand 
and his arm. "He fought for Israel, else they had fought in vain; it was through 
him that they did valiantly and victoriously. It was God that planted Israel 
in that good land, as the careful husbandman plants a tree, from which he pro- 
miseth himself fruit: see Ps. lxxx. 8. This is applicable to the planting of the 
Christian church in the world by the preaching of the Gospel. Paganism was 
wonderfully driven outj as the Canaanites, not all at once, but by little and little ; 
not by any human policy or power, for God chose to do it by the weak and 
foolish things of the world, but by the wisdom and power of God. Christ by 
his Spirit went forth conquering and to conquer; and the remembrance of that 
is a great support and comfort to those that groan under the yoke of anti- 
christian tyranny; for to the state of the church under the power of the New 
Testament Babylon, some think (and particularly the learned Amyraldus) the 
complaints in the latter part of this psalm may very fitly be accommodated. He 
that by his power and goodness planted a church for himself in the world will 
certainly support it by the same power and goodness, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it. 

2nd. How frequently he had given them success against their enemies that 
attempted to disturb them in the possession of that good land ; ver. 7, " Thou 
hast "many a time "saved us from our enemies;" and hast put to flight, and 
so put to shame, them that hated us. Witness the successes of the judges against 
the nations that oppressed Israel. Many a time have the persecutors of the 
Christian church, and those that hate it, been put to shame by the power of 
truth, Acts vi. 10. 

Secondly. The good use they make of this record, and had formerly made of 
it, in consideration of the great things God had done for their fathers of old. 

1. They had taken God for their sovereign Lord, had sworn allegiance to him, 
and put themselves under his protection ; ver. 4, " Thou art my king, O God."' 
He speaks in the name of the church, as Ps. lxxiv. 12, " Thou art my king of 
old." God has as a king made laws for his church, provided for the peace and 
good order of it, judged for it, pleaded its cause, fought its battles, and pro- 
tected it. It is his kingdom in the world, and ought to be subject to him, and 
to pay him tribute ; or, the psalmist speaks for himself here ; Lord, " Thou art 
my king," whither shall I go but to thee with my petitions? The favour I ask 
is not for myself, but for thy church. Note, It is every one's duty to improve 
their personal interest at the throne of grace for the public welfare and pro- 
sperity of the people of God, as Moses, " If I have found grace in thy sight," 
guide thy people, Ex. xxxiii. 13. 

2. They had always applied themselves to him by prayer for deliverance, 
when at any time they were in distress ; " Command deliverances for Jacob." 
Observe, 1st. The enlargedness of their desire. They pray for deliverances, 
not one, but many, as many as they had need of, how many soever they were ; 
aperies of deliverances, a deliverance from every danger. 2nd. The strength 
of their faith in the power of God; they do not say, work deliverances, but 
command them, which notes his doing it easily and instantly ; Speak, and it is 
done: such was the faith of the centurion, Mat. viii. 8, " Speak the word only, 
and my servant shall be healed;" and his doing it effectually; command it, as 
one having authority, whose command will be obeyed; "Where the word of 
a king is, there is power," much more the word of the King of kings. 

o 



210 



PSALM XLIV. 



3. They had trusted and triumphed in him. As they owned that it was not 
their own sword and bow that had saved them, ver. 3, so neither did they trust 
to their own sword or bow to save them for the future ; ver. 6, " I will not trust 
in my bow," not in any of my military preparations, as if those would stand me 
in stead without God; no, "through thee will we push down our enemies/' 
ver. 5; that is, we will attempt it in thy strength, relying only upon that, and 
not upon the number or valour of our forces; and having thee on our side we 
will not doubt of success in the attempt. " Through my name," that is, by virtue 
of thy wisdom directing us, thy power strengthening us and working for us, 
and thy promise securing success to us, we shall, we " will, tread them under 
that rise up against us." 

4. They had made him their joy and praise ; ver. 8, " In God we have boasted," 
in him we do and will boast every day, and " all the day long." When their ene- 
mies boasted of their strength and successes, as Sennacherib and Rabshakeh 
hectored Hezekiah, they owned they had nothing to boast of in answer there- 
unto but their relation to God, and their interest in him ; and if he were for 
them they could set all the world at defiance. "Let him that glories glory in 
the Lord;" and let that for ever exclude all other boasting. Let those that 
trust in God make their boast in him ; for they know whom they have trusted. 
Let them boast in him all the day long; for it is a subject that can never be 
exhausted. But let them withal praise his name for ever ; it* they have the com- 
fort of his name, let them give unto him the glory due to it. 

9 But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame ; 
And goest not forth with our armies. 

10 Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy 
And they which hate us spoil for themselves. 

11 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat ; 
And hast scattered us among the heathen. 

12 Thou sellest thy people for nought, 

And dost not increase thy wealth by their price 

1 3 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, 

A scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. 

14 Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, 
A shaking of the head among the people. 

15 My confusion is continually before me, 
And the shame of my face hath covered me, 

1 6 For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth ; 
By reason of the enemy and avenger. 

The people of God here complain to him of the low and afflicted condition 
that they were in, under the prevailing power of their enemies and oppressors ; 
which was the more grievous to them because they were now trampled upon 
who had always been used in their struggles with their neighbours to win the 
day, and get the upper hand, and because those were now their oppressors 
whom they had many a time triumphed over and made tributaries ; and, 
especially, because they had boasted in their God, with great assurance that 
he would still protect and prosper them, which made the distress they were in, 
and the disgrace they were under, the more shameful. Let us see what the 
complaint is. 

First. That they wanted the usual tokens of God's favour to them, and 
presence with them ; ver. 9, " Thou hast cast off," that is, thou seemest to have 
cast us off, and our cause, and to have cast off thy wonted care of us, and 
concern for us, and so hast put us to shame, for we boasted of the constancy 
and perpetuity of thy favour. Our armies go forth as usual, but they are put 
to flight; we gain no ground, but lose what we have gained, for thou goest not 
forth with them ; for if thou didst, which way soever they turned they would 
prosper,— but it is quite contrary. Note, God's people, when they are cast 
down, are tempted to think themselves cast off, and forsaken of God ; but it is 
a mistake. " Hath God cast away his people? God forbid," Rom. xi. 1. 

Secondly. That they were put to the worst before their enemies in the field 
of battle ; ver. 10, "Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy," as Joshua 
complained when they met with a repulse at Ai, Jos. vii. 8. We are dispirited 



PSAL^I XLIV. 211 

and have lost the ancient valour of Israelites ; we flee, we fall before those that 
used to flee and fall before us, and then they that hate us have the plunder of 
our camp and of our country ; they spoil for themselves, and reckon all their 
own that they can lay their hands on. Attempts to shake off the Babylonish 
yoke have been ineffectual, and we have rather lost ground by them. 

Thirdly. That they were doomed to the sword and to captivity; ver. 11, 
" Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat." They make no more 
conscience of killing an Israelite than of killing a sheep ; nay, like the butcher, 
they make a trade of it, they take a pleasure in it as a hungry man in his meat ; 
and we are led with as much ease, and as little resistance, as a lamb to the 
slaughter. Many are slain, and the rest scattered among the heathen, con- 
tinually insulted by their malice, or in danger of being infected by their 
iniquities. They looked upon themselves as bought and sold, and charged 
it upon God, " Thou sellest thy people ; " when they should have charged it upon 
their own sins, "for your iniquities have you sold yourselves," Isa. 1. I. How- 
ever, thus far was right, that they looked above the instruments of their trouble, 
and kept their eye upon God, as well knowing that their worst enemies had no 
power against them, but what was given them from above ; they own it was 
God that delivered them into the hands of the ungodly, as that which is sold 
is delivered to the buyer. ' Thou sellest them for nought, and dost not increase 
in their price/ so it may be read; dost not sell them by auction to those that will 
bid most for them, but in haste, to those that will bid iirst for them ; any one 
shall have them that will. Or, as we read it, " Thou dost not increase thy wealth 
by their price ;" intimating that they could have suffered this contentedly, if they 
had been sure that it would have redounded to the glory of God, and that his 
interests might have been some way served by their sufferings. But it was 
quite contrary ; Israel's disgrace turned to God's dishonour, so that he was so 
far from being a gainer in his glory by the sale of them, that it should seem 
he was greatly a loser by it : see Isa. lii. 5 ; Eze. xxxvi. 20. 

Fourthly. That they were loaded with contempt, and all possible ignominy 
put upon them. In this also they acknowledge God : " Thou makest us a 
reproach ; " that is, thou bringest those calamities upon us which occasion the 
reproach, and thou permittest their virulent tongues to smite us. They com- 
plain, 1. That they were ridiculed and bantered, and were looked upon as 
the most contemptible people under the sun ; their troubles were turned to their 
reproach, and upon the account of them they were derided. 2. That their 
neighbours and those about them, from whom they could not withdraw, were 
most abusive to them, ver. 13. 3. That the heathen and the people that were 
strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, and aliens to the covenants of pro- 
mise, made them a byword, and shook the head at them as triumphing in their 
fall, ver. 14. 4. That the reproach was constant and incessant; ver. 15, "My 
confusion is continually before me." The church in general, the psalmist in 
particular, was continually teased and vexed with the insults of the enemy: 
to those that are going down every one cries, Down with them. 5. That it was 
very grievous, and in a manner overwhelmed him ; " The shame of my face has 
covered me." He blushed for sin, or rather for the dishonour done to God; 
and then it was a holy blushing. 6. That it reflected upon God himself. The 
reproach which the enemy and the avenger cast upon them was downright 
blasphemy against God, ver. 16, and 2 Kin. xix. 3 ; therefore, no doubt but 
God would appear for them. As there is no trouble more grievous to a 
generous and ingenuous mind than reproach and calumny, so there is none 
more grievous to a holy, gracious soul than blasphemy and dishonour done to 
God. 

1 7 All this is come upon us ; 

Yet have we not forgotten thee, 

Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. 

18 Our heart is not turned back, 

Neither have our steps declined from thy way ; 

1 9 Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, 
And covered us with the shadow of death. 

20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, 
Or stretched out our hands to a strange god ; 

21 Shall not God search this out ? 

For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. 



212 



PSALM XLI^. 



22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long ; 
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. 

23 Awake, why sleepest thou, 0 Lord ? 
Arise, cast us not off for ever. 

24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, 

And forgettest our affliction and our oppression ? 

25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust : 
Our belly cleaveth unto the earth. 

26 Arise for our help, 

And redeem us for thy mercies' sake. 

The people of God, being greatly afflicted and oppressed, here apply them- 
selves to him; whither else should they go? 

First. By way of appeal concerning their integrity; which he only is an 
infallible judge of, and which he will certainly be the reward of. Two things 
they call God to witness to : 

1. That, though they suffered these hard things, yet they kept close to God 
and to their duty ; ver. 17, " All this is come upon us," and it is as bad, perhaps, 
as bad can be, "yet have we not forgotten thee;" not cast off the thoughts 01 
thee, nor deserted the worship of thee, for though we cannot deny but that 
we have dealt foolishly, yet we have not " dealt foolishly in thy covenant," so as 
to cast thee off, and take to other gods. Though idolaters were our conquerors, 
we did not therefore entertain any more favourable thoughts of their idols ana 
idolatries ; though thou hast seemed to forsake us, and withdraw from us, yet 
we have not therefore forsaken thee. The trouble they had been long in was 
very great ; we have been " sore broken in the place of dragons," that is, among 
men as fierce, and furious, and cruel as dragons. We have been covered with 
the shadow of death, that is, we have been under deep melancholy, and appre- 
hensive of nothing but death. We have been wrapped up in obscurity, and 
buried alive ; and thou hast thus broken us, thou hast thus covered us, ver. 19. 
Yet we have not harboured any hard thoughts of thee, nor meditated a retreat 
from thy service. Though thou hast slain us, we have continued to trust in thee; 
" our heart is not turned back;" we have not secretly withdrawn our affections 
from thee, " neither have our steps," either in our religious worship, or in our 
conversation, " declined from thy way," ver. 18 ; the way which thou hast ap- 
pointed us to walk in. When the heart turns back, the steps will soon decline; 
for it is the evil heart of unbelief that inclines us to depart from God. Note. 
We may the better bear our troubles, how pressing soever, if in them we still 
hold fast our integrity. While our troubles do not drive us from our duty to 
God, we should not suffer them to drive us from our comfort in God ; for he will 
not leave us, if we do not leave him. 

For the proof of their integrity they take God's omniscience to witness ; 
which is as much the comfort of the upright in heart as it is the terror of 
hypocrites ; ver. 20, 21, " If we have forgotten the name of our God," under 
retence that he had forgotten us, or in our distress had stretched out our 
ands to a strange god, as more likely to help us, " shall not God search this j 
out?" shall he not know it more fully and distinctly than w T e know that which 
we have with the greatest care and diligence searched out ? Shall he not judge 
it, and call us to an account for it? Forgetting God was a heart-sin; and 
stretching out the hand to a strange god was often a secret sin, Eze. viii. 14. But 
heart- sins and secret sins are known to God, and must be reckoned for ; for he 
knows the secrets of the heart, and therefore is an infallible judge of the words 
and actions. 

2. That therefore they suffered these hard things because they kept close 
to God and to their duty ; ver. 22, it is " for thy sake that we are killed all the 
day Ions," because we stand related to thee ; are called by thy name, call upon 
thy name, and will not worship other gods. In this the spirit of prophecy had 
reference to those who suffered ^ even unto death for the testimony of Christ, 
to whom it is applied, Rom. viii. 36. So many were killed and put to such 
lingering deaths, that they were in the killing all the day long ; so universally 
was this practised, that when a man became a Christian, he reckoned himself 
as a " sheep appointed for the slaughter." 

Secondly. By way of petition, with references to their present distress, that 
God would in his own due time work deliverance for them. Their request is 
very importunate; "Awake, arise," ver. 23; "Arise for our help, redeem us," 
ver. 26 ; come speedily and powerfully to our relief ; Ps. lxxx. 2, " Stir up thy 



PSALM XLV. 213 

strength, and come and save us." They complained, ver. 12, that God had sold 
them ; here they pray, ver. 26, that God would redeem them, for there is no 
appealing from God but by appealing to him. If he sell us. it is not any one 
else that can redeem us; the same hand that tears must heal, that smites must 
bind up, Hos. vi. 1. They complained, ver. 9, " Thou hast cast us off;" but 
here they pray, ver. 23, " Cast us not off for ever ;" let us not be finally forsaken 
of God. The expostulations are very moving; "Why sleepest thou?" ver. 23. 
He that keeps Israel, neither slumbers nor sleeps; but when he doth not 
presently appear for the deliverance of his people, they are tempted to think 
be sleeps. The expression is figurative, as Ps. lxxviii. 65, " Then the Lord 
awaked as one out of sleep;" but it was applicable to Christ in the letter, 
Mat. viii. 24 ; he was asleep when the disciples were in a storm, and they awoke 
him, saying, " Lord, save us, we perish ! " " Wherefore hidest thou thy face," 
that we may not see thee and the light of thy countenance ? Or, that thou 
mayest not see us and our distresses. Thou "forgettest our affliction and our 
oppression," for it still continues, and we see no way open for our deliverance. 
And, lastly, The pleas are very proper; not their own merit and righteousness, 
though they had the testimony of their consciences concerning their integrity, 
but they plead the poor sinner's pleas. 1. Their own misery, which made them 
the proper object of the Divine compassion ; ver. 25, " Our soul is bowed down 
to the dust," under prevailing grief and fear. We are become as creeping 
things, the most despicable animals; " Our belly cleaveth unto the earth," we 
cannot lift up ourselves, neither revive our own drooping spirits, nor recover 
ourselves out of our low and sad condition, and we lie exposed to be trodden on 
by evp.ry insulting foe. 2. God's mercy ; " O redeem us for thy mercies' sake." 
W r e depend upon the goodness of thy nature,which is the glory of thy name, 
Ex. xxxiv. 6 : and upon those sure mercies of David which are conveyed by the 
covenant to all his spiritual seed. 



PSALM XLV. 

This psalm is an illustrious prophecy of Messiah the Prince. It is all over gospel, and 
points at him only, as a Bridegroom espousing the church to himself, and as a King 
ruling in it and ruling for it : and it is probable our Saviour has reference to this psalm 
when he compares the kingdom of heaven, more than once, to a nuptial solemnity, 
the solemnity of a royal nuptial, Mat. xxii. 2 ; xxv. 1. We have no reason to think it 
has any reference to Solomon's marriage with Pharaoh's daughter. If I thought it had 
reference to any other than the mystical marriage between Christ and his church, I 
would rather apply it to some of David's marriages, because he was a man of war, such 
a one as the bridegroom here is described to be, which Solomon was not. But I take 
it to be purely and only meant of Jesus Christ ; of him speaketh the prophet this, 
of him and of no other man ; and to him ver. 6, 7, is applied in the New Testament, 
Heb. i. 8, nor can it be understood of any other. The preface speaks the excellency 
of the song, ver. 1. The psaim speaks, I. Of the royal Bridegroom, who is Christ: 
1. The transcendent excellency of his person, ver. 2; 2. The glory of his victories, 
ver. 3 — 5 ; 3. The righteousness of his government, ver. 6, 7 ; 4. The splendour of his 
court, ver. 8, 9. II. Of the royal bride, which is the church: 1. Her consent gained, 
ver. 10, 11; 2. The nuptials solemnized, ver. 12 — 15; 3. The issue of this marriage, 
ver. 16, 17. In singing this psalm our hearts must be filled with high thoughts of 
Christ, with an entire submission to, and satisfaction in, his government, and earnest 
desire of the enlarging and perpetuating of his church in the world. 

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil, 
A Song of loves. 

MY heart is inditing a good matter : 
I speak of the things which I have made touching the 
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. [king > 

2 Thou art faker than the children of men : 
Grace is poured into thy lips : 
Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. 

3 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, 
With thy glory and thy majesty. 

4 And in thy majesty ride prosperously 

Because of truth and meekness and righteousness : 
And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. 



214 PSALM XL Y. 

5 Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies ; 

Whereby the people fall under thee. 

Some make Shoshannim., in the title, to signify an instrument of six strings ; 
others take it in its primitive signification for lilies or roses, which probably 
were strewed with other flowers at nuptial solemnities; and then it is easily 
applicable to Christ, who calls himself the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the 
valleys, Cant. ii. 1. It is a song of loves, concerning the holy love that is 
between Christ and his church. It is a song of the well-beloved, the virgins, 
the companions of the bride, ver. 14, prepared to be sung by them. The virgin 
company that attend the Lamb on mount Zion are said to sing a new song, 
Rev. xiv. 3, 4. 

The preface, ver. 1, speaks, 1. The dignity of the subject. It is a good 
matter, and it is pity such a moving art as poetry should ever be employed 
about a bad matter. It is touching the King, king Jesus, and his kingdom and 
government. Note, Those that speak of Christ speak of a good matter, no 
subject so noble, so copious, so fruitful, so profitable, and so well becoming us. 
It is a shame that this good matter is not more the matter of our discourse. 
2. The excellency of the management. This song was a confession with the 
mouth of faith in the heart concerning Christ and his church. 1st. The matter 
was well digested, as it well deserved. " My heart is inditing it." Which per- 
haps is meant of that Spirit of prophecy that dictated the psalm to David : that 
Spirit of Christ which was in the prophets, 1 Pet. i. 11. But it is applicable 
to his devout meditations and affections in his heart, out of the abundance of 
which his mouth spake.^ Things concerning Christ ought to be thought of by 
us with all possible seriousness, with fixedness of thought, and a fire of holy 
love ; especially when we are to speak of those things. We then speak best 
of Christ and Divine things, when we speak from the heart that which has 
warmed and affected us ; and we should never be rash in speaking of the thing3 
of Christ, but weigh well beforehand what we have to say, lest we speak amiss : 
see Eccl. v. 2. 2nd. It was well expressed. " I will speak of the things which 
I have made." He would express himself, First. With all possible clearness, 
as one that did himself understand, and was affected with the things he spoke of. 
Not, I wall speak the things I have heard from others, that is speaking by rote ; 
but the things which I have myself studied. Note, What God has wrought 
in our souls, as well as what he has wrought for them, we must declare to 
others, Ps. Ixvi. 16. Secondly. With all possible cheerfulness, freedom, and 
fluency. " My tongue is as the pen of a ready writer," guided by my heart in 
every word, as the pen is by the hand. We call the prophets the penmen of 
Scripture, whereas really they w r ere but the pen. The tongue of the most 
subtle disputant, and the most eloquent orator, is but the pen with which God 
writes what he pleaseth. Why should we quarrel with the pen, if bitter things 
be written against us ? or idolize the pen, if it write in our favours ? David 
not only spoke w r hat he thought of Christ, but wrote it, that it might spread the 
farther, and last the longer. His tongue w r as as the pen of a ready w r riter, that 
lets nothing slip. When the heart is inditing a good matter, it is pity but the 
tongue should be as the pen of a ready writer to leave it upon record. In these 
verses the Lord Jesus is presented, m 

First. As most beautiful and amiable in himself. It is a marriage song, and 
therefore the transcendent excellences of Christ are represented by the beauty 
of the royal bridegroom ; ver. 2, " Thou art fairer than the children of men," 
than any of them. He proposed, ver. 1, to speak of the king, but immediately 
directs his speech to him. They that have an admiration and affection for 
Christ, love to go to him and tell him so. Thus we must profess our faith that 
we see his beauty, and our love that w T e are pleased with it. " Thou art fair, 
thou art fairer, than the children of men." Note, Jesus Christ is in him- 
self, and in the eyes of all believers, more amiable and lovely than the children 
of men. The beauties of the Lord Jesus, as God, as Mediator, far surpass those 
of the human nature in general, and those which the most amiable and excellent 
of the children of men are endowed with. There is more in Christ to engage 
our love than there is or can be in any creature. Our beloved is more than 
another beloved. The beauties of this lower w r orld and its charms are in 
danger of drawing away our hearts from Christ, and therefore we are con- 
cerned to understand how much he excelleth them all, and how much more 
worthy he is of our love. 

Secondly. As the great favourite of Heaven. He is fairer than the children of 
men, for God has done more for him than for any of the children of men ; and 
all his kindness to the children of men is for his sake, and passeth through his 
hands, through his mouth. 1. He hath grace, and he has it for us ; " Grace is 
poured into thy lips." By his word, his promise his Gospel, the good will of 
God is made known to us, and the good w T ork ot God is begun and carried on in 
us. He received all grace from God, all the endowments that were requisite 



PSALM XLV. 215 

to qualify him for his work and office as Mediator, that from his fulness we 
might receive, Jno. i. 16. It was not only poured into his heart, for his own 
strength and encouragement, but poured into his lips, that by the words of his 
mouth in general, and the kisses of his mouth to particular believers, he might 
communicate both holiness and comfort. From this grace poured into his lips 
proceeded those gracious words which all admired, Lu. iv. 22. The Gospel of 
grace is poured into his lips, for "it began to be spoken by the Lord," and from 
him we receive it ; he hath the words of eternal life. ' The spirit of prophecy is 
put into thy lips ; ' so the Chaldee. 2. He hath the blessing, and he has it for 
us. Therefore, because thou art the great trustee of Divine grace for the use 
and benefit of the children of men, "therefore God has blessed thee for ever 
that is, has made thee an everlasting blessing, so as that in thee all the nations 
of the earth shall be blessed. Where God gives his grace, he will give his 
blessing. We are blessed with spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, Eph. i. 3. 

Thirdly. As victorious over all his enemies. The royal bridegroom is a man 
of war, and his nuptials do not excuse him from the field of battle, (as was 
allowed by the law, Deu. xxiv. 5,) nay, they bring him to the field of battle, for 
he is to rescue his spouse by dint of sword out of her captivity ; to conquer her, 
and to conquer for her, and then to marry her. Now we have here, 

1. His preparations for war; ver. 3, " Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most 
mighty." The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. By the promises of that 
word, and the grace contained in those promises, souls are made willing to 
submit to Jesus Christ, and become his loyal subjects ; and by the threatenings 
of that word, and the judgments executed according to them, those that stand 
it out against Christ will in due time be brought down and ruined. By the 
Gospel of Christ many Jews and Gentiles were converted, and at length the 
Jewish nation was destroyed, according to the predictions of it, for their impla- 
cable enmity to it ; and paganism was quite abolished. The sword here girt on 
Christ's thigh is the same which is said to proceed out of his mouth, Rev. xix. 15. 
When the Gospel was sent forth to be preached to all nations, then our Re- 
deemer girt his sword upon his thigh. 

2. His expedition to this holy war. He goes forth with his glory and his 
majesty, as a great king takes the field, with abundance of pomp and magnifi- 
cence — his sword, his glory and majesty. In his Gospel he appears transeend- 
ently great and excellent, bright and blessed, in the honour and majesty which 
the Father has laid upon him. Christ, both in his person and in his Gospel, had 
nothing of external glory or majesty, nothing to charm men ; for " he had no form 
nor comeliness : " nothing to awe men, for " he took upon him the form of a ser- 
vant ; " but it was all spiritual glory, spiritual majesty. There is so much grace, 
and therefore glory, in that word, ''He that believes shall be saved ;*' so much 
terror, and therefore majesty, in that word, "He that believes not shall be 
damned;" that we may well say, in the chariot of that Gospel, which these 
words are the sum of, the Redeemer rides forth in glory and majesty. " In thy 
majesty ride prosperously," ver. 4. 'Prosper thou; ride thou.' This speaks 
the promise of his Father, that he should prosper, according to the good plea- 
sure of the Lord, that he should divide the spoil with the strong, in recompence 
of his sufferings. Those cannot but prosper to whom God saith, Prosper, 
Isa. lii. 10 — 12. And it speaks the good wishes of his friends, praying that he 
may prosper in the conversion of souls to him, and the destruction of all the 
powers of darkness that rebel against him. " Thy kingdom come." Go on and 
prosper. 

3. The glorious cause in which he is engaged : " because of truth, and meek- 
ness, and righteousness," which were in a manner sunk and lost among men, 
and which Christ came to retrieve and rescue. 1st. The Gospel itself is truth, 
meekness, and righteousness ; " it commands by the power of truth and right- 
eousness, for Christianity has these incontestably on its side, and yet it is 
to be promoted by meekness and gentleness, 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13; 2 Tim. ii. 25. 
2nd. Christ appears in it, in his " truth, meekness, and righteousness," and 
these are his glory and majesty, and because of these he shall prosper. Men 
are brought to believe on him because he is truth, to learn of him because he 
is meek, Mat. xi. 29, (the gentleness of Christ is a thing of mighty force, 
2 Cor. x. 1.) and to submit to him because he is righteous and rules with equity. 
3rd. The Gospel, as far as it prevails with men, sets up in their hearts " truth, 
meekness, and righteousness;" rectifies their mistakes by the light of truth, 
controls their passions by the power of meekness, and governs their hearts and 
lives by the laws of righteousness. Christ came, by setting up his kingdom 
among men, to restore these glories to a degenerate world, and to maintain the 
cause of these just and rightful rulers under him that, by error, malice, and 
iniquity, had been deposed. 

4. The success of his expedition. " Thy right hand shall teach thee terrible 
things;" that is, thou shalt experience a wonderful Divine power going along 
with thy Gospel, to make it victorious; and the effects of it will be terrible 



218 



PSALM XL Y. 



things. 1st. In order to the conversion and reduction of souls to him, there 
are terrible things to be done ; the heart must, be pricked, conscience must be 
startled, and the terrors of the Lord must make way for his consolations. This 
is done by the right hand of Christ. The Comforter shall continue, Jno. xvi. 8. 
2nd. In the conquest of the gates of hell, and its supporters, in the destruction 
of Judaism and Paganism, terrible things will be done, which will make men's 
hearts fail them for fear, Lu. xxi. 26, and great men and chief captains call to 
the rocks and mountains to fall on them, Rev. vi. 15. The next verse describes 
these terrible # things ; ver. 5, " Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's 
enemies." First. Those that were by nature enemies are thus wounded, in 
order to their being reduced and reconciled. Convictions are like the arrows 
of the bow, which are sharp in the heart on which they fasten, and bring people 
to fall under Christ, in subjection to his laws and government. They that thus 
fall on this stone, shall be broken, Mat. xxi. 44. Secondly. Those that persist 
in their enmity are thus wounded, in order to their being ruined. The arrows 
of God's terrors are sharp in their hearts, whereby they shall fall under him, 
so as to be made his footstool, Ps. ex. 1. Those that would not have him to 
reign over them shall be brought forth and slain before him, Lu. xix, 27 ; that 
would not submit to his golden sceptre, shall be broken to pieces by his iron 
rod. 

8 Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever : 
The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. 

7 Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness : 
Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee 
With the oil of gladness above thy fellows. 

8 All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, 
Out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee 

glad. 

9 Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women : 
Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophii, 




EGYPTIAN queen. From Rosellini. 



PSALM XLV. 217 

We have here the royal Bridegroom filling his throne with judgment, and 
keeping his court with splendour. 

First. He here fills his throne with judgment. It is God the Father that 
saith to the Son here, " Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever ; " as appears, 
Heb. i. 8, 9, where this is quoted to prove that he is God, and has a ''more 
excellent name than the angels." The Mediator is God, else he had neither 
been able to do the Mediator's work, nor fit to wear the Mediator's crown. 
Concerning his government observe, 

1. The eternity of it. It is " for ever and ever." It shall continue on earth 
throughout all the ages of time, in despite of all the opposition of the gates of 
hell ; and in the blessed fruits and consequences of it it shall last as long as the 
days of heaven, and run parallel with the line of eternity itself. And, perhaps, 
even then the glory of the Redeemer, and the blessedness of the redeemed, shall 
be in a continual, infinite progression ; for it is promised, that not only of his 
government, but "of the increase of his government and peace there shall be 
no end," Isa. iv. 7, even then when " the kingdom shall be delivered up to God, 
even the Father," 1 Cor. xv. 24, the throne of the Redeemer will continue. 

2. The equity of it. " The sceptre of thy kingdom," that is, the administra- 
tion of thy government is right, exactly according to the eternal counsel and 
will of God, which is the eternal rule and reason of good and evil; and what- 
ever Christ doth he doth none of his subjects any wrong, but rights those that 
do suffer wrong, " He loveth righteousness, and hateth wickedness," ver. 7. He 
himself loves to do righteousness, and hates to do wickedness; and he loves 
those that do righteousness, and hates those that do wickedness. By the holi- 
ness of his life, the merit of his death, and the great design of his Gospel, he has 
made it to appear that he loves righteousness, for by his example, his satisfac- 
tion, and his precepts, he has brought in an everlasting righteousness ; and that 
he hates wickedness, for never did God's hatred of sin appear so as it did in the 
sufferings of Christ. 

3. The establishment and elevation of it. "Therefore God, even thy God," 
(Christ, as mediator, called God his God, Jno. xx. 17, as commissioned by 
him ; and the head of those that are taken into covenant with him,) he "has 
anointed thee with the oil of gladness ;" therefore, that is, 1st. In order to this 
righteous government of thine, God has given thee his Spirit, that Divine 
unction, to qualify thee for thine undertaking ; Isa. lxi. 1, " The Spirit of the 
Lord God is upon me, because he has anointed me." What God called him to 
he fitted him for, Isa. xi. 2. The Spirit is called the oil of gladness, because of 
the delight wherewith Christ was filled in carrying on his undertaking. He 
was anointed with the Spirit above all his fellows, that is, above all those that 
were anointed, whether priests or kings. 2nd. In recompence of what thou 
hast done and suffered for the advancement of righteousness, and the destruc- 
tion of sin, God has anointed thee with the oil of gladness ; that is, has brought 
thee to all the honours and all the joys of thine exalted state; " Because he 
humbled himself, God has highly exalted him," Phil. ii. 8, 9. His anointing him 
notes the power and glory to which he is exalted ; he is invested in all the dig- 
nities and authorities of the Messiah ; and his anointing him with the oil of 

5iadness, notes the joy that was set before him, (so his exaltation is expressed, 
ieb. xii. 2,) both in the light of his Father's countenance, Acts ii. 2S ; and in the 
success of his undertaking, w r hich he shall see and be satisfied, Isa. hii. 11. This 
he is anointed with above all his fellows, that is, above all believers, who are his 
brethren, and who partake of the anointing; but they by measure, he without 
measure. But the apostle brings it to prove his preeminence above the angels, 
Heb. i. 4, 9. The salvation of sinners is the joy of angels, Lu. xv. 10, but much 
more of the Son. 
Secondly. He keeps his court with splendour and magnificence. 

1. His robes of state, wherein he appears, are taken notice of, not for their 
pomp, which might strike an aw r e upon the spectator, but their pleasantness and 
the gratefulness of the odours with which they were perfumed ; ver. 8, " They 
smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia," compounding the oil of gladness with which 
he and his garments were anointed.^ These were some of the ingredients of the 
holy anointing oil which God appointed, the like to which was not to be made 
up for any common use, Ex. xxx. 23, 24, which was typical of the unction of the 
Spirit, which Christ the great high priest of our profession received, and to 
which, therefore, there seems here to be a reference. It is the savour of these 
good ointments, his graces and comforts, that draws souls to him, Cant. i. 3, 4, 
and makes him precious to believers, 1 Pet. ii. 7. 

2. His royal palaces are said to be ivory ones, such as were then reckoned 
most magnificent. _ We read of an ivory house tnat Ahab made, 1 Kin. xxi. 39. 
The mansions of light above are the ivory palaces whence all the joys both of 
Christ and believers come, and where they will be for ever in perfection ; for by 
them he is made glad, and all that are his with him j for they shall enter into 
the joy of their Lord. 



218 PSALM XLV. 

3. T*he beauties of his court shine- very bright. In public appearances at 
court, when the pomp of it is shewed, nothing is supposed to contribute so 
much to it as the splendour of the ladies, which is alluded to here, ver. 9. 

1st. Particular believers are here compared to the ladies at court, richly 
dressed, in honour of the sovereign. " Kings' daughters are among thy honour- 
able women," whose looks, and mien, and ornaments, we may suppose, by the 
height of their extraction, to excel all others. All true believers are born from 
above ; they are the children of the King of kings, these attend the throne of the 
Lord Jesus' daily with their prayers and praises, which is really their honour, 
and he is pleased to reckon it his. The numbering of kings' daughters among 
his honourable woman, or maids of honour, intimates that the kings^ whose 
daughters they were should be tributaries to him, and dependants on him, and 
would therefore think it a preferment to their daughters to attend him. 

2nd. The church in general, constituted of these particular believers, is hero 
compared to the queen herself, the queen consort, which by an everlasting cove- 
nant he hath betrothed to himself. She stands at his right hand, near to 
him, and receiving honour from him, in the richest array, in gold of Ophir, in 
robes woven with gold thread, or with a gold chain, and other ornaments of 
gold. This is the bride, the /-.amb's wife, whose graces, that are her ornaments, 
are compared to fine linen , c^ea.n and white, Rev. xix. 8, for their purity ; here 
to gold of Ophir, for their costliness ; for as we owe our redemption, so we 
owe our adorning, not to corruptible things, but to the precious blood of the 
{Son of God. 

10 Hearken, 0 daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; 
Forget also thine own people, and thy father s house ; 

1 1 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty : 
For he is thy Lord ; and worship thou him. 

12 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift ; 
Even the rich among the people shall in treat thy favour. 

13 The king's daughter is all glorious within : 
Her clothing is of wrought gold. 

1 4 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle- 
The virgins her companions that follow her [work : 
Shall be brought unto thee. 

1 5 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought : 
They shall enter into the king's palace. 

J 6 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, 

Whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. 

] 7 I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: 
Therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever. 

This latter part of the psalm is addressed to the royal bride, standing on the 
right hand of the royal Bridegroom. God, that said to the Son, " Thy throne 
is for ever and ever." saith this to the church, who upon the account of her 
espousals to the Son, he here calls his daughter. 

First. He tells her of the duties expected from her, which ought to be 
considered by all those that come into relation to the Lord Jesus : Hearken 
therefore, and consider" this, "and incline thine ear:" that is, submit to those 
conditions of thine espousals, and bring thy will to comply with them. This is 
the method of profiting by the Word of God; " He that hath ears let him hear," 
let him hearken diligently: he that hearkens, let him consider and weigh it 
duly; he that considers, let him incline, and yield to the force of what is laid 
before him. And what is it that is here required? 

1. She must renounce all others; " Forget thine own people and thy father's 
house/' according to the law of -marriage ; retain not the affection thou hast 
had for them, nor covet to return to them again; banish all such remembrance 
(not only of thy people that were dear to thee, but of thy father's house tnat 
was dearer,) as may incline thee to look back, as Lot's wife to Sodom. When 
Abraham, in obedience to God"s call, had quitted his native soil, he was not 
so much as "mindful of the country from whence he came out." This shews. 



PSALM XL Y. 219 

1st. How necessary it was for those who were converted from Judaism or 
paganism to the faith of Christ, wholly to cast out the old leaven, and not 
to bring into their Christian profession either the Jewish ceremonies or the 
heathen idolatries, for these would make such a mongrel religion in Christianity 
as the Samaritans had. 2nd. How necessary it is for us all when we give up 
our names to Jesus Christ to hate father and mother, and all that is dear to us 
in this world, in comparison ; that is, to love them less than Christ and his 
honour, and our interest in him, Lu. xiv. 26. And here is very good encourage- 
ment given to the royal bride thus entirely to break off from her former 
alliances ; " So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty," which intimates that 
the mixing of her old rites and customs, whether Jewish or Gentile, with her 
religion, would blemish her beauty, and would be in danger of losing her 
interest in the affections of the royal Bridegroom ; but if she entirely con- 
formed to his will he would delight in her. The beauty of holiness, both on 
the church and on particular believers, is in the sight of Christ of great price, 
and very amiable. Where that is he saith, " This is my rest for ever : here will 
I dwell ; for I have desired it." Among the golden candlesticks he walks with 
pleasure, Rev. ii. 1. 

2. She must reverence him ; must love, honour, and obey him ; " He is thy 
Lord, and worship thou him." The church is to be subject to Christ, as the 
wife to the husband, JEph. v. 24 ; to call him Lord as Sarah called Abraham, 
and to obey him, 1 Pet. iii. 6; and so not only to submit to his government, but 
to give him Divine honours. "We must worsnip him as God, and our Lord ; for 
this is the will of God, that " all men should honour the Son, even as they 
honour the Father;" nay, in so doing, it is reckoned that they honour the 
Father. If we confess that Christ is Lord, and pay our homage to him accord- 
ingly, it is to the glory of God the Father, Phil. ii. 11. 

Secondly. He tells her of the honours designed for her. 

1. Great court should be made to her, and rich presents brought her ; ver. 12, 
" The daughter of Tyre," a rich and splendid city, " the daughter of the king 
of Tyre, shall be there with a gift;" every royal family round about shall send 
a branch as a representative of the whole, to seek thy favour, and to make an 
interest in thee ; " even the rich among the people," whose wealth might be 
thought to discharge them from dependence at court, yet they " shall entreat 
thy favour," for his sake to whom thou art espoused, that by thee they may 
make him their friend. The Jews, the pretending Jews, who are rich to a pro- 
verb, — as rich as a Jew, — shall come and worship before the church's feet in 
the Philadelphian period, and shall know that Christ has loved her, Rev. iii. 9. 

I When the Gentiles, being converted to the faith of Christ, join themselves 
j to the church, they then come w 7 ith a gift, 2 Cor. viii. 5 ; Mom. xv. 16 ; when 
! with themselves they devote all they have to the honour of Christ and the 
service of his kingdom, they then come with a gift. 

2. She shall be very splendid and highly esteemed in the eyes of all ; 1st. For 
! her personal qualifications, the endowments of her mind, which every one shall 
i admire ; ver. 13, " The king's daughter is all glorious within." Note, The glory 

of the church is spiritual glory, and that is indeed all glory : it is the glory 
of the soul, and that is the man ; it is glory in God's sight, and it is an earnest 
of eternal glory. The glory of the saints falls not within the ken of a carnal 
eye. As their life, so their glory, is hid with Christ in God, neither can the 
natural man know it, for it is spiritually discerned ; but those who do so 
i discern it highly value it. Let us see here what is that true glory which we 
! should be ambitious of, not that which makes a fair show in the flesh ? but 
j which is in " the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible," 
I Pet. iii. 4; "Whose praise is not of men, but of God," Rom. ii. 29. 2nd. For 
: her rich apparel. Though all her glory is within, that for which she is truly 
valuable, yet her clothing also is of wrought gold. The conversation of Chris- 
tians, in which they appear in the world, must be enriched with good works ; 
not gay and gaudy ones, like paint and nourish, but substantially good, like 
gold; and it must be accurate and exact, like wrought gold, which is worked 
with a great deal of care and caution. 

3. Her nuptials shall be celebrated with a great deal of honour and joy ; 
ver. 14, 15, "She shall be brought to the king," as the Lord God brought the 
woman to the man, Gen. ii. 22, which was a type of this mystical marriage 

j between Christ and his church. None are brought to Christ but whom the 
| Father brings, and he has undertaken to do it ; so brought to the king, ver. 14, 
} as to enter into the king's palace, ver. 15, which intimates a two -fold bringing 
I of the spouse to Christ: 1st. In the conversion of souls to Christ; then they 
\ are espoused to him, privately contracted, as chaste virgins, 2 Cor. xi. 2 ; 
Rom. vii. 4. 2nd. In the completing of the mystical body, and the glorification 
of all the saints at the end of time. Then the bride, the Lamb's wife, shall 
be made completely ready, when all that belong to the election of grace shall 
be called in, and called home, and all gathered together to Christ, 2 The*, ii. U 



220 



PSALM XL VI. 



Then is the marriage of the Lamb come, Rev. xix. 7 ; xxi. 2, and the virgins 
go forth to meet the bridegroom, Mat. xxv. 1 ; then they shall enter into the 
king s palaces, into the heavenly mansions, to be ever with the Lord. In both 
these espousals, observe to the honour of the royal bride, First. Her wedding 
clothes, raiment of needlework, the righteousness of Christ, the graces of the 
Spirit, both curiously wrought by Divine wisdom. Secondly. Her bridemaids, 
"the virgins her companions," the wise virgins that have oil in their vessels as 
well as in their lamps, those that being joined to the church cleave to it. and 
follow it, these shall go in to tae marriage. Thirdly. The mirth with which 
the nuptials will be celebrated; "with gladness and rejoicing shaii she pe 
brought." When the prodigal is brought home to his father, "it is meet that 
we should make merry and be glad," Lu. xv. 32; and when the marriage of the 
Lamb is come, "let us be glad and rejoice," Rev. xix. 7; for the "day of his 
espousals is the day of the gladness of his heart," Cant. iii. 11. 

4. The progeny of this marriage shall be illustrious; ver. 16, "Instead of the 
fathers, shall be thy children." Instead of the Old Testament church, the 
economy of which was waxen old, and ready to vanish away, Heb. tiii. 13. as the 
fathers that are going off, there shall be a New Testament church, a Gentile 
church, that shall be grafted into the same olive, and partake of its root and 
fatness, Rom. xi. 17 ; more " and more eminent " shall be the children of the 
desolate, than the children of the married wife," Isa. liv. 1. This promise to 
Christ is of the same import with that Isa. liii. 10, " He shall see his seed," and 
these shall be made " princes in all the earth," that is, there shall be some of all 
nations brought into subjection to Christ, and so made princes, "made to our 
God kings and priests," Rev. i. 6. Or it may intimate that there should be a 
much greater number of Christian kings than ever there was of Jewish kings; 
those in Canaan only, — these in all the earth; nursing fathers, and nursing 
mothers to the church, which shall suck the breasts of kings. They are princes 
of Christ's making ; for by him kings reign, and princes decree justice. 

5. The praise of this marriage shall be perpetual, in the praises of the royal 
Bridegroom; ver. 18, " I will make thy name to be remembered." His Father 
has given him a name above every name, and here promiseth to make it per- 
petual, by keeping up a succession of ministers and Christians in every age that 
should bear up his name, which shall thus endure for ever, Ps. lxxii. 17, by 
being remembered in all the generations of time, for the entail of Christianity 
shall not be cut off. Therefore, because they shall remember thee in all gene- 
rations, they shall praise thee for ever and ever. They that help to support the 
honour of Christ on earth shall in heaven see his glory, and share in it, and be 
for ever praising him. In the believing hope of our everlasting happiness in the 
other world, let us always keep up the remembrance of Christ, as our only way 
thither in our generation ; and, in assurance of the perpetuating of the kingdom 
of the Redeemer in the world., let us transmit the remembrance of him to 
succeeding generations, that his " name may endure for ever, and be as the 
days of heaven." 

PSALM XLYI. 

This psalm encourageth us to hope and trust in God. and his power and providence, and 
gracious presence with his church in the worst of times, and directs us to give him the 
glory of what he has done for us, and what he will do. Probably it was penned upon 
occasion of David's victories over the neighbour nations. 2 Sam. viii., and the rest 
which God gave him from all his enemies round about. We are here taught, I. To 
take comfort in God when things look very black and threatening, ver. 1 — 5. II. To 
mention to his praise the great things he has wrought for the church against its enemies, 
ver. 6 — 9. III. To assure ourselves that God, who hath glorified his own name, will 
glorify it yet again, and to comfort ourselves with that, ver. 10, 11. We may, in sing- 
ing it, apply it either to our spiritual enemies, and the encouragement we have to hope 
that through Christ we shall be more than conquerors over them, or to the public enemies 
of Christ's kingdom in the world, and their threatening insults, endeavouring to pre- 
serve a holy security and serenity of mind when they seem most formidable. It is said 
of Luther, that when he heard any discouraging news, he would say, ' Come, let us sing 
the forty-sixth psalm.' 

To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. 

GOD is our refuge and strength, 
A very present help in trouble. 
2 Therefore wi]l not we fear, 

Though the earth be removed, [the sea; 

And though the mountains be carried into the midst of 



PSALM XLYI. 221 

3 Though the "waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. 

4 There is a river, [Selah. 
The streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, 
The holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. 

5 God is in the midst of her , 
She shall not be moved : 

God shall help her, and that right early. 

The psalmist here teacheth us by his own example, 

First. To triumph in God, and his relation to us, and presence with us s 
especially when we have had some fresh experiences of his appearing on our 
behalf; ver. 1, " God is our refuge and strength we have found him so, he 
has engaged to be so, and he ever will be so. Are we pursued ? God is our 
refuse, to whom we may flee, and in whom we may be safe, and think ourselves 
so, — secure upon good grounds, Pr. xviii. 10. Are we oppressed by troubles? 
Have we work to do, and enemies to grapple with? > God is our strength to 
bear us up under burthens — to fit us for all our services and sufferings ; who 
will by his grace put strength into us, and on whom we may stay ourselves. 
Are we in distress ? He is a help, to do all that for us which we need, " a 
present help," 'a help found,' so the word is, that is, one whom we have found 
to be so ; a help on which we may write, probatum est, — 'it is tried,' as Christ is 
called a "tried stone," Isa. xxviii. 16. Or, a help at hand, that is never to seek, 
but is always ready to be found of us ; or, a help sufficient, a help accommodated 
to every case and exigence. Whatever it is, he is " a very present help;" we 
cannot desire a better help, nor shall ever find the like in any creature. 

Secondly. To triumph over the greatest dangers. " God is our strength and 
our help," a God all-sufficient to us, " therefore will not we fear." Those that 
with a holy reverence fear God need not with any amazement to be afraid of 
the power of hell or earth ; " If God be for us, who can be against us " to do 
us any harm? It is our duty, it is our privilege, to be thus fearless: it is an 
evidence of a clear conscience, of an honest heart, and of a lively faith in God 
and his providence and promise ; " We will not fear, though the earth be 
removed," though all our creature-confidences fail us, and sink us ; nay, though 
that which should support us threaten to swallow us up, as the earth did 
Korah, for whose sons this psalm was penned, and some think by them, yet 
while we keep close to God, and have him for us, we will not fear, for we have 
no cause to fear. 

Et sifractus illdbatur orbis 

Impavidum ferient ruince. 

Let Jove's dread arms with thunder rend the spheres, 
Beneath the crush of worlds undaunted he appears Hor. 

Observe here, 

1. How threatening the danger is. We will suppose the earth to be removed 
and thrown into the sea, even the mountains, the strongest and firmest parts 
of the earth, to lie buried in the unfathomed ocean, — we will suppose the sea 
to roar and rage, and make a dreadful noise, and its foaming billows to insult 
the shore with so much violence as even to shake the mountains, ver. 3 ; though 
kingdoms and states be in confusion, embroiled in wars, tossed with tumults, 
and their governments in continual revolution; though their powers combine 
against the church and people of God, aim at no less than their ruin, and go 
very near to gain their point, "yet will not we fear,*' knowing that all these 
troubles will end well for the church: see Ps. xciii. 4. If the earth be re- 
moved, those have reason to fear that have laid up their treasures on earth, 
and set their hearts upon it, but not those who have laid up for themselves 
treasures in heaven, and who then expect to be most happy, when "the earth 
and the works that are therein shall be burnt up." Let those be troubled 
at the troubling of the waters who build their confidence on such a floating 
foundation, but not those who are led to " the rock that is higher than they," 
^nd find firm footing upon that rock. 

2. How well-grounded the defiance of this danger is, considering how well- 
guarded the church is, and that interest which we are concerned for. It is not 
any private particular concern of our own that we are in pain about ; no ? it is 
" the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High;" it is the 
ark of God for which our hearts tremble. But when we consider what God 
has provided for the comfort and safety of his church we shall see reason to 
have our hearts fixed, and set above the fear of evil tidings. Here is, 



222 PSALM XLVi. 

1st. Joy to the church, even in the most melancholy and sorrowful times ; 
ver. 4, " There is a river, the streams whereof shall make it glad," even then 
when the waters of the sea roar and threaten it. It alludes to the waters of 
Siloam, which went softly by Jerusalem, Isa. viii. 6, 7, and though of no great 
depth or breadth, yet the waters of it were made serviceable to the defence 
of Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time,/.?a. xxii. 10, 11. But this here must be under- 
stood spiritually: the covenant of grace is trie river, the promises of which are 
the streams; the Spirit of grace is the river, Jno. vii. 38, 39, the comforts of 
which are " the streams that make glad the city of our God." God's word and 
ordinances are rivers and streams with which God makes his saints glad in 
cloudy and dark days. God himself is to his church a place of "broad rivers 
and streams," Isa. xxviii. 21. The streams that make glad the city of God are 
not rapid, but gentle, like those of Siloam. Note, The spiritual comforts which 
are conveyed to the saints by soft and silent w r hispers, and w r hich come not with 
observation, are sufficient to balance the most loud and noisy threatenings of 
an angry and malicious world. 

2nd. Establishment to the church. Though heaven and earth are shaken, yet 
" God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved," ver. 5. God has assured 
his church of his special presence with it, and concern for it ; his honour is em- 
barked in it, he hath set up his tabernacle in it, and has undertaken the protec- 
tion of it, and therefore she shall not be moved : that is, First. Not destroyed, 
not removed, as the earth may be, ver. 2. The church shall survive the w r orld, 
and be in bliss when that is in ruins. ^ It is built upon a ruck, and " the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it." Secondly. Not disturbed, not much moved 
with fears of the issue. If God be for us, if God be with us, we need not be 
moved at the most violent attempts made against us. 

3rd. Deliverance to the church. Though its dangers be very great, " God shall 
help her," and then wh^ ';an hurt her? help her under her troubles, tnat she 
shall not sink ; nay, that the more she is afflicted, the more she shall multiply. 
"God shall help her" out of her troubles, "and that right early;" when the 
morning appeareth, that is, very speedily, for he is a present help, ver. 1 ; and 
very seasonably ; then when things are brought to the last extremity, and when 
the relief will be most welcome. This may l>e applied by particular believers 
themselves - if God be in our hearts, in the midst of us by his word dwelling 
richly in us, we shall be established, we shall be helped ; let us therefore trust 
and not be afraid ; all is well and will end well. 

6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved : 
He uttered his voice, the eardi melted 

7 The Lord of hosts is with us ; 

The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 

8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, 
What desolations he hath made in the earth. 

9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth • 
He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder ; 
He burneth the chariot in the fire. 

10 Be still, and know that I am God : 

I will be exalted among the heathen, 
I will be exalted in the earth. 

1 1 The Lord of hosts is with us ; 

The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 

These verses give glory to God both as King of nations and as King of saints. 

First. As King of nations, ruling the world by his power and providence, and 
overruling all the affairs of the children of men to his own glory. He doth 
according to his will among the inhabitants of the earth, and none may say, 
"What dost thou?" 

1. He checks the rage, and breaks the power, of the nations that oppose him 
and his interest in the world ; ver. 6, " The heathen raged" at David's coming to 
the throne, and at the setting up of the kingdom of the Son of David: com- 
pare Ps. ii. I, 2. "The kingdoms w r ere moved'' with indignation, and rose in a 
tumultuous, furious manner, to oppose it ; but God "uttered his voice, spake to 
them in hi> wrath," and they were moved in another sense, they were struck 
into confusion and consternation put into disorder, and all their measures 



PSALM XLVL 223 

broke, the earth itself melted under them, so that they found no firm footing, 
their earthly hearts failed them for fear, and dissolved like snow before the 
sun. Such a colliquation of the spirits of the enemies is described, Jud. v. 4, 5 ; 
and see Lu. xxi. 25, 26. 

2. When he pleaseth to draw his sword and give it commission he can make 
great havoc among the nations, and lay all waste ; ver. 8, " Come, behold the 
works of the Lord ;" they are to be observed, Ps. lxvi. 5, and to be sought out, 
Ps. cxi. 2. All the operations of Providence must be considered as the works 
of the Lord, and his attributes and purposes must be taken notice of in them. 
Particularly take notice of the " desolations be hath made in the earth," among 
the enemies of his church, who thought to have laid the land of Israel desolate. 
The destruction they designed to bring upon the church has been turned upon 
themselves. War is a tragedy which commonly destroys the stage it is acted 
on ; David carried the war into the enemy's country ; and O what desolations 
did it make there ! cities were burnt, countries laid waste, armies of men cut 
off and laid heaps upon heaps. Come and see the effects of desolating judg- 
ments, and stand in awe of God ; say, " How terrible art thou in thy works !" 
Ps. lxvi. 3. Let all that oppose him see this with terror, and expect the same 
cup of trembling to be put into their hands ; let all that fear him, and trust in 
him, see it with pleasure, and not be afraid of the most formidable powers 
armed against the church. Let them gird themselves, but they shall be broken 
to pieces. 

3. When he pleaseth to sheathe his sword, he puts an end to the wars of the 
nations, and crowns them with peace, ver. 9. War and peace depend on his 
word and will as much as storms and calms at sea do, Ps. cvii. 25, 29. "He 
maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth;" sometimes in pity to the 
nations, that they may have a breathing time, when by long wars with each 
other they have run themselves out of breath. Both sides perhaps are weary of 
the war, and willing to let it fall ; expedients are found out for accommodation ; 
martial princes are removed, ana peacemakers set in their room ; and then the 
bow is broken by consent, the spear cut asunder, and turned into a pruning- 
*hook, and the sword beaten into a ploughshare; and the chariots of war burned, 
there being no more occasion for them. Or rather it may be meant of what 
he doth at other times in favour of his own people. He maketh those wars to 
cease that were waged against them, and designed for their ruin. He breaks 
the enemy's bow that was drawn against them ; " No weapon formed against 
Zion shall prosper," Isa. liv. 16. The total destruction of Gog and Magog is 
prophetically described by the burning of their weapons of war, J^ze. xxxix. 9, 10 ; 
which intimates likewise the church's perfect security and assurance of lasting 
peace, which made it needless to lay up those weapons of war for their own 
service. The bringing of a long war to a good issue is a work of the Lord which 
we ought to behold with wonder and thankfulness. 

Secondly. As King of saints ; and as such we must own that " great and mar- 
vellous are his works," Rev. xv. 3. He doth and will do great things, 

1. For his own glory • ver. 10, " Be still, and know that I am God." 1st. Let 
his enemies be still, and threaten no more, but know it to their terror that he is 
God, one infinitely above them, and that will certainly be too hard for them. Let 
them rage no more, for it is all in vain, he that sits in heaven laughs at them ; 
and in spite of all their impotent malice against his name and honour he " will be 
exalted among the heathen," and not only among his own people ; he "will be 
exalted in the earth," and not only in the church. Men will set up themselves, 
will have their own way, and do their own will, but let them know that God 
will be exalted, he will have his way ; will do his own will, will glorify his own 

I name, and " \n herein they deal proudly he will be above them," and make them 
: know that he is so. 2nd. Let his own people be still, let tnem be calm and 
sedate, and tremble no more, but know to their comfort that the Lord is God ; 
he is God alone, and " he will be exalted above the heathen." Let him alone to 
maintain his honour, to fulfil his own counsels, and to support his own interest 
: in the world. Though we be depressed, yet let us not be dejected, for we are 
sure God will be exalted, and that may satisfy us ; he will work for his great 
name, and then no matter what becomes of our little names. When we pray, 
" Father, glorify thy name," we ought to act faith upon the answer given to that 
prayer when Christ himself prayed it, " I have both glorified it, and will glorify 
it yet again." Amen, Lord, so be it. 

2. For his people's safety and protection. He triumphs in the former : " I will 
be exalted;" they triumph in this, ver. 7, and again, ver. 11. It is the burthen 
of the song, " The Lord of hosts is with us," he is on our side, he takes our part, 
is present with us, and president over us, and "the God of Jacob is our refuge," 
to whom we may flee, and in w 7 hom we may confide and be sure of safety. Let 
all believers triumph in this. 1st. They have the presence of a God of power, 
of ail power : " The Lord of hosts is with us." God is the Lord of hosts, for he 



224 PSALM XLVII. 

lias all the creatures which are called the hosts of heaven and earth at his beck 
and command, and he makes what use he pleaseth of them, as the instruments 
either of his justice or of his mercy. This sovereign Lord is with us, sides with 
us, acts with us, and has promised he will never leave us. Hosts may be against 
us, but we need not fear them if the Lord of hosts be with us. 2nd. They are 
under the protection of a God in covenant; who not only is able to help 
them, but is engaged in honour and faithfulness to help them. He is the God of 
Jacob, not only Jacob the person, but Jacob the people ; nay, and of all praying 
people, the spiritual seed of wrestling Jacob: and he is our refuge, by whom 
we are sheltered, and in whom we are satisfied, who by his providence secures 
our welfare, when without are fightings ; and who by his grace quiets our minds, 
and establisheth them, when within are fears. The Lord of hosts, the God of 
Jacob, has been, is, and will be, with us ; has been, is, and will be, our refuge ; 
the original includes all ; and well may " Selah" be added to it. Mark this, and 
take the comfort of it, and say, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" 

PSALM XLVII. 

The scope of this psalm is to stir us up to praise God, to stir up all people to do it. And 

1. "We are directed in what manner to do it: publicly, cheerfully, and intelligently, 
ver. 1, 6, 7. II. We are furnished with matter for praise: I. God's majesty, ver. 2; 

2. His sovereign and universal dominion, ver. 2, 7 — 9 ; 3. The great things he had 
done and would do for his people, ver. 3 — 5. Many suppose that this psalm was penned 
upon occasion of the bringing up of the ark to mount Zion, which ver. 5 seems to refer 
to, " God is gone up with a shout;" but it looks farther to the ascension of Christ into 
the heavenly Zion, after he had finished his undertaking on earth, and to the setting 
up of his kingdom in the world, to which the heathen should become willing sub- 
jects. In singing this psalm we are to give honour to the exalted Redeemer, to rejoice 
in his exaltation, and to celebrate his praises, confessing that he is Lord, to the glory of 
God the Father. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. 

OCLAP your hands, all ye people ; 
Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. 

2 For the Lord most high is terrible ; 
He is a great King over all the earth 

3 He shall subdue the people under us, 
And the nations under our feet. 

4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, 

The excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. 

The psalmist, having his own heart filled with great and good thoughts of 
God, endeavours to engage all about him in the blessed work of praise ; as one 
convinced that God is worthy of all blessing and praise, and as one grieved at 
his own and others' backwardness to, and barrenness in, this work. Observe in 

First. Who are called upon to praise God; "All ye people," all ye people of 
Israel. Those were his own subjects, and under his charge, and therefore he 
'will engage them to praise God, for on them he has an influence. Whatever 
others do, he and his house, he and his people, shall praise the Lord. Or, All 
ye people and nations of the earth; and so it may be taken as a prophecy 
f the conversion of the Gentiles, and the bringing of them into the church: 

&e Secondly^ What they are called upon to do : " O clap your hands," in token of 
your own joy and satisfaction in what God has done for you; of your approba- 
tion nay, your admiration, of what God has done in general; and of your indig- 
nation against all the enemies of God's glory, Job xxvii. 23. Clap your hands, 
a« men transported with pleasure, that cannot contain themselves; "shout unto 
God." not* to make him hear, — his ear is not heavy,— but to make all about you 
hear' and take notice how 7 much you are affected and tilled with the works of 
God! Shout with the voice of triumph in him, and in his power and goodness, 
that others may join with you in the triumph. Note, Such expressions of pious 
and devout affections, as to some may seem indecent and imprudent, yet ought 
not to be hastily censured and condemned, much less ridiculed, because if they 
tome from an upright heart God will accept the strength of the affection, ang 
axcuse the weakness of the expressions of it. 
Thirdly. W T hat is suggested to us as matter for our praises, 
g That the God with whom we have to do is a God of awful majesty; ver. S* 



PSALM XLVII. 225 

w The Lord most high is terrible." He is infinitely above the noblest creatures, 
higher than the highest; there are those perfections in him that are to be 
reverenced by all, and particularly that power, holiness, and justice, that are to 
be dreaded by all those that contend with him. 

2. That he is a God of sovereign and universal dominion ; he is a King that 
reigns alone, and with an absolute power, a King over all the earth ; ail the 
creatures, being made by him, are subject to him; and therefore he is a great 
King, the King of kings. ■ 

3. That he takes a particular care of his people and their concerns, has done 
so, and ever will ; 

1st. In giving them victory and success, ver. 3. Subduing the people and 
nations under them, both those that stood in their way, Ps. xliv. 2, and those 
that made attempts upon them. This God had done for them ; witness the 
planting of them in Canaan, and their continuance there unto this day. This 
thev doubted not but he would still do for them by his servant David, who 
prospered which way soever he turned his victorious arms; but this looks 
forward to the kingdom of the Messiah, which was to be set over all the earth, 
and not confined to the Jewish nation. Jesus Christ shall subdue the Gentiles. 
He shall bring them in as sheep into the fold, so the word signifies, not for 
slaughter, but for preservation. He shall subdue their affections, and make 
them a willing people in the day of his power ; shall bring their thoughts into 
obedience to him, and reduce them which had gone astray under the conduct 
of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, 1 Pet. ii. 25. 

2nd. In giving them rest and settlement ; ver. 4, " He shall choose our inherit- 
ance for us." He had chosen the land of Canaan to be an inheritance for Israel ; 
it was the land which the Lord their God spied out for them : see Deu. xxxii. 8. 
This justified their possession of that land, and gave them a good title ; and this 
sweetened their enjoyment of it, and made it comfortable. They had reason to 
think it a happy lot, and to be satisfied in it, when it was that which Infinite 
Wisdom chose for them. And the setting up of God's sanctuary in it, made it 
the excellency, the honour of Jacob, Am. vi. 8; and he chose so good an inherit- 
ance for Jacob because he loved him, Deu. vii. 8. Apply this spiritually, and it 
speaks, First. The happiness of the saints, that God himself hath chosen their 
inheritance for them, and it is a goodly heritage. He has chosen it who knows 
the soul, and what will serve to make it happy, and he has chosen so well that 
he himself has undertaken to be the inheritance of his people, Ps. xvi. 5, and he 
has laid up for them in the other world an inheritance incorruptible, 1 Pet, i. 4. 
This will be indeed "the excellency of Jacob," whom because he loved, he pre- 
pared for them such a happiness as eye has not seen. Secondly. The faith and 
submission of the saints to God. This k the language of every gracious soul, 
God shall choose my inheritance for me, let him appoint me my lot, and I will 
acquiesce in the appointment. He knows what is good for me better than 1 
do for myself, and therefore I will have no will of my own but what is resolved 
into his. 

5 God is gone up with a shout, 

The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. 

6 Sing praises to God, sing praises : 

Sing praises unto our King, sing praises. 

7 For God is the King of all the eaxth : 
Sing ye praises with understanding. 

8 God reigneth over the heathen : 

God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. 

9 The princes of the people are gathered together, 
Even the people of the God of Abraham 

For the shields of the earth belong unto God : 
He is greatly exalted. 

We are here most earnestly pressed to praise God, and to sing his praises. So 
backward are we to this duty, that we have need to be urged to it by precept 
upon precept ? and line upon line ; so we are here, ver. 6, " Sing praises to God," 
and again, * sing praises. Sing praises to our King," and again, " sing praises." 
This intimates that it is a very necessary and excellent duty, that it is a duty we 
ought to be frequent and abundant in ; we may sing praises again and again in 
the same words, and it is no vain repetition if it be done with new affections. 
Should not a people praise their God? Dan. v. 4. Should not subjects praise 

p 



226 PSALM XLVII. 

their king ? God is our God, our King, and therefore we must praise him; we 
must sing his praises, as those that are pleased with them, and that are not 
ashamed of them. But here is a needful rule subjoined, ver. 7, " Sing ye praises 
with understanding,*' with maschil. I. Intelligently ; as those that do yourselves 
understand why and for what reasons you praise God, and what is the meaning 
of the service. This is the Gospel rule, 1 Cor. xiv. J 5, to " sing with the Spirit, 
and with the understanding also." It is only with the heart that we make 
melody to the Lord, Eph. v. 19. It is not an acceptable service if it be not a 
reasonable service. 2. Instructively; as those that desire to make others under- 
stand God's glorious perfections, and to teach them to praise him. Three things 
are mentioned in these verses as just matter for our praises, and each of them 
will admit of a double sense : 

First. We must praise God going up ; ver. 5, " God is gone up with a shout;" 
which may refer, 1. To the carrying up of the ark to the hill of Zion, which 
was done with great solemnity, David himself dancing before it ; the priests, 
it is likely, blowing the trumpets, and the people following with their loud 
huzzas. The ark being the instituted token of God's special presence with 
them, when that was brought up by warrant from him, he might be said to go 
up; and the emerging of God's ordinances out of obscurity, iu order to the 
more public and solemn administration of them, is a great favour to any people, 
which they have reason to rejoice in, and give thanks for. 2. To the ascension 
of our Lord Jesus into heaven when he had finished his work on earth, Acts i. 9. 
Then " God went up with a shout," the shout of a king, of a conqueror, as 
one that, having spoiled principalities and powers, then led captivity captive, 
Ps. lxviii. IS. He went up as Mediator, typified by the ark and the mercy-seat 
over it, and was brought as the ark was into the most holy place, that is, into 
heaven itself: see Heb. ix. 24. We read not of a shout, or the sound of a 
trumpet, at the ascension of Christ; but they were the inhabitants of the upper 
world, those sons of God that then shouted for joy, Job xxxviii. 7. He shall 
come again in the same manner as he went, Acts i. 11 ; and we are sure he shall 
come again with a shout, and the sound of a trumpet. 

Secondly. We must praise God reigning, ver. 7 ; 8. God is not only our king, 
and therefore we ov\ e our homage to him, but he is king of all the earth, ver. 7, 
over all the kings of the earth, and therefore in every place the incense of praise 
is to be offered up to him. Now this may be understood, 1. Of the kingdom 
of providence. God, as Creator and the God of nature, reigns over the heathen, 
disposeth of them and all their affairs as he pleaseth, though they know him 
not, nor have any regard to him. He sits upon the throne of his holiness, which 
he hath prepared in the heavens, and there he ruleth over all, even over the 
heathen, serving his own purposes by them and upon them. See here the extent 
of God's government. All are born within his allegiance; even the heathen that 
serve other gods, yet are ruled by the true God, our God, whether they will 
or no. See the equity of his government. It is a throne of holiness on which 
he sitSj whence he gives warrants, orders, and judgment, in which w e are sure 
there is no iniquity. 2. Of the kingdom of the Messiah. Jesus Christ, who 
is God, and whose throne is for ever and ever, reigns over the heathen ; not 
only is he intrusted with the administration of the providential kingdom, but 
he shall set up the kingdom of his grace in the Gentile world, and rule^in the 
hearts of multitudes that were bred up in heathenism, Eph. ii. 12, 13. This the 
apostle speaks of as a great mystery, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, 
Eph. iii. 6. Christ sits upon the throne of his holiness, his throne in the hea- 
vens, where all the administrations of his government are intended to shew 
forth God's holiness, and to advance holiness among the children of men. 

Thirdly. We must praise God as attended and honoured by the princes of the 
people, ver. 9. This may be understood, 1. Of the congress or convention 
of the states of Israel, the* heads and rulers of the several tribes, to the solemn 
feasts, or to despatch the public business of the nation. It was the honour of 
Israel that they were the people of the God of Abraham, as they were Abra- 
ham's seed, and taken into his covenant ; and thanks be to God this blessing 
of Abraham is come upon the isles of the Gentiles, Gal. iii. 14. It was their 
happiness that they had a settled government, princes of their people, who were 
the shields of their land. Magistracy is the shield of a nation, and it is a great 
mercy to any people to have this shield ; especially when their princes, their 
shields, belong unto the Lord, are devoted to his honour, and their power is 
employed in his service; for then he is greatly exalted. It is likewise the 
honour of God that in another sense the shields of the earth do belong to him; 
magistracy is his institution, and he serves his own purposes by it in the 
government of the world, turning the hearts of kings as the rivers of water 
w hich way soever he pleaseth. -It w^as well with Israel when the princes of 
their people were gathered together to consult for the public welfare. The 
unanimous agreement of the great ones of a nation, in the things that belong 
to its peace is a very happy omen, which promiseth abundance of blessings. 



PSALM XLVIII. 227 

2. It may be applied to the calling of the Gentiles into the church of Christ, 
and taken as a prophecy that in the days of the Messiah the kings of the earth 
and their people should join themselves to the church, and bring their glory 
and power into the new Jerusalem. That they should all become the people 
of the God of Abraham, to whom it was promised that he should be the father 
of many nations. The ' volunteers of the people ;' so it may be read. It is the 
same word that is used, Ps. ex. 3, " Thy people shall be willing ;" for those that 
are gathered to Christ are not forced, but made freely willing to be his. When 
the shields of the earth, the ensigns of royal dignity, 1 Kin. xiv. 27, 28, are sur- 
rendered to the Lord Jesus, as the keys of a city are presented to the conqueror 
or sovereign, when princes use their power for the advancement of the interests 
of religion, then Christ is greatly exalted. 

PSALM XLVIII. 

This psalm, as the two former, is a triumphant song. Some think it was penned on 
occasion of Jehoshaphat's victory, 2 Chr. xx. ; others, of the rout given to Sennacharib, 
when his army laid siege to Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time; but, for aught I know, it 
might be penned by David upon occasion of some eminent victory obtained in his time; 
yet not so calculated for that but that it might serve any other the like occasion in 
after times, and be applicable also to the glories of the gospel church, of which Jerusalem 
was a type, especially when it shall come to be a church triumphant, the heavenly 
Jerusalem, Heb. xii. 22 ; the Jerusalem which is above, Gal. iv. 26. Jerusalem is here 
praised, I. For its relation to God, ver. 1, 2. II. For God's care of it, ver. 3. III. For 
the terror it strikes upon its enemies, ver. 4 — 7. IV. For the pleasure it gives to its 
friends, who delight to think, 1. Of what God hath done, doth, and will do for it, 
ver. 8 ; 2. Of the gracious discoveries he makes of himself in and for that holy city,' 
ver. 9, 10; 3. Of the effectual provision which is made for its safety, ver. 1] — 13; 
4. Of the assurance we have of the perpetuity of God's covenant with the children of 
Zion, ver. 14. In singing this psalm, we must be affected with the privilege we have 
as members of the gospel church, and must express and excite our sincere good will to 
all its interests. 

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. 

GKEAT is the Lord, and greatly to be praised 
In the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness 
2 Beautiful for situation, 

The joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, 

On the sides of the north, the city of the great King. 




zion. Finden, 



223 PSALM XLVII1. 

3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge 

4 For, lo, the kings were assembled, 
They passed by together. 

5 They saw it, and so they marvelled ; 
They were troubled, and hasted away. 

6 Fear took hold upon them there, 
And pain, as of a woman in travail. 

7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish 
With an east wind. 




ANCIENT SHIPS. 



The psalmist is designing to praise Jerusalem, and to set forth the grandeur 
of that city ; but he begins with the praises of God and his greatness, ver. I, and 
ends with the praises of God and his goodness, ver. 14; for, whatever is the 
subject of our praises, God must be both the Alpha and Omega of them; and 
particularly, whatever is said to the honour of the church must redound to 
the honour of the church's God. What is here said to the honour of Jeru- 
salem is, 

First. That the King of heaven owns it. It is the city of our God, ver. 1, which 
he chose out of all the cities of Israel to put his name there ; and of Zion he said 
kinder things than ever he said of any place upon earth ; " This is my rest for 
ever : here will I dwell ; for 1 have desired it," Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14. It is the city 
of the great King, ver. 2, the King of all the earth, who is pleased to declare 
himself in a special manner present there. This our Saviour quotes to prove 
that to swear by Jerusalem is profanely to swear by God himself, Mat. v. 35, 
for it is the city of the great King, who has chosen it for the special residence 
of his grace, as heaven is of his glory. 

1. It is enlightened with the knowledge of God. "In Judah God is known," 
and his name is great, but especially in Jerusalem, the head-quarters of the 
priests, whose lips were to keep this knowledge. In Jerusalem God is great, 
ver. 1, who, in other places, was made little of, was made nothing of % Happy 
the kingdom, the city, the family, the heart, in which God is great, in which 
he is uppermost, in which he is 'all. There God is known, ver. 3; and where 
he is known he will be great: none contemn God but those that are ignorant 
of him. 

2. It is devoted to the honour of God. It is, therefore, called the "mountain 
of his holinesss," for, Holiness to the Lord, is written upon it, and all the furni- 
ture of it, Zee. xiv. 20, 21. This is the privilege of the church of Christ, that 
it is a holy nation, a peculiar people; Jerusalem, the type of it, is called the 
holy city, as bad as it was, Mat. xxvii. 53, till that was set up, but never after. 

3. It is the place appointed for the solemn service and worship of God. There 
he is greatly praised, and greatly to be praised, ver. 1. Note, The clearer 
discoveries are made to ns of God and his greatness, the more it is expected 
we should abound in his praises. They that from all parts of the countrv 
brought their olferings to Jerusalem, had reason to be thankful that God would 
not only permit them thus to attend him, but promise to accept them, and meet 
them with a blessing, and reckon himself praised and honoured by their ser- 
vices. Herein Jerusalem typified the Gospel church; for what little tribute 
of praise God has from this earth ariseth from that church upon earth, which 
is therefore his tabernacle among men. 

4. It is taken under his special protection, ver. 3. He is known for a refuge; 
that is, he has approved himself such a one, and as such a one he is there applied 
to by his worshippers. They that know him will trust in him, and seek to him, 



PSALM XLYIII. 229 

Ps. ix. 10. God was known not only in the streets, but even in the palaces 
of Jerusalem, for a refuge ; the great men had recourse to God, and acquain- 
tance with him. And then religion was likely to nourish in the city, when it 
reigned in the palaces. 

5. Upon all these accounts, Jerusalem, and especially mount Zion, on which 
the temple was built, were universally beloved and admired; "Beautiful for 
situation, and the joy of the whole earth," ver. 2. The situation must needs 
be every way agreeable, when Infinite Wisdom chose it for the place of the 
sanctuary; and that which made it beautiful was that it was the mountain 
of holiness, for there is a beauty in holiness. This earth is, by sin, covered with 
deformity, and therefore justly might that spot of ground which was thus 
beautified with holiness, be called, "the joy of the whole earth;" that is, what 
the whole earth had reason to rejoice in, that God would thus, in very deed, 
dwell with man upon the earth. Mount Zion was on the north side of Jeru- 
salem, and so was a shelter to the city from the cold and bleak winds that blew 
from that quarter ; or, if fair weather was expected out of the north, they were 
thus directed to look Zion ward for it. 

Secondly. That the kings of the earth were afraid of it. That " God was 
known in their palaces for a refuge," they had had a late instance, and a very 
remarkable one. "Whatever it was, 

L. They had had but too much occasion to fear their enemies. For "the 
kings were assembled," ver. 4. The neighbouring princes were confederate 
against Jerusalem, their heads and horns, their policies and powers, were com- 
bined for its ruin; they were assembled with all their forces, they passed, 
advanced, and marched on together, not doubting but presently to make them- 
selves masters of that city which should have been the joy, but was the envy, 
of the whole earth. 

2. God made their enemies to fear them. The very sight of Jerusalem struck 
them into a consternation, and gave check to their fury ; as the sight of the 
tents of Jacob frightened Balaam from his purpose to curse Israel, Num. xxiv. 2. 
" They saw it and marvelled, and hasted away," ver. 5. Not veni, vidi, vici, — 
'I came, I saw, I conquered;' but, on the contrary, veni, vidi, victus sum, — 'I 
came, I saw, I was defeated.' Not that there was any thing to be seen in Jeru- 
salem that was so very formidable, but the sight of it brought to mind what 
they had heard concerning the special presence of God in that city, and the 
Divine protection it was under; and God impressed such terrors upon their 
minds thereby as made them retire with precipitation. Though they were 
kings, though they were many in confederacy, yet they knew themselves an 
unequal match for Omnipotence, and therefore fear came upon them, and pain, 
ver. 6. Note, God can dispirit the stoutest of his church's enemies, and soon 
put them in pain that live at ease. The fright they were in upon the sight 
of Jerusalem is here compared to the throes of a woman in travail, which are 
sharp and grievous, which sometimes come suddenly, 1 Thes. v. 3, which cannot 
be avoided^and which are effects of sin and the curse. The defeat hereby 
given to their designs upon Jerusalem is compared to the dreadful work made 
with a fleet of ships by a violent storm, when some are split, others shattered, 
all dispersed; ver. 7, "Thou breakest trie ships of Tarshish with an east wind:" 
effects at sea lie thus exposed. The terrors of God are compared to an east 
wind, Job xxvii. 20, 21. These shall put them into confusion, and break all 
their measures. " Who knows the power of God's anger ? " 

8 As we have heard, so have we seen 

In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God : 
God will establish it for ever. Selah. 

9 We have thought of thy lovingkindness, 0 God, 
In the midst of thy temple. 

10 According to thy name, 0 God, 

So is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: 
Thy right hand is fill] of righteousness. 

11 Let mount Zion rejoice, 

Let the daughters of Juclah be glad, 
Because of thy judgments. 

12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her; 
Tell the towers thereof. 



230 



PSALM XLVIII. 



13 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; 
That ye may tell it to the generation following. 

14 For this God is our God for ever and ever: 
He will be our guide even unto death. 

We have here the good use and improvement which the people of God are 
taught, to make of his late glorious and gracious appearances for them against 
their enemies, that they might work for their good. 

First. Let our faith in the work of God be hereby confirmed. If we compare 
what God has done with what he has spoken, we shall find that, as we have 
heard so have we seen, ver. 8 ; and what we have seen obliges us to believe 
what we have heard. 1. As we have heard done in former providences, in the 
days of old, so have we seen done in our own days. Note, God's latter appear- 
ances for his people, against his and their enemies, are consonant to his former 
appearances, and should put us in mind of them. 2. As we have heard in the 
promise and prediction, so have we seen in the performance and accomplish- 
ment. W r e have heard that God is the Lord of hosts, and that Jerusalem is the 
city of our God, is dear to him, is his particular care, and now we have seen 
it; we have seen the power of our God, we have seen his goodness, we have 
seen his care and concern for us, that he is a wail of fire round about Jeru- 
salem, and the glory in the midst of her. Note, In the great things that God 
has done and is doing for his church, it is good to take notice of the fulfilling 
of the Scriptures ; and this would help us the better to understand both the 
providence itself and the Scripture that is fulfilled in it. 

Secondly. Let our hope of the stability and perpetuity of the church be 
hereby encouraged. From what we have seen, compared with what we have 
heard in the city of our God, we may conclude that God will establish it for 
ever. This was not fulfilled in Jerusalem, that was long since destroyed, and 
all its glory laid in the dust, but has its accomplishment in the Gospel church ; 
we are sure that that shall be established for ever, it is built upon a rock, and 
the gates of hell cannot prevail against it, Mat. svi. 18; God himself has under- 
taken the establishment of it ; it is the Lord that has founded Zion, Isa. xiv. 32. 
And what we have seen, compared with what we have heard, may encourage 
us to hope in that promise of God upon which the church is built. 

Thirdly. Let our minds be hereby filled with good thoughts of God._ From 
what we have heard, and seen, and hope for, we may take occasion to think 
much of God's lovingkindness whenever we meet in the midst of his temple, 
ver. 9. All the streams of mercy that flow down to us must be run up to the 
fountain of God's lovingkindness. It is not owing to any merit of ours, but 
purely to his mercy, and the peculiar favour he bears to his people. This, there- 
fore, we must think of with delight, think frequently and fixedly of. What 
subject can we dwell upon more noble, more pleasant, more profitable! We 
must have God's lovingkindness always before our eyes, Ps. xxvi. 3, especially 
when we attend upon him in his temple. And when we enjoy the benefit of 
public ordinances undisturbed, w r e meet in his temple, and there is none to 
make us afraid, we should take occasion from thence to think of his loving- 
Kindness. 

Fourthly. Let us give to God the glory of the great things which he has done 
for us, and mention them to his honour ; ver. 10, " According to thy name, O 
God, so is thy praise,'' not only in Jerusalem, but "to the ends of the earth." 
By the late signal deliverance of Jerusalem, God had made himself a name, 
that is, he had gloriously discovered his wisdom, power, and goodness, ana 
made ail the nations about sensible of it ; and so was his praise, that is, some in 
all parts would be found giving glory to him accordingly. As far as his name 
goes, his praise will go, at least it should go, and at length it shall go, when all 
the ends of the world shall praise him, Ps. xxii. 27 ; Rev. xi. 15. Some by this 
name understand especially that glorious name of his, the Lord of hosts; accord- 
ing to that name, so is his praise, for all the creatures, even to the ends of the 
earth are under his command. But his people must in a special manner acknow- 
ledge his justice in all he doth for them; Righteousness fills thy right hand; that 
is, all the operations of thy power are consonant to the eternal rules of equity. 

Fifthly. Let all the members of the church in particular take to themselves 
the comfort of what God doth for his church in general; ver. 11, "Let mount 
Zion rejoice," the priests and Levites that attend the sanctuary, and then let all 
the daughters of Judah, the country towns, and the inhabitants of them, be 
glad ; let the women in their songs and dances, as usual on occasion of public 
joys, celebrate with thankfulness this great salvation which God has wrought 
for us. Note, When we have given God the praise, we may then take the 
pleasure of the extraordinary deliverances of the church ; and be glad because 
of God's judgments, that is, the operations of his providence, all which we may 



PSALM XLIX. 231 

see wrought m wisdom, (therefore called judgments,) and working for the good 
of his ch urch. 

Sixthly. Let us diligently observe the instances and evidences of the church's 
beauty, strength, and safety, and faithfully transmit our observations to those 
that shall come after us; ver. 12, 13, "Walk about Zion." Some think this 
refers to the ceremony of the triumph. Let those who are employed in that 
solemnity walk round the walls, as they did, Nek. xii. 31, singing and praising 
God; and in doing this, let "them tell the towers, and mark w T ellthe bulwarks," 

1. That they might magnify the late wonderful deliverance God had wrought 
for them. Let them observe with wonder, that the towers and bulwarks are all 
in their full strength, and none of them damaged ; the palaces in their beauty., 
and none of them blemished ; there is not the last damage done to the city by 
the kings that were assembled against it ; ver. 5, " Tell this to the generation 
following," as a wonderful instance of God's care of his holy city, that the ene- 
mies should not only not ruin or destroy it, but not so much as hurt or deface it. 

2. That they might fortify themselves against the fear of the like threatening 
danger another time. And so, 1st. We may understand it literally of Jerusa- 
lem, and the stronghold of Zion. Let the daughters of Judah see the towers 
and bulwarks of Zion, with as much pleasure as the kings their enemies saw 
them with terror, ver. 5. Jerusalem was generally looked upon as an impreg- 
nable place, as appears, Lam. iv. 2, " All the inhabitants of the world would 
not have believed that an enemy should have entered the gates of Jerusalem." 
Nor could they have entered, if the inhabitants had not sinned away their 
defence. Set your heart to her bulwarks. That intimates, that the principal 
bulwarks of Zion were not the objects of sense, which they might set their eye 
upon, but the objects of faith, which they must set their hearts upon. It was 
well enough fortified indeed both by nature and art; but its bulwarks that 
were mostly to be relied upon were the special presence of God in it, the 
beauty of holiness he had put upon it, and the promises he had made concerning 
it. Consider Jerusalem's strength, and tell it to the generations to come, that 
they may do nothing to weaken it, and that, if at any time it be in distress, they 
may not basely surrender it to the enemy as not tenable. Calvin observes here, 
that when they are directed to transmit to posterity a particular account of the 
towers, and bulwarks, and palaces of Jerusalem, it is intimated that in pro- 
cess of time they would all be destroyed, and remain no longer to be seen ; for 
otherwise what need was there to preserve tne description and history of 
them ? When the disciples were admiring the buildings of the temple, their 
Master told them, that in a little time one stone of it should not be left upon 
another, Mat. xxiv. 1, 2. Therefore, 2nd. This must certainly be applied to 
the gospel church, that mount Zion, Heb. xii. 22. Consider the towers, and 
bulwarks, and palaces of that, that you may be invited and encouraged to join 
yourselves to it, and embark m it. See it founded on Christ, the rock fortified 
by the Divine power, guarded^ by him that neither slumbers nor sleeps. See 
what precious ordinances are its palaces, what precious promises are its bul- 
warks; "Tell this to the generation following," that they may with purpose 
of heart espouse its interests, and cleave to it. 

Seventhly. Let us triumph in God, and in the assurances w r e have of his ever- 
lasting lovingkindness, ver. 14. Tell this to the generation following, transmit 
this truth as a sacred depositum to your posterity, that "this God," who has 
now done such great things for us, " is our God for ever and ever ;" he is con- 
stant and unchangeable in his love to us, and care for us. 1. If God be our God, 
he is ours for ever, not only through all the ages of time, but to eternity ; for it 
is the everlasting blessedness of glorified saints, that " God himself will be with 
them, and will be their God," Rev. xxi. 3. 2. If he be our God, he will be our 
guide, our faithful constant guide, to shew us our way, and to lead us in it ; he 
will be so, even unto death, which will be the period of our way, and will bring 
us to our rest. He will lead and keep us even to the last. "He will be our 
guide above death ; so some. He will so guide us as to set us above the reach 
of death, so that it shall not be able to do us any real hurt. He will be our 
guide beyond death ; so others. He will conduct us safe to a happiness on the 
other side death, to a life in which there shall be no more death. If we take 
the Lord for our God, he will conduct and convey us safe to death, through 
death, and beyond death; down to death, and up again to glory. 



PSALM XLIX. 

This psalm is a sermon, and so is the next. In most of the psalms we have the penman 
praying or praising ; in these we have him preaching ; and it is our duty in singing 
psalms to teach and admonish ourselves and one another. The scope and design of 
this discourse is to convince the men of this world of their folly in setting their hearts 
upon the things of this world, and so to persuade them to seek the things of a better 



232 



PSALM XLIX. 



world ; as also to comfort the people of God in reference to their own troubles, and the 
grief that ariseth from the prosperity of the wicked. I. In the preface he proposeth to 
awaken worldly people out of their security, ver. 1 — 3 ; and to comfort himself and 
other godly people in a day of distress, ver. 4, 5. II. In the rest of the psalm, 1. He 
endeavours to convince sinners of their folly in doting upon the wealth of this world, 
by shewing them, 1st. That they cannot, with all their wealth, save their friends from 
death, ver. 6 — 9 ; 2nd. They cannot save themselves from death, ver. 10 ; 3rd. They 
cannot secure to themselves a happiness in this world, ver. 11, 12 ; much less, 4th. Can 
they secure to themselves a happiness in the other world, ver. 14. 2. He endeavours 
to comfort himself and other good people, 1st. Against the fear of death, ver. 15; 
2nd. Against the fear of the prospering power of wicked people, ver. 16 — 20. In sing- 
ing this psalm, let us receive these instructions, and be wise. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. 

HEAE this, all ye people; 
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world : 

2 Both low and high, 
Eich and poor, together. 

3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom ; [ing. 
And the meditation of my heart shall be of understand- 

4 I will incline mine ear to a parable : 

I will open my dark saying upon the harp. 




EGYPTIAN MINSTREL. 

5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, 

When the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about ? 

This is the psalmist's preface to his discourse concerning the vanity of the 
world, and its insufficiency to make us happy ; and we seldom meet with an 
introduction more solemn than this is, for there is no truth of more undoubted 
certainty, nor of greater weight and importance, and the consideration of which 
will be of more advantage to us. 

First. He demands the attention of others to that which he was about to say ; 
yer. 1, 2, "Hear this, all ye people ;" hear it, and heed it, hear it, and consider 
it; what is spoken once, hear twice, hear and give ear, Ps. lxii. 9, 11. Not only, 
hear all ye Israelites, and give ear all the inhabitants of Canaan; but, "hear, 
all ye people, and give ear all the inhabitants of the w r orld, ; ' for this doctrine 
is not peculiar to those that are blessed with Divine revelation, but even the 
light of nature witnesseth to it. All men may know, and therefore, let all men 
consider, that their riches will not profit them in the day of death. Both low 
and high, both rich and poor, must come together to hear the Word of God; 
let both therefore hear this with application. Let those that are high and rich 



PSALM XLIX. 233 

in the world hear of the vanity of their worldly possessions, and not be proud 
of them, nor secure in the enjoyment of them, but lay them out in doing good, 
that with them they may make to themselves friends ; let those that are poor 
and low, hear this, and be content with their little, and not envy those that 
have abundance. Poor people are as much in danger by an inordinate desire 
towards the wealth of the world as rich people by an inordinate delight in it. 

He gives a good reason why his discourse should be regarded; ver. 3, "My 
mouth shall speak of wisdom." What he had to say, 1. It was true and good. 
It is wisdom and understanding ; it will make those wise and intelligent that 
receive it and submit to it. It is not doubtful, but certain; not trival, but 
weighty; not a matter of nice speculation, but of admirable use to guide us in the 
right way to our great end. 2. It was what he had himself well digested. What 
his mouth spoke was the meditation of his heart, as Ps. xix. 1 4 ; xlv. 1 ; it was what 
God put into his mind, what he had himself seriously considered, and was fully 
apprised of the meaning of, and convinced of the truth of. That which ministers 
speak from their own hearts is most likely to reach the hearts of their hearers. 

Secondly. He engageth his own attention ; ver. 4, " I will incline mine ear to 
a parable." It is called a parable, not because it is figurative and obscure, but 
because it is a wise discourse, and very instructive. It is the same word that 
is used concerning Solomon's proverbs. The psalmist will himself incline his 
ear to it. This intimates, 1. That he was taught it by the Spirit of God. and 
did not speak of himself. Those that undertake to teach others must first learn 
themselves. 2. That he thought himself nearly concerned in it, and was re- 
solved not to venture his own soul upon that bottom which he dissuaded others 
from venturing theirs upon. 3. That he would not expect others should attend 
to that which he himself did not attend to as a matter of the greatest import- 
ance. Where God gives the tongue of the learned, he first wakens the ear to 
hear as the learned, Isa. 1. 4. 

Thirdly. He promiseth to make the matter as plain and as affecting as he 
could; will open my dark saying upon the harp." What he learned for 
himself he would not conceal or confine to himself, but would communicate 
it for the benefit of others. 1. Seme understood it not, it was a riddle to 
them. Tell them of the vanity of the things that are seen, and of the reality and 
weight of invisible things, and they say, "Ah, Lord God, doth he not speak 
parables ?" For the sake of such he would open this dark saying, and make it so 
plain that he that runs might read it. 2. Others understood it well enough, but 
they were not moved by it, it never affected them, and for their sake he would 
open it upon the harp, and try that expedient to work upon them, to win upon 
them. ' A verse may find him who a sermon flies.' — Herbert. 

Fourthly. He begins with the application of it to himself ; and that is the right 
method in which to treat of Divine things : we must first preach to ourselves, 
before we undertake to admonish or instruct others. Before he comes to set 
down the folly of carnal security, ver. 6, he here lays down, from his own 
experience, the benefit and comfort of a holy gracious security, which they 
enjoy who trust in God and not in their worldly wealth ; "Wherefore should 
I fear?" he means, wherefore should I fear their fear, Isa. viii. 12, the fears of 
worldly people. 1. Wherefore should I be afraid of them? " Wherefore should 
1 fear in the days" of trouble and persecution, " when the iniquity of my heels," 
or of my supplanters that endeavour to trip up my heels, shall compass me 
about, and they shall surround me with their mischievous attempts? Why 
should I be afraid of those, all whose power lies in their wealth, and that will 
not enable them to redeem their friends ; and therefore I will not fear it, it 
cannot enable them to ruin me. The great men of the world will not appear 
at all formidable when we consider what little stead their wealth will stand 
themselves in. We need not fear their casting us down from our excellency, 
who cannot support themselves in their own excellency. 2. Wherefore should 
I be afraid like them ? The days of old age and death are the days of evil, 
Mccl. xii. 1. In the day of judgment, the iniquity of our heels, or of our steps, 
our past sins, will compass us about, will be set in order before us. "Every 
work will be brought into judgment, with every secret thing ; " and " every one 
of us must give account of himself." In these days worldly wicked people 
will be afraid; nothing more dreadful to them that have set their hearts upon the 
world than to think of leaving it. Death to them is the king of terrors, because 
after death the judgment, when their sins will surround them as so many 
furies; but wherefore should a good man fear death, who has God with him? 
Ps. xxiii. 4. When his iniquities compass him about, ne sees them all pardoned, 
his conscience is purified and pacified; and then even in the judgment-day, 
when the hearts of others fail them for fear, they can lift up their heads with 
joy, Lu. xxi. 26, 28. Note, The children of God, though never so poor, are in 
this truly happy, above the most prosperous of the children of this world, that 
they are well guarded against the terrors of death, and the judgment to come. 



234 



PSALM XLIX. 



6 They that trust in their wealth, 

And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches ; 

7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, 
Nor give to God a ransom for him : 

8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, 
And it ceaseth for ever :) 

9 That he should still live for ever, 
And not see corruption. 

10 For he seeth that wise men die, 

Likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, 

And leave their wealth to others. [for ever, 

1 1 Then inward thought is, that their houses shall continue 
And their dwelling places to all generations ; 

They call their lands after their own names. 

12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not : 
He is like the beasts that perish. 

1 3 This their way is their folly : 

Yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah. 

14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave ; 

Death shall feed on them; [morning; 
And the upright shall have dominion over them, in the 
And their beauty shall consume in the grave from their 
dwelling. 

In these verses we have, 

First. A description of the spirit and way of worldly people, whose portion 
is in this life, Ps. xvii. 14. It is taken for granted that they have wealth* 
and a multitude of riches, ver. 6 ; houses and lands of inheritance, which 
they call their own, ver. 11. Many times God gives abundance of the good 
things of this world to bad men, that live in contempt of him and rebellion 
against him; by which it appears, that they are not the best things in them- 
selves, for then God would give most of them to his best friends, and that they 
are not the best things for us, for then they would not have so much of them 
who, being marked for ruin, are to be ripened for it by their prosperity, 
Pr. i. 32. It is possible a man may have abundance of the wealth of the world, 
and be made better by it, — may thereby have his heart enlarged in love and 
thankfulness and obedience, and may do that good with it which will be fruit 
abounding to his account ; and therefore it is not men's having riches that 
denominates them worldly, but their setting their hearts upon them as the best 
things ; and so these worldly people are here described. 

1. They repose a confidence in their riches. "They trust in their wealth," 
ver. 6 ; they depend upon it as their portion and happiness, and expect that it 
will secure them from all evil, and supply them with all good, and they need 
nothing else, no, not God himself. Their gold is their hope ; Job xxxi. 24; and 
so it becomes their god. Thus our Saviour explains the difficulty of the sal- 
vation of rich people, Mar. x. 24; " How hard is it for them that trust in riches 
to enter into the kingdom of God !" see 1 Tim. vi. 17. 

2. They take a pride in their riches. They " boast themselves in the multi- 
tude" of them, as if they were sure tokens of God's favour, and certain proofs 
of their own ingenuity and industry : " My might, and the power of my hand 
has gotten me this wealth;" as if they made them truly great and happy, and 
more really excellent than their neighbours. They boast that they have all 
they would have, Ps. x. 3, and can set all the world at defiance; "I sit as a 
queen, and shall be a lady for ever;" therefore "they call their lands after 
their own names," hoping thereby to perpetuate their memory. And if their 
lands do retain the names by which they called them, it is but a poor honour ; 
but many times they change their names when they change their owners. 

3. They tiatter themselves with an expectation of the perpetuity of their 
worldly possessions; ver. 14, " Their inward thought is that their houses shall 



PSALM XLIX. 235 

continue for ever," and with this thought they please themselves. Are not 
all thoughts inward? Yes; but it intimates, 1st. That this thought is deeply 
rooted in their minds; is rolled and revolved there, and carefully lodged in the 
innermost recesses of their hearts. A godly man has thoughts of the world ; 
but they are his outward thoughts, his inward thought is reserved for God and 
heavenly things. But a worldly man has only some floating foreign thoughts 
of the things of God, while his fixed thought, his inward thought, is about the 
world; that lies nearest his heart, and is upon the throne there. 2nd. There 
it is industriously concealed ; they cannot for shame say that they expect their 
houses to continue for ever, but inwardly they think so. If they cannot persuade 
themselves that "they shall continue for ever/' yet they are so foolish as to 
think their houses shall, and their dwelling-places. And suppose they should, 
what good will that do them when they shall be no longer theirs? But they 
will not, for the world passeth away, and the fashion of it. All things are 
devoured by the teeth of time. 

Secondly. A demonstration of their folly herein. # Tn general, ver. 13, " This 
their way is their folly." Note, The way of worldliness is a very foolish way. 
They that lay up their treasure on earth, and set their affections on things 
below, act contrary both to right reason and to their true interest. God him- 
self pronounced him a fool who thought his goods were laid up for many years, 
and that they would be a portion for his soul, Lu. xii. 19, 20; and yet "their 
posterity approve their sayings," agree with them in the same sentiments, say 
as they say, and do as they do, and tread in the steps of their worldliness. Note, 
The love of the world is a disease that runs in the blood ; men have it by kind, 
tiil the grace of God cures it. To prove the folly of carnal worldlings, he 
shews, 

1. That with all their wealth they cannot save the life of the dearest friend 
they have in the world, nor purchase a reprieve for him when he is under the 
arrest of death ; ver. 7 — 9, " There is none of them can by any means redeem 
his brother," — his brother worldling, who would give him counter-security out 
of his own estate, if he would but be bail for him; and gladly he would, in 
nopes that he might do the same kindness for him another time. But their 
words will not be taken one for another, nor will one man's estate be the ransom 
of another man's life. God doth not value it, it is of no account with him ; and 
the true value of things is as they stand in his books. His justice will not 
accept it by way of commutation or equivalent. The Lord of our brother's 
life is the Lord of our estate, and may take both if he pleaseth, without either 
difficulty to himself or wrong to us ; and therefore one cannot be ransom for 
another. We cannot bribe death, that our brother should still live, much less 
that he should live for ever in tnis world ; nor bribe the grave, that he should 
not see corruption : for we must needs die, and return to the dust ; and there 
is no discharge from that war. W hat folly is it to trust to that, and boast of 
that, wmieh w ill not enable us so much as for one hour to respite the execution 
of the sentence of death upon a parent, a child, or a friend, that is to us as our 
own soul ! It is certainly true ? that (t the redemption of the soul is precious, 
and ceaseth for ever ;" that is, life when it is going cannot be stayed, and when it 
is gone it cannot be recalled by any human art, or worldly price. But this looks 
farther to the eternal redemption which was to be wrought out by the Messiah, 
whom the Old Testament saints had an eye to as the Redeemer. Immortality and 
an everlasting life is a jewel of too great a value to be purchased by the wealth 
of this world; "We are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver 
and gold," 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. The learned Dr. Hammond applies the 8th and 9th 
verses expressly to Christ ; ' The redemption of the soul shall be precious,' shall 
be high prized, it shall cost very dear ; but being once wrought " it shall cease 
for ever;" that is, it shall never need to be repeated, Heb. ix. 25, 26 ; x. 13. 
' And he,' that is, the liedeemer, ' shall yet live for ever, and shall not see cor- 
ruption.' He shall rise again before he sees corruption, and then shall live for 
evermore, Rev. i. 18. Christ did that for us which all the riches of the world 
could not do, and therefore good reason he should be dearer to us than any 
worldly things. Christ did that for us which a brother, a friend, could not do 
for us ; no, not one of the best estate or interest, and therefore those that love 
father or brother more than him are not worthy of him. This likewise shews 
the folly of worldly people, who sell their souls for that which would never 
buy them. 

2. That with all their wealth they cannot secure themselves from the stroke 
of death. The worldling sees, and it vexes him to see it, that "wise men 
die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish," ver. 10. Therefore he 
cannot but expect that it will at length come to his own turn ; he cannot find 
any encouragement to hope that he himself shall continue for ever, and there- 
fore foolishly comforts himself with this, that though he shall not his house 
shall. Some rich people are wise, they are politicians ; but tney cannot outwit 
death, nor evade his stroke with all their art and management. Others are 



236 



PSALM XLIX. 



fools, and brutish, (fortuna favet fatuis, — 'fools are fortune's favourites;') 
these, though they do no good, yet perhaps do no great hurt in the world. 
But that shall not excuse them ; they shall perish, and be taken away by death, 
as well as the wise that did mischief with their craft. Or, by the wise and the 
foolish ? we may understand the godly and the wicked. The godly die, and their 
death is their deliverance; the wicked perish, their death is their destruction; 
but, however, they leave their wealth to others. 1st. They^ cannot continue 
with it, nor will it serve to procure them a reprieve. That is a frivolous plea, 
though once it served a turn ; Jer. xli. 8, " Slay us not, for we have treasures 
in the field." 2nd. They cannot carry it away with them, but leave it behind 
them. 3rd. They cannot foresee who will enjoy it when they have left it. They 
must leave it to others, but to whom they know not, perhaps to a fool, 
Eccl. ii. 19 ; perhaps to an enemy. And as men's wealth will stand them in no 
stead in a dying hour, so neither will their honour; ver. 12, "Man being in 
honour abideth not." We will suppose a man advanced to the highest pinnacle 
of preferment, as great and happy as the world can make him ; man in splen- 
dour, "man at his best estate," surrounded and supported with all the advan- 
tages he can desire, yet then he abideth not, his honour doth not continue, 
that is a fleeting shadow ; he himself doth not. He tarries not all night : this 
world is an inn, in which his stay is so short that he can scarce be said to get 
a night's lodging in it: so little rest is there in these things, he has but a 
baiting-time. " He is like the beasts that perish ;" that is, he must as certainly 
die as the beasts, and his death will be as final a period to his state in this 
world as theirs is ; his dead body likewise will putrefy as theirs doth ; and, as 
Dr. Hammond observes, oftentimes the greatest honours and wealth, unjustly' 
gotten by the parent, descend not to any one of his posterity, (as the beasts 
when they die leave nothing behind them to their young ones but the w r ide 
world to feed in,) but fall into other hands immediately, for which he never 
designed to gather them. 

3. That their condition on the other side death will be very miserable. The 
world they dote upon will not only not save them from death, but will sink 
them so much the lower into hell; ver. 14, "Like sheep they are laid in the 
grave." Their prosperity did but feed them like sheep for the slaughter, 
Ilos. iv. 16; and then death comes and shuts them up in the grave like tat 
sheep in a fold, " to be brought forth to the day of wrath," Job xxi. 30 ; Mul- 
titudes of them, like flocks of sheep dead of some disease, are thrown into the 
grave, and there death shall feed on them ; the second death, the worm that 
dies not, Job xxiv. 20. Their own guilty consciences, like so many vultures, 
shall be continually preying upon them with, Son, remember, Lu. xvi. 25. Death 
insults and triumphs over them, as it is represented in the fall of the king of 
Babylon; at which "hell from beneath is moved," Isa. xiv. 9, &c. Whiie a 
saint can ask proud death, " AVhere is thy sting?" death will ask the proud 
sinner, Where is thy wealth, thy pomp? and the more he was fattened with 
prosperity, the more sweetly will death feed on him. And in the morning of 
the resurrection, when all that sleep in the dust shall awake, Dan. xii. 2, "the 
upright shall have dominion over them;" shall not only be advanced to the 
highest dignity and honour, when they are filled with everlasting shame and 
contempt,— elevated to the highest heavens, w;hen they are sunk to the lowest 
hell, — but they shall be assessors with Christ in passing judgment upon them, 
and shall applaud the justice of God in their ruin. When the rich man in hell 
begged that Lazarus might bring him a drop of water to cool his tongue, he 
owned that that upright man had dominion over him; as the foolish virgins also 
owned the dominion of the wise, and that they lay much at their mercy when 
they begged, " Give us of your oil." Let this comfort us in reference to the 
oppressions which the upright are now often groaning under, and the dominion 
which the w r icked have over them. The day is coming when the tables will be 
turned, Est. ix. 1; and "the upright will have the dominion." Let us now 
judge of things as they w r ill appear at that day. But what will become of all 
the beauty of the wicked ? Alas ! that shall all be " consumed in the grave from 
their dwelling." All that upon which they valued themselves, and for which 
others caressed and admired them, it was all adventitious and borrowed ; it was 
paint and varnish, and they will rise in their own native deformity. The beauty 
of holiness is that which the grave, that consumes all other beauty, cannot touch, 
or do any damage to. 1 Their beauty shall consume; the grave,' or hell, ' being a 
habitation to every one of them;' and what beauty can be there where there 
is nothing but the blackness of darkness for ever ? 

1 5 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave : 
For he shall receive me. Selah 

16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, 
When the glory of his house is increased ; 



PSALM XLIX. 237 

17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: 
His glory shall not descend after him. 

18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul : 

And men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. 

1 9 He shall go to the generation of his fathers ; 
They shall never see light. 

20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, 
Is like the beasts that perish. 

Good reason is here given to good people, 

First. Why they should not be afraid of death. There is no cause for that 
fear, if they have such a comfortable prospect as David here has of a happy 
state on the other side death, ver. 15. He had shewed, ver. 14, how miserable 
the dead are that die in their sins, here he shews how blessed the dead are 
that die in the Lord. The distinction of men's outward condition, how great 
a difference soever it makes in life, makes none at death ; rich and poor meet 
in the grave. But the distinction of men's spiritual state, though in this life 
it makes a small difference, where all things come alike to all, yet at and after 
death it makes a very great one ; " Now he is comforted, and thou art tor- 
mented." The righteous has hope in his death, so has David here hope in God 
concerning his soul. Note, The believing hopes of the soul's redemption from 
the grave, and reception to glory, are the great support and joy of the children 
of God in a dying hour. They hope, 

1. That God will redeem their souls from the power of the grave; which 
includes, 1st. The preserving of the soul from going to the grave with the 
body. The grave has a power over the body, by virtue of the sentence, 
Gen. iii. 19 : and it is cruel enough in executing that power, Cant. viii. 6 ; but it 
has no sucn power over the soul. It has power to silence, and imprison, and 
consume the body: but the soul then moves, and acts, and converseth more 
freely than ever, Rev. vi. 9, 10 ; it is immaterial and immortal. When death 
breaks the dark lantern, yet it doth not extinguish the candle that was pent up 
in it, 2nd. The reuniting of the soul and body at the resurrection. The soul 
is often put for the life; that indeed falls under the power of the grave for a 
time, but it shall at length be redeemed from it, when mortality shall be 
swallowed up of life." The God of life, that was its Creator at first, can and 
will be its Redeemer at last. 3rd. The salvation of the soul from eternal ruin. 
God shall redeem my soul from the sheol of hell, the wrath to come, that pit 
of destruction into which the wicked shall be cast, ver. 14. It is great comfort 
to dying saints, that they shall not be hurt of the second death, Rev. ii. 11; and 
therefore the first death has no sting, and the grave no victory. 

2. That he will receive them to himself. He redeems their souls, that he may 
receive them ; Ps. xxxi. 5, " Into thy hands I commit my spirit, for thou hast 
redeemed it." He will receive them into his favour, will admit them into his 
kingdom, into the mansions that are prepared for them, Jno. xiv. 2, 3; those 
everlasting habitations, Lu. xvi. 9. 

Secondly. Why they should not be afraid of the prosperity and power of 
wicked people in this world, which, as it is their pride and joy, so it has often 
been the envy, and grief, and terror of the righteous; which yet, all things 
considered, there is no reason for. 

1. He supposeth the temptation very strong to envy the prosperity of sinners; 
and to be afraid that they will carry all before them with a high hand, and with 
their wealth and interest to run down religion and religious people; to be 
afraid that they will be found the truly happy people. For ne supposeth, 
1st. That they are made rich, and so are enabled to give law to all about them, 
and have every thing at command. Pecuniae obediunt omnes et omnia, — ' Every 
person and every thing obeys the commanding influence of money.' 2nd. That 
the glory of their house, from very small beginnings, is increased greatly ; which 
naturally makes men haughty, insolent, and imperious, ver. 16. Thus they seem 
to be the favourites of Heaven, and therefore formidable. 3rd. That they are 
very easy and secure in themselves, and in their own minds; ver. 18, "In his 
lifetime he blessed his soul," that is, he thought himself a very happy man ; and 
such a one as he would be. and a very jrood man, and such a one as he should be, 
because he prospered in the world. He blessed his soul, as that rich fool who 
said to his soul, Soul, take thine ease, and be not disturbed either with cares 
and fears about the world, or with the rebukes and admonitions of conscience ; 
all is well, and will be well for ever. Note, First. It is of great consequence 
to us what that is in which we bless our souls, upon the score of which we 
think well of ourselves. Believers bless themselves in the God of truth, 
Isa. lxv. 16 j and think themselves happy if he be theirs. Carnal people bless 



2^8 PSALM L. 

themselves in the wealth of the world, and think themselves happy if they have 
abundance of that. Secondly. There are many whose precious souls lie under 
God's curse, and yet they do themselves bless them. They applaud that in 
themselves w T hich God condemns; and speak peace to themselves when God 
denounceth war against them. Yet this is not all. 4th. They are in good 
reputation among their neighbours ; " Men will praise thee," and cry thee up, 
as having done well for thyself in raising such an estate and family. This is 
the sentiment of all the children of this world, that those do best for themselves 
that do most for their bodies, by heaping up riches, though nothing is done at 
the same time for the soul, nothing for eternity; and, accordingly, they "bless 
the covetous, whom the Lord abhors," Ps. x. 3. And if men were to be our 
judges it were our wisdom thus to recommend ourselves to their good opinion; 
but what will it avail us to be approved of men, if God condemn us? Dr. 
Hammond understands this of the good man here spoken to, for it is the second 

Eerson, not of the wicked man spoken of; ' He in his lifetime blessed his soul, 
jit thou shalt be praised for doing well unto thyself.' The worlding magnified 
himself, but thou, that dost not, like him. speak well of thyself, but do w 7 ell for 
thyself in securing thy eternal w r elfare, tnou shalt be praised, if not of men, yet 
of God, which will be thine everlasting honour. 

2. He suggests that which is sufficient to take off the strength of the temp- 
tation, by directing us to look forward to the end of prospering sinners, 
Ps. lxxiii. 17. Think what they will be in the other w^orld, and you will 
see no cause to envy them what they are and have in this world. 

1st. In the other world they will be never the better for all the wealth and 
prosperity they are now so fond of. It is a miserable portion, which will not 
last so long as they must ; ver. 17, "when he dies," it is taken for granted that 
he goes into another world himself, but "he shall carry nothing away with 
him" of that which he has been so long heaping up. The greatest and wealthiest 
cannot therefore be the happiest, because they are never the better for their 
living in this world ; as they came naked into it, they shall go naked out of it. 
But those have something to shew in the other w T orld for their living in this 
w r orld, who can say through grace, that though they came corrupt and sinful, 
and spiritually naked into it, they go renewed and sanctified, and well clothed 
with the righteousness of Christ ? out. They that are rich in the graces and com- 
forts of the Spirit have something which when they die they shall carry away 
with them; something which death cannot strip them of, nay, which death will 
be the improvement of. But for worldly possessions, " as we brought nothing 
into the w r orld," but what we have had from others, "so it is certain we shall 
carry nothing out," but leave it to others, 1 Tim. vi. 7. They shall descend , 
but " then' glory," that which they called and counted their glory, and gloried 
in, "shall not descend after them," to lessen the disgrace of death and the 
grave ; to bring them off in the judgment, or abate the torments of hell. 
Grace is glory that will ascend with us, but no earthly glory will descend 
after us. 

2nd. In the other world they w T ill be infinitely the w r orse for all their abuses 
of the wealth and prosperity they enjoyed in this world ; ver. 19, " The soul 
shall go to the generation of his fathers," his worldly, wicked fathers, whose 
sayings he approved, and whose steps he trod in, his fathers that would not 
hearken to the word of God, Zee. i. 5. He shall go to be there where they are 
that shall never see light, shall never have the least glimpse of comfort and joy, 
being condemned to utter darkness. Be not afraid then of the pomp and power 
of wicked people; for "man that is in honour," if he be not wise and good, his 
end will be miserable; "if he understand not," he is to be pitied rather than 
envied. A fool, a wicked man in honour, is really as despicable an animal as 
any under the sun; he "is like the beasts that perish," ver. 20; and it is better 
be a beast than be a man that makes himself like a beast. Men in honour that 
understand, that know and do their duty, and make conscience of it, are as gods, 
and children of the Most High. But men in honour that understand not, that 
are proud, and sensual, and oppressive, are as beasts, and they shall perish like 
the beasts, ingloriously as to this world, though not like the beasts indemnified 
as to another world. Let prospering sinners ? therefore, be afraid for them- 
selves; but let not even suffering saints be afraid of them. 



PSALM L. 

This psalm, as the former, is a psalm of instruction, not of prayer or praise. It is a psalm 
of reproof and admonition, in singing of which we are to teach and admonish one 
another. In the foregoing psalm, -after a general demand of attention, God by his 
prophet deals, ver. 3, with the children of this world, to convince them of their sin 
and folly in setting their hearts upon the wealth of this world. In this psalm, after a 
like preface, he deals with those that were in profession the church's children, to con- 
vince them of their sin and folly in placing their religion in ritual services, while they 



PSALM L. 



239 



neglected practical godliness ; and this is as sure a way to ruin as the other. This 
psalm is intended, I. As a reproof to the carnal Jews, both those that rested in the 
external performances of their religion, and were remiss in the more excellent duties of 
prayer and praise, and those that expounded the law to others, hut lived wicked lives 
themselves. II. As a prediction of the abolishing of the ceremonial law, and of the 
introducing of a spiritual way of worship in and by the kingdom of the Messiah, 
Jno. iv. 23, 24. III. As a representation of the day of judgment, in which God will 
call men to an account concerning their observance of those things which they have 
thus been taught. Men shall be judged according to what is written in the books ; and 
therefore Christ is fitly represented speaking as a judge then when he speaks as a law- 
giver. Here is, 1. The glorious appearance of the Prince that gives law and judgment, 
ver. 1 — 6 ; 2. Instruction given to his worshippers to turn their sacrifices into prayers, 
ver. 7 — 15 ; 3. A rebuke to those that pretend to worship God, but live in disobedience 
to his commands, ver. 16 — 20 ; their doom read, ver. 21, 22 ; and warning given to all 
to look to their conversation as well as to their devotions, ver. 23. And these instruc- 
tions and admonitions we must take to ourselves, and give to one another, in singing 
this psalm. 

A Psalm of Asaph. 

I^HE mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, 
. And called the eaxth 
From the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. 

2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, 
God hath shined. 

3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence 
A fire shall devour before him, 

And it shall be very tempestuous round about him. 

4 He shall call to the heavens from above, 

And to the earth, that he may judge his people. 

5 Gather my saints together unto me ; 

Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. 

6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness : 
For God is judge himself. Selah. 

It is probable Asaph was not only the* chief musician that was to put a 
tune to this psalm, but was himself the penman of it; for we read that in 
Hezekiah's time "they praised God with the words of David, and of Asaph 
the seer," 2 Chr. xxix. 30. Here is, 

First. The court called in the name of the King of kings; ver. 1, "The 
mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken;" El, Elohim, Jehovah, the God of 
infinite power, justice, and mercy, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. God is the 
judge, the Son of God came for judgment into the world, and the Holy Ghost is 
the Spirit of judgment. All the earth is called to attend, not only because the 
controversy God had with his people Israel for their hypocrisy and ingratitude 
may safely be referred to any man of reason, (nay, let the house of Israel itself 
judge between God and his vineyard, Isa. v. 3,) but because all the children 
of men are concerned to know the right way of worshipping God, in spirit and 
in truth, and when the kingdom of the Messiah should be set up, all should be 
instructed in the evangelical worship, and invited to join in it: see Mai. i. 11 ; 
Acts x. 34; and because, in the day of final judgment, all nations shall be 
gathered together to receive their doom, and every man shall give account of 
himself unto God. 

Secondly. The judgment set, and the Judge taking his seat. As when God 
gave the law to Israel in the wilderness, it is said, "He came from Sinai, and 
rose up from Seir, and shined forth from mount Paran, and came with ten 
thousands of his saints, and then from his right hand went a fiery law,*' 
Deu. xxxiii. 2; so, with allusion to that, when God comes to reprove them 
for their hypocrisy, and to send forth his Gospel to supersede the legal institu- 
tions, it is said here, 1. That he shall shine out of Zion, as then from the top 
of Sinai, ver. 2. Because in Zion his oracle was now fixed, thence his judg- 
ments upon that provoking people were denounced, and thence the orders 
issued for the execution of them, Joel ii. 1, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion," 
{sometimes there are more than ordinary appearances of God's presence and 
power working with and by his word and ordinances, for the convincing of 



240 PSALM L. 

men's consciences, and the reforming and refining of his church, and then God, 
who always dwells in Zion, may be said to shine out of Zion,) and because the 
Gospel, which set up spiritual worship, was to go forth from mount Zion, 
Isa. ii. 4; Mic. iv. 1; and the preachers of it were to begin at Jerusalem, 
Lu. xxiy. 47; and Christians are said to come unto mount Zion to receive their 
instructions, Heb. xii. 22, 23. Zion is here called the perfection of beauty, 
because it was the holy Hill, and holiness is indeed the perfection of beauty. 
2. That he shall come and not keep silence, shall no longer seem to wink at the 
sins of men as he had done, ver. 21, but shall shew his displeasure at them, and 
shall also cause that mystery to be published to the world by his holy apostles, 
which had long lain hid, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, Eph. iii. 5. 6, 
and that the partition wall of the ceremonial law should be taken down; this 
shall now no longer be concealed. In the great day " our God shall come, and 
shall not keep silence/' but shall make those to hear his judgment that would 
not hearken to his law. 3. That his appearance should be very majestic and 
terrible ; " a fire shall devour before him." The fire of his judgments shall make 
way for the rebukes of his word, in order to the awakening of the hypocritical 
nation of the Jews, that the sinners in Zion, being afraid of that devouring fire, 
{Isa. xxxiii. 14,) they might be startled out of their sins. When his gospel king- 
dom was to be set up, Christ came to send fire on the earth, Lu. xii. 44. And 
the Spirit was given in cloven tongues as of fire, introduced by a rushing 
mighty wind, which was very tempestuous. Acts ii. 2, 3. And in the last judg- 
ment, Christ shall come in flaming fire, 2 Thes. i. 8 : see Dan. vii. 9; Heb. x. 27. 
4. That as on mount Sinai he came with ten thousands of his saints, so he shall 
now call to the heavens from above, to take notice of this solemn process, 
ver. 4, as Moses often called heaven and earth to witness against Israel, 
Deu. iv. 26; xxxi. 23; xxxii. 1 : and God by his prophets, Isa. i. 2; Mic. vi. 2. 
And the equity of the judgment of the great day will be attested and applauded 
by heaven and earth, by saints and angels, even all the holy myriads. 

Thirdly. The parties summoned: ver. 5, " Gather my saints together unto 
me.'' This may be understood either, 1. Of saints indeed. Let them be 
gathered to God through Christ; let the few pious Israelites be set by them- 
selves, for to them the following denunciations of wrath do not belong. 
Rebukes to hypocrites ought not to be terrors to the upright. When God will 
reject the services of those that only offered sacrifice, resting in the outside 
of the performance, he will graciously accept those that in sacrificing make 
a covenant with him, and so attend to, and answer the end of, the institution 
of sacrifices. The design of the preaching of the Gospel, and the setting up of 
Christ's kingdom, was to gather together in one the children of God, Jno. xi 52; 
and at the second coming of Jesus Christ all his saints shall be gathered toge- 
ther unto him, 2 Thes. ii. 1, to be assessors with him in the judgment : for the 
saints shall judge the world, 1 Cor. vi. 2. Now it is here given as a character 
of the saints, that they have made -a covenant with God by sacrifice. Note, 
1st. Those only shall be gathered to God as his saints who have in sincerity 
covenanted with him, who have taken him to be their God, and given up them- 
selves to him to be his people, and thus have joined themselves unto the Lord. 
2nd. It is only by sacrifice, by Christ the great sacrifice, (from whom all the 
legal sacrifices derived what value they had,] that we poor sinners can covenant 
with God so as to be accepted of him. There must be an atonement made for 
the breach of the first covenant before we can be admitted again into covenant- 
or, 2. It may be understood of saints in profession, such as the people of Israel 
were, who are called a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, Ex. xix. 6. They 
were', as a body politic, taken into covenant with God, the covenant of pecu- 
liarity, and it was done with great solemnity by sacrifice, Ex. xxiv. 8. Let 
them come and hear what God hath to say to them ; let them receive the 
reproofs God sends them now by his prophets, and the Gospel he will in due 
time send them by his Son, which shall supersede the ceremonial law. And if 
these be slighted let them expect to hear from God another w r ay, and to be 
judged by that word which they will not be ruled by. 

Fourthly. The issue of this solemn trial foretold; ver. 6, " The heavens shall 
declare his righteousness;" those heavens that were called to be witnesses 
to the trial, ver. 4. The "people in heaven shall say, Hallelujah; true and 
righteous are his judgments," Mev. xix. l, 2. The righteousness of God in all 
the rebukes of his word and providence, in the establishment of his Gospel, 
(which brings in an everlasting righteousness, and in which the righteousness 
of God is revealed,) and especially in the judgment of the great day, is what the 
heavens will declare; that is, 1. It will be universally known, and proclaimed 
to all the world. As the heavens declare the glory, the wisdom, and power of 
God the Creator, Ps. xix. 1, so they shall no less openlv declare the glory, the 
justice, and righteousness of God the Judge. And so loud do they proclaim 
both, that " there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard," 
as it follows there, ver. 3. 2. It will be incontestable' owned and proved. Who 
can deny what the heavens declare? Even sinners' own consciences will sub- 



PSALM L. 241 

scribe to it, and hell as well as heaven will be forced to acknowledge the 
righteousness of God. The reason given is, for "God is judi'.e himself," and 
therefore, 1st. He will be just; for it is impossible he should do any wrong to 
any of his creatures; he never did, nor ever will. When men are employed 
to judge for him, it is possible they may do unjustly; but when He is judge 
himself there can be no injustice done. "Is God unrighteous, who taketli 
vengeance?" The apostle for this reason startles at the thought of it: "God 
forbid! for then how shall God judge the world?" Rom. iii. 5, 6. These 
decisions will be perfectly just, for against them there will lie no exception, 
and from them there will lie no appeal. He will be justified. God is judge, 
and therefore he will not only execute justice, but he will oblige all to own it* 
for he will be clear when he judgeth, Ps. li. 4. 

7 Hear, 0 my people, and I will speak ; 

0 Israel, and I will testify against thee : 

1 am God, even thy God. 

8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices 

Or thy burnt offerings, to have heen continually before me. 

9 I w T ill take no bullock out of thy house, 
Nor he goats out of thy folds. 

10 For every beast of the forest is mine, 

And the cattle upon a thousand hills. 
Ill know all the fowls of the mountains : 

And the wild beasts of the field are mine. 

12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee : 

For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. 

13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, 
Or drink the blood of goats ? 

14 Offer unto God thanksgiving ; 

And pay thy vows unto the most High : 

1 5 And call upon me in the day of trouble : 

I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 

God is here dealing with those that placed all their religion in the observances 
of the ceremonial law, and thought those sufficient. 

First. He lays down the original contract between him and Israel, in which 
they had avouched him to be their God, and he them to be his people, and 
so both parties were agreed; ver. 7, "Hear, O my people, and I will speak." 
Note, It is justly expected that whatever others do, when he speaks, his people 
should give ear; who will if they do not? and then we may comfortably expect 
that God will speak to us when we are ready to hear what'he saith. Even when 
he testifies against us in the rebukes and threatenings of his word and pro- 
vidences, we must be forward to hear what he saith, to hear even "the rod and 
him that has appointed it." 

Secondly. He puts a slight upon the legal sacrifices, ver. 8, &c. Now, 

1. This may be considered as looking back to the use of these under the law. 
God had a controversy with the Jews; but what was the ground of the con- 
troversy? Not their neglect of the ceremonial institutions; no, they had not 
been wanting in the observance of them, their burnt offerings had been con- 
tinually before God, they took a pride in them, and hoped by their offerings 
to procure a dispensation for their lusts, as the adulterous woman, Pr. vii. 14. 
Their constant sacrifices they thought would both expiate and excuse their 
neglect of the weightier matters of the law. Nay, if they had in some degree 
neglected these institutions, yet that should not "have been the cause of God's 
quarrel with them, for it was but a small offence in comparison with the 
immoralities of their conversation. They thought God was mightily beholden 
to them for the many sacrifices they had brought to his altar, and that they had 
made him very much their debtor by them, as if he could not have maintained 
his numerous family of priests without their contributions. But God here 
shews them the contrary: 1st. That he did not need their sacrifices. What 
occasion had he for their bullocks and goats, that has the command of ail the 



212 PSALM L. 

beasts of the forest, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? ver. 9, 10; has an 
incontestable propriety in them, and dominion over them ; has them all always 
under his eye, and within his reach, and can make what use he pleaseth of them? 
They all wait on him, and are all at his dispose, Ps. civ. 17—29. Can we add 
any thing to his store, whose all the wild fowl and wild beasts are, the world 
itself, and the fulness thereof? ver. 11, 12. God's infinite self-sufficiency proves 
our utter insufficiency to add any thing to him. 2nd. That he could not be 
benefited by their sacrifices. Their goodness of this kind could not possibly 
extend unto him ; neither if they were in this matter righteous was he the better ; 
ver. 13, " Will I eat the flesh of bulls?" It is as absurd to think that their sacri- 
fices could of themselves, and by virtue of any innate excellency in them, add any 
pleasure or praise to God, as it would be to imagine that an infinite Spirit could 
be supported by meat and drink as our bodies are. It is said, indeed, of the 
daemons whom the Gentiles worshipped, that they did "eat the fat of their 
sacrifices, and drink the wine of their drink offerings," JDeu. xxxii. 38 ; they 
regaled themselves in the homage they robbed the true God of. But will the 
great Jehovah be thus entertained? No; "to obey is better than sacrifice/' 
and to love God and our neighbour better than all burnt offerings; so much 
better, that God, by his prophets, often told them that their sacrifices were not 
only not acceptable, but abominable to him while they lived in sin. Instead 
of pleasing him he looked upon them as a mockery, and therefore an affront and 
provocation to him: see Pr. xv. 8; Isa. i. 11, &c; lxvi. 3; Jer. vi. 20; Am. v. 21. 
They are, therefore, here warned not to rest in these performances; but to 
carry themselves in all other instances towards God as their God. 

2. This may be considered as looking forward to the abolishing of these by 
the Gospel of Christ : thus Dr. Hammond understands it. When God shall 
set up the kingdom of the Messiah he shall abolish the old way of worship 
by sacrifice and offerings ; he will no more have those to be continually before 
him, ver. 8 ; he will no more require of his worshippers to bring him their 
bullocks and their goats to be burnt upon his altar, ver. 9. For, indeed, he 
never appointed this as that which he had any need of, or took any pleasure 
in ; for, besides that all we have is his already, he has far more beasts in the 
forest, and upon the mountains, which we know nothing of, nor have any pro- 
perty in, than we have in our folds ; but he instituted it to prefigure the great 
sacrifice which his own Son should in the fulness of time offer upon the cross, 
to make atonement for sin, and all the other spiritual sacrifices of acknowledg- 
ment with which God through Christ will be well pleased. 

Thirdly. He directs to the best sacrifices of prayer and praise, as those which 
under the law were preferred before all burnt offerings and sacrifices, and on 
which then the greatest stress was laid, and which now under the Gospel come 
in the room of those carnal ordinances which were imposed until the times of 
reformation. He sheweth us here, ver. 14, 15, what is good, and what the Lord 
our God requires of us, and will accept, when sacrifices are slighted and super- 
seded. 1. We must make a penitent acknowledgment of our sins ; offer to God 
confession, so some read it, and understand it of the confession of sin, in order 
to our giving glory to God, and taking shame to ourselves, that we may never 
return to it. A broken and contrite heart is the sacrifice which God will not 
despise, Ps. li. 17. If the sin were not abandoned, the sin offering was not 
accepted. 2. We must give God thanks for his mercies to us ; " offer to God 
thanksgiving " every day, often every day,_ " Seven times a day will I praise 
thee," and upon special occasions ; and "this shall please the Lord," if it come 
from an humble, thankful heart, full of love to him, and joy in him, " better 
than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs," Ps. lxix. 30, 31. 3. We must 
make conscience of performing our covenants with him. " Pay thy vows to the 
Most High," forsake thy sins, and do thy duty better, pursuant to the solemn 
promises thou hast made him to that purpose. When we give God thanks for 
any mercy we have received, we must be sure to pay the vows we made to him 
when we were in the pursuit of the mercy, else our thanksgivings will not be 
accepted. _ Dr. Hammond applies this to the great gospel ordinance of the 
eucharist, in which we are to give thanks to God for his great love in sending 
his Son to save us, and to pay our vows of love and duty to him, and to give 
alms. Instead of all the Old Testament types of a Christ to come, we have 
that blessed memorial of a Christ already come. 4. In the day of distress, we 
must apply ourselves to God by faithful and fervent prayer ; ver. 15, " Call 
upon me in the day of trouble," and not upon any other God. Our troubles, 
though we see them coming from God's hand, must drive us to him, and not 
drive us from him. We must thus acknowledge him in all our ways, depend 
upon his wisdom, power, and goodness, and refer ourselves entirely to him, and 
so give him glory. This is a cheaper, easier, readier way of seeking his favour 
than by a peace offering, and yet more acceptable. _ 5. When he, in answer to 
our prayers, delivers us, as he has promised to do in such way and time as he 
shall think fit, we must glorify him, not only by a grateful mention of his favour, 



PSALM L. 243 

but by living to his praise. Thus must we keep up our communion with God, 
meeting him with our prayers when he afflicts us, and with our praises when 
he delivers us. 

16 But unto the wicked God saith, 

What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, 

Or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ? 

1 7 Seeing thou hatest instruction, 

And castest my words behind thee. [him, 

18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with 
And hast been partaker with adulterers. 

] 9 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, 
And thy tongue frameth deceit. 

20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother ; 
Thou slanderest thine own mother's son. 

21 These tilings hast thou done, and I kept silence ; 
Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an o?ie as 

thyself : [eyes. 
But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine 

22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, 

Lest I tear you in pieces, and there he none to deliver. 

23 Whoso offereth praise glorifleth me : 

And to him that ordereth his conversation aright 
Will I shew the salvation of God. 

God, by the psalmist, having instructed his people^ in the right way of wor- 
shipping him, and keeping up their communion with him, here directs his 
speech to the wicked, to hypocrites, whether they were such as professed the 
Jewish or the Christian religion. Hypocrisy is wickedness, for which God will 
judge. Observe here, 

First. The charge drawn up against them. 

1. They are charged with invading and usurping the honours and privileges 
of religion; ver. 1(>, "What hast thou to do," O wicked man, "to declare my 
statutes ?" This is a challenge to those that are really profane, but seemingly 
godly, to shew what title they have to the cloak of religion, and by what 
authority they wear it, when they use it only to cover and conceal the abomi- 
nable impieties of their^ hearts and lives; let them make out their claim to it if 
they can. Some think it points prophetically at the scribes and Pharisees, that- 
were the teachers and leaders of the Jewish church, at the time when the 
kingdom of the Messiah, and that evangelical way of worship spoken of in the 
foregoing verses, were to be set up. They violently opposed that great revo- 
lution, and used all the power and interest which they had, by sitting in Moses* 
seat, to hinder it. But the account which our blessed Saviour gives of them, 
Mat. xxiii., and St. Paul, Rom. ii. 21, 22, makes this expostulation here agree 
very well to them. They took on them to declare God's statutes, but they 
hated Christ's instruction, and therefore what had they to do to expound the 
law who reject the Gospel? But it is applicable toall those that are praetisers 
of iniquity, and yet professors of piety, especially if withal they be preachers 
of it. Note, It is very absurd in itself, and a great affront to the God of heaven, 
for those that are wicked and ungodly to declare his statutes, and to take his 
covenant in their mouths. It is very possible, and too common, for those that 
declare God's statutes to others to live in disobedience to them themselves ; 
and for those that take God's covenant in their mouths yet in their hearts to 
continue their covenant with sin and death. But they are guilty of an usurpa- 
tion ; they take to themselves an honour which they have no title to ; and there 
is a day coming w T hen they will be thrust out as intruders. "Priend, how earnest 
thou in hither ? " 

2. They a^e charged with transgressing and violating the laws and precepts 
of religion. 1st. They are charged with a daring contempt of the W r ord of God: 
ver. 17, " Thou hatest instruction." They loved to give instruction, and to tell 
others what they should do ; for this fed their pride and ma.de them Look great, 



2U PSALM L. 

and by this craft they got their living. But they hated to receive instruction 
from (jrod himself ; for that would be a check upon them, and a mortification 
to them : Thou hatest discipline, the reproofs of the Word, and the rebukes 
of Providence. Those that hate to be reformed, no wonder they hate the means 
of reformation ; " Thou castest my words behind thee." They seemed to set 
God's words before them, when they sat in Moses' seat, and undertook to teach 
others out of the law, Rom. ii. 19; but in their conversations they cast God's 
word behind them, and did not care for seeing that rule which they were 
resolved not to be ruled by. This is despising the commandment of the Lord. 
2nd. A close confederacy with the worst of sinners ; ver. 18, "When thou sawest 
a thief,'' instead of reproving him, and witnessing against him, as those should 
do that declare God's statutes, "thou consentedst with him," didst approve of 
his practices, and desire to come in partner with him, and to share in the profits 
of his cursed trade. And "thou hast been partakers with adulterers;" hast 
done as they do, and encouraged them to go on in their wicked courses ; hast 
done these things, and hast had pleasure in them that do them, Rom. i. 32, 
3rd. A constant persisting in the worst of tongue sins ; ver. 19, " Thou givest 
thy mouth to evil;" not only allowest thyself in, but addictest thyself wholly 
to," all manner of evil speaking. _ First. Lying ; " Thy tongue frameth deceit," 
which notes contrivance and deliberation in lying. It knits or links deceit, so 
some. One lie begets another, and one fraud requires another to cover it. 
Secondly. Slandering ; ver. 20, " Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother;" 
dost basely abuse and misrepresent him; magisterially judge and censure hirn, 
and pass sentence upon him, as if thou wert his master, to whom he must 
stand or fall ; whereas he is thy brother, as good as thou art, and upon the 
level with thee, for he is "thy own mother's son." He is thy near relation, whom 
thou oughtest to love, to vindicate, and stand up for, if others abused him ; yet 
thou dost thyself abuse him, whose faults thou oughtest to cover, and make 
the best of. If really he had done amiss, yet thou dost most falsely and unjustly 
charge him with that which he is innocent of; thou sittest and dost this, as 
a judge upon the bench with authority ; thou sittest in the seat of the scornful, 
to deride and backbite those whom thou oughtest to respect and be kind to. 
Those that do ill themselves commonly delight in speaking ill of others. 

Secondly. The proof of this charge ; ver. 21, " These things thou hast done." 
The fact is too plain to be denied, the fault too bad to be excused; "These 
things" God knows, and thy own heart knows, "thou hast done." The sins 
of sinners will be proved upon them beyond contradiction, in the judgment 
of the great day. " I will reprove thee," or convince thee, so that thou shalt 
have not one word to say for thyself. The day is coming when impenitent 
sinners will have their mouths for ever stopped, and be struck speechless. 
What confusion will they be filled with when God shall set their sins in order 
before their eyes. They would not see their sins to their humiliation, but cast 
them behind their backs,— covered them, and endeavoured to forget them ; nor 
would they suffer their own consciences to put them in mind of them ; but the 
day is coming when God will make them see their sins to the everlasting shame 
and terror. He will set them in order;— original sin; actual sins; sins against 
the la w ; sins against the Gospel ; against the first table, against the second 
table ; sins of childhood and youth, of riper age and old age. He will set them 
in order, as the witnesses are set in order, and called in order against the 
criminal, and asked what they have to say against him. 

Thirdly. The judge's patience, and the sinner's abuse of that patience. "1 
kept silence," did not give thee any disturbance in thy sinful way, but let thee 
alone to take thy course. Sentence against thine evil works was respited, and 
not executed speedily. Note, The patience of God is very great towards 
provoking sinners. He sees their sins, and hates them. It would be neither 
difficulty nor damage to him to punish them, and yet he w r aits to be gracious, 
and gives them space to repent, that he may render them inexcusable if they 
repent not. His patience is the more wonderful because the sinner makes such 
an ill use of it ; " Thou thoughtest that I w 7 as altogether such a one as thyself," 
as weak and forgetful as thyself, as false to my word as thyself ; nay, as much 
a friend to sin as thyself. Sinners take God's silence for consent, and his 
patience for connivance, and therefore the longer they are reprieved the more 
are their hearts hardened ; but if they turn not they shall be made to see their 
error when it is too late, and that the God they provoke is just, and holy, and 
terrible, and not such a one as themselves. 

Fourthly. The fair warning given of the dreadful doom of hypocrites ; ver. 22, 
" Now consider this, ye that forget God." Consider that God knows and keeps 
account of all your sins, that he will call you to an account for them ; that 
patience abused will turn into the greater wrath ; that though you forget God, 
and your duty to him, he will not forget you and your rebellions against him. 
Consider this in time, before it be too late ; for if these things be not considered, 
and the consideration of them improved, he will "tear you in pieces, and there 
will be none to deliver." It is the doom of hypocrites to be cut in sunder. 



PSALM LI. 



245 



Mat. xxiv. 2;. Note, 1. Forgetfulness of God is at the bottom of all the 
wickedness of the wicked. They that know God, and yet do not obey him, 
do certainly forget him. 2. Those that forget God forget themselves ; and it 
will be never right with them till they consider, and so recover themselves. 
Consideration is the first step towards conversion. 3. Those that will not 
consider the warnings of God's word will certainly be torn in pieces by the 
executions of his wrath. 4. When God comes to tear sinners in pieces, there 
is no delivering them out of his hand. They cannot deliver themselves, nor can 
any friend they have in the world deliver them. 

Fifthly. Full instructions given to us all how to prevent this fearful doom. 
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, (we have it ver. 23,) which 
directs us what to do that we may attain our chief end. 

1. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and we are here told that whoso offers 
praise glorifies him ; whether he be Jew or Gentile, those spiritual sacrifices 
shall be accepted of him. AVe must praise God, and we must sacrifice praise ; 
direct it to God, as every sacrifice was ; put it into the hands of the priest, our 
Lord Jesus, who is also the altar: see that it be made by fire, sacred fire; that 
it be kindled with the flame of holy and devout affection : we must be fervent 

n spirit, praising the Lord. And this he is pleased in infinite condescension 
to interpret as the glorifying him. Hereby we give him the glory due to his 
name, and do what we can to advance the interests of his kingdom among men. 

2. Man's chief end, in conjunction with this, is to enjoy God. And we are 
here told that those who order their conversation aright shall see his salvation. 
1st. It is not enough for us to offer praise, but we must withal order our con- 
versation aright. Thanksgiving is good, but thanksliving is better. 2nd. Those 
that would have their conversation right must take care and pains to order it ; 



3rd. Those that take care of their conversation make sure their salvation. 
Them God will make to see his salvation; for it is a salvation ready to be 
revealed. He will make them to see it, and enjoy it; to see it, and to see them- 
selves happy for ever in it. Note, The right ordering of the conversation is the 
only way, and it is a sure way, to obtain trie great salvation. 



Though David penned this psalm upon a very particular occasion, yet it is of as general 
use as any of David's psalms. It is the most eminent of the penitential psalms, and 
most expressive of the cares and desires of a repenting sinner. It is a pity indeed that 
in our devout addresses to God we should have anything else to do but to praise God, 
for that is the work of heaven; but we make other work for ourselves by our own sins 
and follies. We must come to the throne of grace, in the posture of penitents, to 
confess our sins, and sue for the grace of God, and if therein we would take with us 
words, we can nowhere find any more apposite than in this psalm, which is the record 
of David's repentance lor his sin in the matter of Uriah, which was the greatest 
blemish upon his character; all the rest of his faults were nothing to this. It is said 
of him, 1 Kin. xv. 5, that "he turned not aside from the commandment of the Lord 
ail the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." In this psalm, 
I. He confesseth his sin, ver. 3 — 6. II. He prays earnestly for the pardon of his sin, 
ver. 1, 2, 7. 8. III. For peace of conscience, ver. 8, 12. IV. For grace, to go and sin 
no more, ver. 10, 11, 14. V. For liberty of access to God, ver. 15. VI. He promiseth 
to do what he could for the good of the souls of others, ver. 13; and for the giory of 
God, ver. 16. 17, 19; and, lastly, concludes with a prayer for Zion and Jerusalem, 
ver. 18. Those whose consciences charge them with any gross sin should, with a 
believing regard to Jesus Christ, the Mediator, again and again pray over this psalm ; 
nay, though we have not been guilty of adultery and murder, or any the like enormous 
crime, yet in singing it, and praying over it, we may very sensibly apply it all to our- 
selves, which if we do with suitable affections, we shall, through Christ, find mercy 
to pardon, and grace for seasonable help. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto 
him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba. 



HAVE mercy upon me, 0 God, 
According to thy lovingkindness : 
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies 
Blot out my transgressions. 
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity 
And cleanse me from my sin. 



to di: 




PSALM LI. 



24 G 



PSALM LI. 



8 For I acknowledge my transgressions 
And my sin is ever before me. 

4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, 
And done this evil in thy sight : 

That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, 
And be clear when thou judgest. 

5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity ; 
And in sin did my mother conceive me. 

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: 

And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know 
wisdom. 

The title has reference to a very sad story, that of David's fall. But though 
he fell he was not utterly cast down, for God graciously upheld him, and raised 
him up. 1. This sin, which in this psalm he laments, was the folly and wicked- 
ness he committed with his neghbqurs wife; a sin not to be spoken of, or 
thought of, without detestation. His debauching Bathsheba was the inlet to 
all the other sins that followed; it was as the letting forth of water. This sin 
of David's is recorded for warning to all, that he that thinks he stands may take 
heed lest he fall. 2. The repentance in this psalm he expresseth he was brought 
to by the ministry of Nathan, who was sent of God to convince him of his sin, 
after he had continued about nine months (for aught appears) without any par- 
ticular expressions of remorse and sorrow for it. But though God may suffer 
his people to fall into sin, and to lie a great while in it, yet he will by some 
means or other recover them to repentance, bring them to himself, and to their 
right mind again. Herein ordinarily he useth the ministry of the word, which 
yet he is not tied to. But those that have been overtaken in any fault ought to 
reckon a faithful reproof the greatest kindness that can be done them, and a 
wise reprover their best friend. " Let the righteous smite me, and it shall be 
excellent oil." 3. David being convinced of his sin, poured out his soul to God 
in prayer for mercy and grace. Whither should backsliding children return, 
but to the Lord their God, from whom they have backslidden, and who alone 
can heal their backslidings ? 4. What were the workings of his heart towards 
God upon this occasion by Divine inspiration he drew up into a psalm, that it 
might be often repeated, and long after reviewed ; and this he committed to the 
chief musician, to be sung in the public service of the church, 1st. As a pro- 
fession of his own repentance, which he would have to be generally taken notice 
of, his sin having been notorious, that the plaister might be as wide as the 
wound. Those that truly repent of their sins will 'not be ashamed to own their 
repentance ; but, having lost the honour of innocents, will rather covet the 
honour of penitents. 2nd. As a pattern to others, both to bring them to repent- 
ance by his example, and to instruct them in their repentance what to do, and 
what to say. Being converted himself, he thus strengthens his bretnren, 
Lu. xxii. 32, and for this cause he obtainea mercy, 1 Tim. i. IG. In these words 
we have, 

First. David's humble petition, ver. 1, 2. His prayer is much the same with 
that which our Saviour puts into the mouth of his penitent publican in the 
parable, " God be merciful to me a sinner," Lu. xviii. 13. David was upon 
manv accounts a man of great merit; he had not only done much, but suffered 
much in the cause of God ; and yet, when he is convinced of sin, he doth not 
offer to balance his evil deeds with his good deeds, nor can he think that his 
services will atone for his offences; but he flies to God's infinite mercy, and 
depends upon that only for pardon and peace. " Have mercy upon me, O God." 
He owns himself obnoxious to God's justice, and therefore casts himself upon 
his mercy ; and it is certain the best man in the world is undone if God be not 
merciful to him. Observe, 

1. What his plea is for this mercy. "Have mercy upon me, O God," not 
according to the dignity of ray birth, as descended from the prince of the tribe 
of Judah, not according to my public services as Israel's champion, or my 
public honours as Israel's king. His plea is not, "Lord, remember David in 
all his afflictions, how he vowed to build a place for the ark," Ps. cxxxii. 1, 2, a 
true penitent will make no mention of any such thing; but, Have mercy upon 
me for mercy sake. I have nothing to plead with thee but, 1st. The freeness 
of thy mercy, " according to thy lovingkindness," thy clemency, the goodness of 
thy nature, which inclines thee to pity the miserable. 2nd. The fulness of thy 
mercy. There is in thee not only lovingkindness and tender mercies, but abun- 



PSALM LI. 217 

dance of it, a multitude of tender mercies for the forgiveness of many sinners, 
of many sins ; to multiply pardons as we multiply transgressions. 

2. What is the particular mercy he begs. The pardon of sin; " Blot out my 
transgressions, '" as a debt is blotted or crossed out of the book, when either the 
debtor has paid it or the creditor has remitted it: wipe out my transgressions, 
that they may not appear to demand judgment against me, nor stare me in the 
face to my confusion and terror. The blood of Christ, sprinkled upon the con- 
science to purify and pacify that, blots out the transgression, and being recon- 
ciled to God reconciles us to ourselves ; ver. 2, " Wash me throughly from 
mine iniquity;" wash my soul from the guilt and stain of my sin by thy mercy 
and grace, for it is only from a ceremonial pollution that the water of separation 
will avail to cleanse me. Multiply to wash me ; the stain is deep, for 1 have 
lain long soaking in the guilt, so that it will not easily be got out. O wash me 
much, wash me throughly ; "Cleanse me from my sin." Sin defiles us, renders 
us odious in the sight of the holy God, and uneasy to ourselves ; it disHts us for 
communion with God in grace or glory. When God pardons sin, he cleanseth 
us from it, so that we become acceptable to him, easy to ourselves, and have 
liberty of access to him. Nathan had assured David, upon his first profession 
of repentance, that his sin was pardoned, " The Lord has taken away thy sin, 
thou shalt not die," 2 Sam. xii. 13; yet he prays, " Wash me, cleanse me, blot 
out my transgressions;" for God will be sought unto, even for that which he 
has promised ; and those whose sins are pardoned must pray that the pardon 
may be more and more cleared up to them. God hath forgiven him, but he 
could not forgive himself, and therefore he is thus importunate for pardon, as 
one that thought himself unworthy of it, and knew how to value it. 

Secondly. David's penitential confessions, ver. 3—5. 1. He was very free to 
own his guilt before God ; " I acknowledge my transgressions." This he had 
formerly found the only way of easing his conscience, Ps. xxxii. 4, 5. Nathan 
said, " Ihou art the man." And so 1 am, saith David, " I have sinned." 2. He 
had such a deep sense of it, that he was continually thinking of it with sorrow* 
and shame. His contrition for his sin was not a slight, sudden passion, but an 
abiding grief : "My sin is ever before me,'' to humble me and mortify me, and 
make me continually blush and tremble. It is ever against me, so some ; 1 see 
it before me as an enemy, accusing and threatening me. David was upon all 
occasions put in mind of his sin, and was willing to be so for his farther abase- 
ment. He never walked on the roof of his house without a penitent reflection 
on his unhappy walk there, when from thence he saw Bathsheba; never lay 
down to sleep without a sorrowful thought of the bed of his uncleanness ; never 
sat down to meat, never sent his servant on an errand, or took his pen in hand, 
but it put him in mind of his making Uriah drunk, the treacherous message he 
sent him, and the fatal warrant he wrote and signed for his execution. Note, 
The acts of repentance, even for the same sin, must be often repeated. It will 
be of good use for us to have our sins ever before us, that by the remembrance 
of our past sins we may be kept humble, may be armed against temptation, 
quickened to duty, and made patient under the cross. 

1st. He confesseth his actual transgressions ; ver. 4, "Against thee, thee only 
have I sinned." David was a very great man, and yet, having done amiss, sub- 
mits to the discipline of a penitent, and thinks not his royal dignity will excuse 
him from it. Rich and poor must here meet together ; there is one law of 
repentance for both ; the greatest must be judged shortly, and therefore must 
jud^e themselves now. David was a very good man, and yet, having sinned, he 
willingly accommodates himself to the place and posture of a penitent. The 
best men, if they sin, should give the best example of repentance. 

First. His confession is particular ; " I have done this evil," this that I am 
now reproved for, this that my own conscience now upbraids me with. Note, 
It is good to be particular in the confession of sin, that we may be the more 
express in praying for pardon, and so may have the more comfort in it. We 
ought to reflect upon the particular heads of our sins of infirmity, and the par- 
ticular circumstances of our gross sins. 

Secondly. He aggravates the sin which he confesseth, and laid load upon him- 
self for it ; " Against thee, and in thy sight." Hence our Saviour seems to 
borrow the confession which in the parable he puts into the mouth of the 
returning prodigal: " I have sinned against heaven and before thee,"Zw. xv. 18. 
Two things David laments in his sin : 1st. That it was committed against God. 
To him the affront is given, and he is the party wronged. It is his truth that 
by wilful sin we deny; his conduct that we despise; his command that w r e dis- 
obey ; his promise that we distrust ; his name that we dishonour ; and it is with 
him that we deal deceitfully and disingenuously. From this topic Joseph 
fetched the great argument against sin, Gen. xxxix. 9, and David here the great 
aggravation of it ; " Against thee only." Some make this to speak the prerogative 
of his crown, that as a king he was not accountable to any but God ; but it is 
more agreeable to his present temper to suppose that it speaks the deep con- 
trition of his soul for his sin, and that it was upon right grounds. He here 



248 PSALM LI. 

sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah; against his own soul and body, and 
family; against his kingdom, and against the church of God, and all this 
helped to humble him ; but none of these were sinned against so as God was; 
and therefore this he lays the most sorrowful accent upon, "Against thee 
only have I sinned." 2nd. That it was committed in God's sight. This not 
only proves it upon me, but renders it exceeding sinful. This should greatly 
humble us for all our sins, that they have been committed under the eye of 
God, which argues either a disbelief of his omniscience or a contempt of his 
justice. 

Thirdly. He justifies God in the sentence past upon him, for that "the sword 
should never depart from his house," 2 Sam. xii. 10, 11. He is very forward to 
own his sin, and aggravate it, not only that he might obtain the pardon of it 
himself, but that by his confession he might give honour to God. 1st. That 
God might be justified in the threatenings he had spoken by Nathan. Lord, I 
have nothing to say against the justice of them; I deserve what is threatened, 
and a thousand times worse. Thus Eli acquiesced in the like threatenings, 
1 Sam. iii. 18, "It is the Lord." And Hezekiah, 2 Kin. xx. 19, "Good is the 
word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken." 2nd. That God may be clear 
when he judgeth, that is, when he executes those threatenings. David pub- 
lished his confession of sin, that, when hereafter he should come into the 
temple, none might say, God had done him any wrong, for he owns the Lord 
is righteous. Thus will all true penitents justify God by condemning them- 
selves : " Thou art just in all that is brought upon us." 

2nd. He confesseth his original corruption; ver. 5, "Behold I was shapen in 
iniquity." He doth not call upon God to behold it, but upon himself. Come, 
my soul, look unto the rock out of which I was hewn, and thou wilt find "I 
was shapen in iniquity." ' Had I duly considered this before, I find 1 should not 
have made so bold with the temptation, nor have ventured among the sparks 
with such tinder in my heart, and so the sin might have been prevented. But 
let me consider it now, not to excuse or extenuate the sin, — Lord, I did so, but 
indeed I could not help it, my inclination led me to it ;' (for as that plea is false, 
with due care and watchfulness, and improvement of the grace of God, he might 
have helped it, so it is what a true penitent never offers to put in ;) ' but let me 
consider it rather as an aggravation of the sin ; Lord, I have not only been 
guilty of adultery and murder, but I have an adulterous, murderous nature ; 
therefore I abhor myself.' David elsewhere speaks of the admirable struc- 
ture of his body, Ps. cxxxix. 14, 15, it was curiously wrought, and yet here he 
saith it was shapen in iniquity ; sin was twisted in with it, not as it came out of 
God's hands, but as it comes through our parents' loins. He elsewhere speaks 
of the piety of his mother, that she was God's handmaid, and he pleads his 
relation to her, Ps. cxvi. 16 ; lxxxvi. 16, and yet here he saitn she conceived him 
in sin; for, though she was by grace a child of God, she was by nature a 
daughter of Eve, and not excepted from the common character. Note, It is to 
be sadly lamented by every one of us, that we brought into the world with us 
a corrupt nature, wretchedly degenerated from its primitive purity and recti- 
tude ; we have from our birth the snares of sin in our bodies, the seeds of in 
in our souls, and a stain of sin upon both. This is what we call original sin, 
because it is as ancient as our original, and because it is the original of all our 
actual transgressions. This is that foolishness which is bound in the heart of a 
child, that proneness to evil, and backwardness to good, which is the burthen 
of the regenerate, and the ruin of the unregenerate. It is a bent to backslide 
from God. 

Thirdly. David's acknowledgment of the grace of God, ver. 6, both his good 
will towards us, " Thou desirest truth in the inward parts," thou wouldst have 
us all honest and sincere, and true to our profession, and his good work in 
us, "In the hidden part thou" hast made, or ''shalt make me to know T wisdom." 
Note, 1. Truth and wisdom will go very far tow r ards making a man a good 
man. A clear Jiead and a sound heart (sincerity and prudence) bespeak the man 
of God perfect. 2. What God requires of us he himself works in us, and 
he works it in the regular way, enlightening the mind, and so gaining the will. 
But how doth this come in here? 1st. God is hereby justified and cleared. 
Lord, thou wast not the author of my sin ; there is no blame to be laid upon 
thee ; but I alone must bear it ; for thou hast many a time admonished me to be 
sincere, and hast made me to know that which if I had duly considered wouid 
have prevented my falling into this sin ; had I improved the grace thou hast 
given me, I had kept my integrity. 2nd. The sin is hereby aggravated. " Lord, 
thou desirest truth," but where was it w r hen I dissembled with Uriah ? " Thou 
hast made me to know wisdom ;" but I have not lived up to what I have known. 
3rd. He is hereby encouraged in his repentance to hope that God would gra- 
ciously accept of him. For, First. God had made him sincere in his resolutions 
never to return to folly again. " Thou desirest truth in the inward part ;" this 
is that which God has an eye to in a returning sinner, that " in his spirit there 



PSALM LI. 249 

be no guile." Ps. xxxii. 2. And David was conscious to himself of the upright- 
ness ot his neart towards God in his repentance, and therefore doubted not but 
God would accept him. Secondly. He hoped that God would enable him to 
make good his resolutions, that in the hidden part, in the new man, which is 
called the hidden man of the heart, 1 Pet. iii. 4, he would make him to know 
wisdom, so as to discern and avoid the designs of the tempter another time. 
Some read it as a prayer : Lord, in this instance < I have done foolishly, for the 
future make me to know wisdom. Where there is truth, God will give wisdom. 
Those that sincerely endeavour to do their duty shall be taught their duty. 

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean ; 
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow 

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness ; 

That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 

9 Hide thy face from my sins, 
And blot out all mine iniquities. 

10 Create in me a clean heart, 0 God ; 
And renew a right spirit within me. 

11 Cast me not away from thy presence ; 
And take not thy holy spirit from me. 

12 Kestore unto me the joy of thy salvation; 
And uphold me with thy free spirit. 

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; 
And sinners shall be converted unto thee. 

See here, First. What David prays for. Many excellent petitions he here 
puts up, to which, if we but add, "for Christ's sake," they are as evangelical as 
any other. 

1. He prays that God would cleanse him from his sins, and the defilement he 
had contracted by them ; ver. 7, " Purge me with hyssop ;" that is, pardon my 
sins, and let me know that they are pardoned, that I may be restored to those 
privileges which by sin I had forfeited and lost. The expression here alludes 
to a ceremonial distinction, that of cleansing the leper, or those that were 
unclean by the touch of a body, by sprinkling water, or blood, or both, upon 
them with a bunch of hyssop, by which they were at length discharged from 
the restraints they were laid under by their pollution. Lord, let me be as well 
assured of my restoration to thy favour, and to the privilege of communion with 
thee, as they were thereby assured of their readmission to their former privi- 
leges. But it is founded upon gospel grace ; " Purge me with hyssop," that is, 
with the blood of Christ applied to my soul by a lively faith, as water of purifi- 
cation was sprinkled with a bunch of nyssop. It is the blood of Christ, which 
is therefore called the blood of sprinkling, Heb. xii. 24, that purgeth the con- 
science from dead works, from that guilt of sin, and dread of God, which shuts 
us out of communion with him, as the touch of a dead body under the law shut 
a man out from the courts of God's house. If this blood of Christ, which 
cleanseth from all sin, cleanse us from our sin, then we shall be clean indeed, 
Heb. x. 2. If we be washed in this fountain opened, we shall be whiter than 
snow; not only acquitted, but accepted; so those are that are justified, 
lsa. i. 18, "Though your sins have been as scarlet, they shall be w r hite as 
snow." 

2. He prays that, his sins being pardoned, he might have the comfort of that 

Eardon. He asks not to be comforted till first he is cleansed : but if sin, the 
itter root of sorrow, be taken away, he can pray in faith, "-Make me to hear 
joy and gladness," ver. 8, that is, let me have a w r ell-grounded peace of thy 
creating, thy speaking, so "that the bones which thou hast broken" by convic- 
tions and threatenings " may rejoice," may not only be set again, and eased from 
the pain, but may be sensibly comforted, and, as the prophet speaks, may flourish 
as an herb. Note, 1st. The pain of a heart truly broken for sin may well be 
compared to that of a broken bone ; and it is the same Spirit who as a Spirit 
of bondage smites and wounds, and as a Spirit of adoption heals and binds up. 
2nd. The comfort and joy that ariseth from a sealed pardon to a penitent sinner 
is as refreshing as perfect ease from the most exquisite pain. 3rd. It is God's 
work not only to speak this joy and gladness, but to make us hear it, and take 
the comfort of it. He earnestly desires that God would lift up the light of his 



250 PSALM LI. 

countenance upon him ; and so put gladness into his heart, that he would not 
only be reconciled to him, but, which is a farther act of grace, let him know 
that he was so. 

3. He prays for a complete and effectual pardon. This is that which he is 
most earnest for, as the foundation of his comfort ; ver. 9, " Hide thy face from 
my sins," that is, be not provoked by them to deal with me as I deserve; they 
are ever before me, let them be cast behind thy back; "blot out all mine 
iniquities" out of the book of thine account: blot them out as a cloud is blotted 
out and dispelled by the beams of the sun, lsa. xliv. 22. 

4. He prays for sanctifying grace; and this every true penitent is as earnest 
for as for pardon and peace, ver. 10. He doth not pray, Lord, preserve me my 
reputation; as Saul, " I have sinned, yet honour me before this people." No, his 
great concern is to get his corrupt nature changed. The sin he had been guilty 
of was, 1st. An evidence of its impurity, and therefore he prays, " Create in me 
a clean heart, O God." < He now saw more than ever what an unclean heart he 
had, and sadly laments it, but sees it is not in his power to amend it, and there- 
fore begs of God (whose prerogative it is to create) that he would create in him 
a clean heart. He only that made the heart can new make it ; and to his power 
nothing is impossible. He created the world by the word of his power as the 
God of nature ; and it is by the word of his power as the God of grace that we 
are clean, Jno. xv. 3; that we are sanctified, Jno. xvii. 17. 2nd. It was the 
cause of its disorder, and undid much of the good work that had been wrought 
in him, and therefore he prays, " Lord, renew a right spirit within me ; " repair 
the decays of spiritual strength which this sin has been the cause of, and set me 
to rights again. Renew a constant spirit within me; so some. He had in this 
matter discovered much inconstancy and disagreeableness with himself, and 
therefore prays. Lord, fix me for the time to come, that 1 may never in like 
manner depart from thee. 

5. He prays for the continuance of God's good will towards him, and the pro- 
gress of his good work in him, ver. 11. 1st. That he might never be shut out 
from God's tavour ; " Cast me not away from thy presence," as one w horn thou 
abhorrest, and canst not endure to look upon. He prays that he might not be 
thrown out of God's protection, but that wherever he went he might have the 
Pi vine presence with him, might be under the conduct of his wisdom, and in the 
custody of his power, and that he might not be forbidden communion with 
God : Let me not be banished thy courts, but always have liberty of access to 
thee, by prayer. He doth not deprecate the temporal judgments which God bv 
Nathan had threatened to bring upon him; God's will be done: but, "Lord, 
rebuke me not in thy wrath." If the sword come into my house never to depart 
from it. yet let me have a God to go to in my distresses, and I am well enough. 
2nd. That he might never be deprived of God's grace ; " Take not thy holy 
Spirit from me." He knew he had by his sin grieved the Spirit, and provoked 
him to withdraw ; and that, because he also is Mesh, God might justly have said 
that his Spirit should no more strive with him, or work upon him, Gen. vi. 3. 
This he dreads more than any thing. We are undone if God take his holy Spirit 
from us. Saul was a sad instance of this ; how exceeding sinful, how exceeding 
miserable w r as he, when "the Spirit of the Lord was departed from him! 
David knew it, and therefore begs thus earnestly, Lord, whatever thou take 
from me, my children, my crown ; my life, yet "take not thy holy Spirit from 
me," (see 2 Sam. vii. 15,) but continue thy holy Spirit with me, to perfect the 
work of my repentance, to prevent my relapse into sin, and to enable me to 
discharge my duty both as a prince and as a psalmist. 

6. He prays for the restoration of Divine comforts, and the perpetual com- 
munications of Divine grace, ver. 12. David finds two ill effects of his sin: 
1st. It had made him sad, ana therefore he prays, " Restore unto me the joy of 
thy salvation." A child of God knows no true nor solid joy but the joy of God's 
salvation, joy in God his Saviour, and in the hope of eternal life. By wilful sin 
we forfeit this joy, and deprive ourselves of it; our evidences cannot but be 
clouded, and our hopes shaken. "When we give ourselves so much cause to doubt 
of our interest in the salvation, how can we expect the joy of it? But when we 
truly repent, we may pray and hope that God w ill restore to us those joys. 
They that sow in penitential tears shall reap in the joys of God's salvation, 
when the times of refreshing shall come. 2nd. It had made him weak, and 
therefore he prays, " Uphold me with thy free Spirit : " I am ready to fall, either 
into sin or into despair ; Lord, sustain me. # My own spirit (though the spirit of 
a man will go far towards the sustaining his infirmity) is not sufficient, but if 1 
be left to myself I shall certainly sink ; therefore uphold me with thy Spirit, let 
him counterwork the evil spirit that would cast me down from mine excellency. 
Thy Spirit is a free Spirit, a free agent himself, working freely ; and that makes 
those free whom he works upon, for where tne Spirit of the Lord is there is 
liberty. 'Thy ingenuous, princely Spirit.' He was conscious to himself of his 
acting very disingenuously in the matter of Uriah, and unlike a prince ; that his 
behaviour was base and paltry. Lord, saith he, let thy Spirit inspire my soul 



PSALM LI. 251 

with noble and generous principles, that I may always act as becomes me. A 
free spirit will be a firm and fixed spirit, and will uphold us. The more cheerful 

: we are in our duty, the more constant we shall be to it. 

Secondly. See what David here promiseth, ver. 13. Observe, 1. What good 
work he promiseth God to do ; " I will teach transgressors thy ways.*' David 
had been himself a transgressor, and therefore could speak experimentally to 
transgressors, and resolves, having himself found mercy with God in the way of 

, repentance, to teach others God's ways, that is, our way to God by repentance : 
he would teach others that had sinned to take the same course that he had 
taken, to humble themselves, to confess their sins, and seek God's face ; and 
God's way towards us in pardoning mercy, how ready he is to receive those that 
return to him. He taught the former by his own example for the direction of 
sinners in repenting ; he taught the latter by his own experience, for their 
encouragement. By this psalm he is, and wiil be, to the world's end, teaching 
transgressors, telling them what God had done for his soul. Note, Penitents 
should be preachers; Solomon was so, and blessed Paul. 2. What good effect 
he promiseth himself from his doing this ; " Sinners shall be converted unto 
thee,'' and shall neither persist in their wanderings from thee nor despair of 
finding mercy in their returns to thee. The great thing to be aimed at in teach- 
ing transgressors, is thur conversion to God, that is a happy point gained, and 
happy they that are instrumental to contribute towards it, Jus. v. 20. 

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, 

0 God, thou God of my salvation : 

And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 

1 5 0 Lord, open thou my lips ; 

A nd my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 

1 6 For thou desirest not sacrifice ; else would I give it : 
Thou delightest not in burnt offering. 

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit [despise. 
A broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, thou wilt not 

18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion : 

Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. [ness, 

1 9 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteous- 
With burnt offering and whole burnt offering : 

Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. 

First. David prays against the guilt of sin, and prays for the grace of God, and 
enforceth both petitions with a plea taken from the glory of God, which he 
promiseth with thankfulness to shew forth. 

1. He prays against the guilt of sin, that he might be delivered from that, and 
promiseth that then he would praise God, ver. 14. The particular sin he prays 
against is blood-guiltiness, the sin he had now been guilty of, having slain Uriah 
with the sword of the children of Ammon. Hitherto, perhaps, he had stopped 
the mouth of conscience with that frivolous excuse that he did not kill him 
himself; but now he was convinced that he was the murderer, and hearing the 
blood cry to God for vengeance he cries to God for mercy; "Deliver me from 
blood-guiltiness." that is, Let me not lie under the guilt of that .kind I have 
contracted, but let it be pardoned to me, and let me never be left to myself to 
contract the like guilt again. Note, It concerns us all to pray earnestly against 
the guilt of blood. In this prayer he eyes God as the God of salvation. Note, 
Those to whom God is the God of salvation he will deliver from guilt, for the 
salvation he is the God of is salvation from sin. We may therefore plead this 
with him, Lord, thou art the God of my salvation, therefore deliver me from the 
dominion of sin. He promiseth that, if God would deliver him, his tongue 
should sing aloud of his righteousness ; that is, God should have the glory both 
of pardoning mercy and of preventing grace. God's righteousness is often put 
for his grace, especially in the great business of justification and sanctifi cation. 
This he would comfort himself in, and therefore sing of it; and this he would 
endeavour both to acquaint and to affect others with; he would sing aloud 
of it. This all those should do that have had the benefit of it, and owe their 
all to it. 

2. He prays for the grace of God, and promiseth to improve that grace to his 
glory ; ver. 15, " O Lord, open thou my lips," not only that 1 may teach and 



252 PSALM LI. 

instruct sinners, which the best preacher cannot do to any purpose, unless God 
give him the opening of the mouth, and the tongue of the learned, but "that my 
mouth may shew forth thy praise;" not onlv that I may have abundant matter 
for praise, but a heart enlarged in praise. Guilt had closed his lips, had gone 
near to stop the mouth of prayer; he could not for shame, he could not for 
fear, come into the presence of that God whom he knew he had offended, much 
less speak to him; his heart condemned him. and therefore he had little confi- 
dence towards God. It cast a damp particularly upon his praises; when he had 
lost the joys of his salvation, his harp was hung upon the willow trees ; there- 
fore he prays, Lord, open my lips, put my heart in tune for praise again. To 
them that are tongue-tied by reason of guilt, the assurance of the forgiveness 
of their sins saith effectually, JEphphatha, — 'Be opened;' and when the lips 
are opened, what should they speak but the praises of God? as Zacharias 
did, Lu. i. 6i. 

Secondly. David offers the sacrifice of a penitent, contrite heart, as that which 
he knew God would be pleased -with. 

1. He knew very well that the sacrificing of beasts was in itself of no account 
with God; ver. 16, "Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it" with all 
my heart to obtain pardon and peace, but "thou delightest not in burnt offer- 
ing." Here see how fond David would have been to give thousands of rams to 
make atonement for sin. Those that are thoroughly convinced of their misery 
and danger by reason of sin would spare no cost to obtain the remission of it, 
Mic. vi. 6, 7. But see how little God valued this ! As trials of obedience, and 
types of Christ, he did indeed require sacrifices to be offered; but he had no 
delight in them for any intrinsic worth or value they had. " Sacrifice and offering 
thou wouldst not:" as they cannot make satisfaction for sin, so God cannot 
take any satisfaction in them, any otherwise than as the offering of them is 
expressive of love and duty to him. 

2. He knew also how acceptable true repentance is to God : ver. 17, The 
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." See here, 1st. What the good work is 
that is wrought in every true penitent : " A broken spirit, a broken and a contrite 
heart." It is a work wrought upon the heart ; that is it that God looks at and 
requires in all religious exercises, particularly in the exercises of repentance- 
It is a sharp work wrought there, no less than the breaking of the heart; not in 
despair, as we say when a man is undone, his heart is broken ; but in necessary 
humiliation, and sorrow for sin. It is a heart breaking with itself, and breaking 
from its sin ; it is a heart pliable to the word of God, and patient under the rod 
of God: a heart subdued and brought into obedience: it is a heart that is 
tender, like Josiah's, and trembles at God's word. Oh that there were such a 
heart m us! 2nd. How graciously God is pleased to accept of this. It is the 
sacrifices of God, not one, but many, it is instead of all burnt offering and sacri- 
fice. The breaking of Christ's body for sin is the only sacrifice of atonement, for 
no sacrifice but that could take away sin : but the breaking of our hearts for 
sin is a sacrifice of acknowledgment, a sacrifice of God, for to him it is offered 
up ; he requires it, he prepares it, (he provides this lamb for a burnt offering,) 
and he will accept of it. That which pleased God was not the feeding of a 
beast, and making much of it, but killing it ; so it is not the pampering of oui 
flesh, but the mortifying of it, that God will accept. The sacrifice was bound, 
was bled, was burnt; so the penitent heart is bound by convictions, bleeds in 
contrition, and then burns in holy zeal against sin and for God. The sacrifice 
was offered upon the altar, that sanctified the gift; so the broken heart is 
acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ. There is no true repentance 
without faith in him ; and this is the sacrifice which he will not despise. Men 
despise that which is broken, but God will not. He despised the sacrifice of 
torn and broken beasts, but he will not despise that of a torn and broken heart. 
He will not overlook it, he will not refuse or reject it ; though it make God no 
satisfaction for the wrong done him by sin, yet he doth not despise it. The 
proud Pharisee despised the broken-hearted publican, and he thought very 
meanly of himself; but God did not despise him. More is implied than is 
expressed ; the great God overlooks heaven and earth to look with favour upon 
a broken and contrite heart, Isa. lxvi. 1, 2; lvii. 15. 

Thirdly. David intercedes for Zion and Jerusalem, with an eye to the honoup 
of God. See what a concern he had, 

1. For the good of the church of God ; ver. 16, " Do good in thv good pleasure 
unto Zion;" that is, 1st. To all the particular worshippers in Zion, to all that 
love and fear thy name. Keep them from falling into such wounding -wasting 
eins as these of mine ; defend and succour all that fear thy name. Those that 
have been in spiritual troubles themselves know how to pity and pray for those 
that are in like manner afflicted. Or, 2nd. To the public interests of Israel. 
David was sensible of the wrong he had done to Judah and Jerusalem by his 
sin ; how it had weakened the hands and saddened the hearts of good people, 
and opened the mouths of then* adversaries. He was likewise afraid lest, he being 
a public person, his sin should bring judgments upon the city and kingdom, and 



PSALM LII. 253 

therefore he prays to God to secure and advance those public interests which 
he had damaged and endangered. He prays that God would prevent those 
national judgments which his sin had deserved, that he would continue those 
blessings, and carry on that good work which it had threatened to retard and 
put a stop to. He prays not only God would do good to Zion, as he did to 
other places by his providence, but that he would do it in his good pleasure, with 
the peculiar favour he bore to that place which he had chosen to put his name 
there ; that the walls of Jerusalem, which perhaps were now in the building, 
might be built up, and that good work finished. Note, First. When we have 
most business of our own, and of greatest importance at the throne of grace, yet 
then we must not forget to pray for the church of God ; nay, our Master has 
taught us in our daily prayers to begin with that, " Hallowed be thy name, thy 
kingdom come." Secondly. The consideration of the prejudice we have done to 
the public interests by our sins should engage us to do them all the service we 
can, particularly by our prayers. ^ 

2. For the honour of the churches of God, ver. 19. If God would shew him- 
self reconciled to him and his people, as he had prayed, then they should go on 
with the public services of his house ; 1st. Cheerfully to themselves. The sense 
of God's goodness to them would enlarge their hearts in all the instances and ex- 
pressions of thankfulness and obedience. They will then come to his tabernacle 
with burnt offerings, with whole burnt offerings, which were intended purely for 
the glory of God, and they shall offer not lambs and rams only^but bullocks, 
the costliest sacrifices, upon his altar. 2nd. Acceptably to God. Thou shalt be 
pleased with them; that is, we shall have reason to hope so, when we perceive 
the sin taken away which threatened to hinder thine acceptance. Note, It is a 
great comfort to a good man to think of the communion that is between God 
and his people in their public assemblies ; how he is honoured by their humble 
attendance on him, and they are happy in his gracious acceptance of them. 



PSALM LII. 

David no doubt was in very great grief when he said to Abiathar, 1 Sam. xxii. 22, " I have 
occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house," which were put to death 
upon Doeg's malicious information. To give some vent to that grief, and to gain some 
relief to his mind under it, he penned this psalm, wherein, as a prophet, and therefore 
with as good an authority as if he had been now a prince upon the throne, I. He 
arraigns Doeg for what he had done, ver. 1, II. He accuseth him, convicts him, and 
aggravates his crimes, ver. 2 — 4. III. He passeth sentence upon him, ver. 5. IV. He 
foretells the triumphs of the righteous in the execution of the sentence, ver. 6, 7. 
V. He comforts himself in the mercy of God, and the assurance he had that he should 
yet praise him, ver. 8, 9. In singing this psalm we should conceive a detestation of 
the sin of lying, foresee the ruin of those that persist in it, and please ourselves with 
the assurance of the preservation of God's church and people, in spite of all the mali- 
cious designs of the children of Satan, that father of lies. 

To the chief Musician, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite 
came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of 
Ahimelech. 

WHY boastest thou thyself in mischief, 0 mighty man ? 
The goodness of God endureth continually 

2 Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs ; 

Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully, 

3 Thou lovest evil more than good ; 

And lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah. 

4 Thou lovest all devouring words, 
0 thou deceitful tongue. 

5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, [ing place, 
He shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of iky dwell- 
And root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. 

The title is a brief account of the story which the psalm refers to. David now 
at length saw it necessary to quit the court and shift for his own safety, for fear 
of Saul who had once and again attempted to murder him. Being unprovided 
of arms and victuals, he, by a wile, got Ahimelech the priest to furnish him with 



254 PSALM LIL 

both. Does, an Edomite, happened to be there, and lie went and informed Saul 
against Ahimeleeh, representing him as confederate with a traitor; upon which 
accusation Saul grounded a very bloody warrant to kill all the priests ; and 
Doeg, who was the prosecutor, was the executioner, 1 Sam. xxii. 9, &c. In 
these verses, 

First. David argues the case fairly with this proud and mighty man, ver. 1. 
Doeg, it is probable^ was mighty in respect of bodily strength ; but if he were 
he gained no reputation to it by his easy victory over the unarmed priests of the 
Lord. It is no nonour for those that ivear a sword to hector those that wear 
an ephod. However, he was by his office a mighty man, for he was set over the 
servants of Saul, chamberlain of the household. This was he that boasted him- 
self not only in the power he had to do mischief, but in the mischief he did. 
Note, It is bad to do ill, but it is worse to brag of it and glory in it when we 
have done ; not only not to be ashamed of a wicked action, but to justify it ; not 
only to justify it, but to magnify it, and value ourselves upon it. They that 
glory in their sin glory in their shame, and then it becomes yet more shameful. 
Mighty men are often mischievous men, and boast of their hearts' desire, 
Ps. x. 3. It is uncertain how the following words come in : "The goodness of 
God endures continually." Some make it the wicked man's answer to this ques- 
tion. The patience and forbearance of God, that great instance of his goodness, 
is abused by sinners, to the hardening of their hearts in their wicked ways; 
because sentence against their evil works is not executed speedily, nay, God is 
continually doing them good, therefore they boast in mischief, as if their pros- 
perity in their wickedness were an evidence that there is no harm in it; but it 
is rather to be taken as an argument against him, to shew, 1. The sinfulness of 
his sin. God is continually doing good, and those that therein are like him have 
reason to glory in their being so ; but thou art continually doing mischief, and 
therein art utterly unlike him, and contrary to him, and yet gloriest in being so. 

2. The folly of it. Thou thinkest with the mischief which thou boastest of the 
artful contriving of, and successful carrying on of, to run down and ruin the 
people of God; but thou wilt find thyself mistaken; "the goodness of God 
endures continually" for their preservation, and then they need not fear what 
man can do unto them. The enemies in vain boast in their mischief while we 
hav e God's mercy to boast in. # 

Secondly. He draws up a high charge against him in the court of heaven, as 
he had drawn up a high charge against Ahimeleeh in Saul's court, ver. 2 — 4. 
He accuseth him of the wickedness of his tongue, that unruly evil full of deadly 
poison, and the wickedness of his heart which that was an evidence of. Four 
things he charges him with: 1. Malice. His tongue doth mischief, not only 
pricking like a needle, but cutting like a sharp razor. Scornful bantering w r ords 
would not content him ; he loved devouring words, words that would ruin the 
priests of the Lord, whom he hated. 2. Falsehood. It was a deceitful tongue 
that he did this mischief with, ver. 4 ; he loved lying, ver. 3 ; and this sharp 
razor did work deceitfully, ver. 2 ; that is, before he had this occasion given 
him to discover his malice against the priests, he had carried it very plausibly 
towards them. Though he were an Edomite, he attended the altars, and brought 
his offerings, and paid his respects to the priests as decently as any Israelite, 
though therein he put a force upon himself, for "he was detained before the 
Lord \ " but herein he gained an opportunity of doing them so much the greater 
mischief. Or it may refer to the information itself which he gave in against 
Ahimeleeh ; for the matter of fact was in substance true, yet it was misrepre- 
sented, and false colours put upon it, and therefore he might well be said to love 
lying, and to have a deceitful tongue. He told the truth, but not all the truth, 
as a witness ought to do. Had he told that David made Ahimeleeh believe he 
was then going upon Saul's errand, the kindness he shewed him would have 
appeared to be not only not traitorous against Saul, but respectful to him. It will 
not save us from the guilt of lying to be able to say there was some truth in 
what we said, if we pervert it, and make it to appear otherwise than it was. 

3. Subtlety in sin. "Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs;" that is, it speaks the 
mischief which thy heart deviseth. The more there is of craft and contrivance 
in any wickedness, the more there is of the devil in it. 4. Affection to sin. 
" Thou lovest evil more than good;" that is, thou lovest evil, and hast no love 
at all to that which is good ; thou takest delight in lying, and makest no con- 
science of doing right. Thou wouldest rather please Saul by telling a lie than 
please God by speaking truth. Those are of Doeg's spirit who, instead of being 
pleased (as we all ought to be) with an opportunity of doing a man kindness in 
his body, estate, or good name, are glad when they have a fair occasion to do a 
man a mischief, and readily close with an opportunity of that kind; that is loving 
evil more than good. It is bad to speak devouring words, but it is worse to love 
them, either in others or in ourselves. 

Thirdly. He reads his doom, and denounceth the judgments of God against 
him for his wickedness, ver. 5. Thou hast destroyed the priests of the Lord, 



PSALM LII. ?M 

and cut them off, and therefore " God shall likewise destroy thee for ever." 
fcsons of perdition actively shall be sons of perdition passively, as Judas and the 
man of sin. Destroyers shall be destroyed; those especially that hate, and per- 
secute, and destroy the priests of the Lord, his ministers and people, who are 
made to our God priests, a royal priesthood, shall be taken away with a swift 
and everlasting destruction. Doeg is here condemned, 1. To be driven out of 
the church; "He shall pluck thee out of the tabernacle;" not thy dwelling- 
place, but God's, so it is most probably understood. Thou shalt be cut off from 
the favour of God, and his presence, and all communion with him, and shalt 
have no benefit, either by oracle or offering. Justly was he deprived of all the 
privileges of God's house, that had been so mischievous to his servants ; he had 
come sometimes to God's tabernacle, and attended in his courts, but he was 
detained there, he was sick of the service, and sought an opportunity to defame 
his family. It was very fit therefore he should be taken away, and plucked 
out from thence : we would forbid one our house that should serve us so. Note, 
We forfeit the benefit of ordinances if w r e make an ill use of them. 2. To be 
driven out of the world; " He shall root thee out of the land of the living," in 
which thou thoughtest thyself so deeply rooted. When good men die, they are 
transplanted from the land of the living on earth, the nursery of the plants of 
righteousness, to that in heaven, the garden of the Lord, where they shall take 
root for ever ; but when wicked men die, they are rooted out of the land of the 
living to perish for ever, as fuel to the fire of Divine wrath. This will be the 
portion of those that contend with God. 

6 The righteous also shall see, and fear, 
And shall laugh at him : 

7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; 
But trusted in the abundance of his riches, 

And strengthened himself in his wickedness. 

8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: 
I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. 

9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it : 
And I will wait on thy name ; 

For it is good before thy saints. 




olive trees ver. 8. 



256 PSALM LIL 

David was at this time in great distress ; the mischief Doeg had done him was 
but the beginning of his sorrows; and yet here we have him triumphing, and 
that is more than rejoicing, in tribulation. Blessed Paul, in the midst of his 
troubles, is in the midst of his triumphs, 2 Cor. ii. 14. David here triumphs, 

First. In the fall of Doeg ; yet, lest this should look like personal revenge, he 
doth not speak of it as his own act, but the language of other righteous persons. 
They shall observe God's judgments on Doeg, and speak of them, 

1. To the glory of God. They shall see and fear, ver. 6; that is, they shall 
reverence the justice of God, and stand in awe of him as a God of almighty 
power, before whom the proudest sinner cannot stand, and before whom there- 
fore we ought every one of us to humble ourselves. Note, God's judgments on 
the wicked should strike an awe upon the righteous^ and make them afraid 
of offending God, and incurring his displeasure, Ps. cxix. 120 ; Rev. xv. 3, 4. 

2. To the shame of Doeg. They shall laugh at him. not with a ludicrous, but 
a rational, serious laughter, as he that sits in heaven snail laugh at him, Ps. ii. 4. 
He shall appear ridiculous and worthy to be laughed at. We are told how they 
shall triumph in God's just judgments on him ; ver. 7, " Lo. this is the man that 
made not God his strength." The fall and ruin of a wealthy, mighty man can- 
not be but generally taken notice of, and every one is apt to make liis remarks 
upon it. Now this is the remark which the righteous should make upon Doeg's 
fall, that no better could come of it, since he took the wrong method of esta- 
blishing himself in his wealth and power. If a new erected fabric tumbles 
down, presently every one inquires where was the fault in the building of it. 
Now that which ruined Doeg's prosperity was, 1st. That he did not build it 
upon a rock; " he made not God his strength;" that is, he did not think that 
the continuance of his prosperity depended upon the favour of God, and there- 
fore took no care to make sure that favour, nor to keep himself in God's* love, 
made no conscience of his duty to him, nor sought him in the least. Those 
wretchedly deceive themselves that think to support themselves in their power 
and wealth without God and religion. 2nd. That he did build it upon the sand. 
He thought his wealth would support itself; he "trusted in the abundance of 
his riches," Avhich he imagined were laid up for many years;, nay, he thought his 
wickedness would help to support it. He was resolved to stick at nothing for the 
securing and advancing of his honour and power ;. right or wrong, he would get 
what he could, and keep what he had, and be the ruin of any one that stood in 
his way ; and this he thought would strengthen him. They may have anything 
that will make conscience of nothing. But now see what it comes to, see what 
untempered mortar he built his house with ; now it is fallen, and himself buried 
in the ruins of it. 

Secondly. In his own stability, ver. 8, 9. This mighty man is plucked up by 
the roots, "but I am like a green, olive tree,'' planted and rooted, fixed ana 
flourishing ; he is turned out of God's dwelling-place, but I am established in it, 
not detained as Doeg by any thing but the abundant satisfaction I meet with 
there. Note, Those that by faith and love dwell in the house of God shall be 
like green olive-trees there. The wicked are said to flourish like a green bay- 
tree, Ps. xxxvii. 35, which bears no useful fruit, though it have abundance of 
large leaves ; but the righteous flourish like a green olive-tree, which is fat as 
■well as flourishing, Ps. xcii. 14; and with its fatness honours God and man, 
Jud. ix. 9, deriving its root and fatness from the good olive, Rom. xi. 17. Now 
what must we do that we may be as green olive-trees ?^ 

1. We must live a life of faith and holy confidence in God and his grace. 1 
see what comes of men's trusting in the abundance of their riches, and therefore 
" I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever ;" not in the world, but in God; 
not in my own merit, but in God's mercy, which dispenseth its gifts freely, even 
to the unworthy, and has in it an all-sufficiency to be our portion and happiness. 
This mercy is for ever ; it is constant and unchangeable, and its gifts will con- 
tinue to all eternity ; we must therefore for ever trust in it, and never come off 
from that bottom. 

2. We must live a life of thankfulness and holy joy in God; ver. 9, "I will 
praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it," hast avenged the blood of thy 
priests upon their bloody enemy, and given him blood to drink, and hast per- 
formed thy promise to me, which he was as sure would be done in due time as 
if it were done already. It contributes very much to the beauty of our profes- 
sion, and to our fruitfulness in every grace, to be much in praising God, and it 
is certain we never want matter for praise. 

3. We must live a life of expectation, and humble dependence upon God. " I 
will wait on thy name;" that is, I will attend upon thee in all those ways 
wherein thou hast made thyself known, hoping for the discoveries of thy favour 
to me, and willing to tarry till the time appointed for them ; " for it is good 
before thy saints;" or, in the opinion and judgment of thy saints, with whom 
David heartily concurs. It is the communis setisus Jidelium, — 'all the saints are 
of this mind,' 1st. That God's name is good in itself. That God's manifestations 
of himself to his people are gracious and very kind ; there is no other name given 
but his, that would be our refuge and strong tower. 2nd. That it is very good 



PSALM LIII. 257 
for U9 to wait on that name ; that there is nothing better to calm and qniet our 
spirits, when they are ruffled and disturbed, and to keep us in the way of our 
duty, when we are tempted to use any indirect courses tor our own relief, than 
to hope, and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord," Lam. iii. 26. All 
the saints have experienced the benefit of it, who never attended him in vain, 
never followed his conduct but it ended well, nor were ever made ashamed of 
their believing expectations from him. What is good before all the saints, let 
us therefore abide and abound in, and in this particularly; "Turn thou to thy 
God, keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually," Hos. xii. 6. 

PSALM LIII. 

God speaketh once, yea twice, and it were well if man would even then perceive it. God 
in this psalm speaketh twice, for this is the same, almost verbatim, with the 14th 
Psalm. The scope of it is to convince us of our sins, to set us a blushing, and to set us 
a trembling because of them ; and this is what we are so hardly brought to, that there 
is need of line upon line to this purpose. The word, as a convincing word, is compared 
to a hammer, the strokes whereof must be frequently repeated. God, by the psalmist 
here, I. Shews us how bad we are, ver. 1. II. Proves it upon us by his own certain 
knowledge, ver. 2, 3. III. He speaks terror to persecutors, the worst of sinners, 
ver. 4, 5. IV. He speaks encouragement to God's persecuted people, ver. 6. Some 
little variation there is between Ps. xiv. and this, but none considerable, only between 
ver. 5,6, there, and ver. 5, where some expressions there used are here left out, con- 
cerning the shame which the wicked put upon God's people, and instead of that is here 
foretold the shame which God would put upon the wicked; which alteration, with some 
others, he made by Divine direction, when he delivered it the second time to the chief 
musician. In singing it, we ought to lament the corruption of the human nature, 
and the wretched degeneracy of the world we live in, yet rejoicing in hope of the great 
salvation. 

To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David. 

THE fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. 
Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: 
There is none that doeth good. 

2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, 
To see if there were any that did understand, 

That did seek God. 

3 Every one of them is gone back : 
They are altogether become filthy ; 

There is none that doeth good, no, not one. 

4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge ? 
Who eat 'ip my people as they eat bread : 
They have not called upon God. 

5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was : 

For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth 
against thee : [them. 
Thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised 

6 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion ! 
When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, 
Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. 

This psalm was opened before, and therefore we shall here only observe, in 
short, some things concerning sin, in order to the increasing of our sorrow for 
it ana hatred of it. 

I. The fact of sin. Is that proved? Can the charge be made out? Yes; 
God is a witness to it. an unexceptionable witness. Prom the place of his' 
holiness he looks on the children of men, and sees how little good there is 
among them, ver. 2. All the sinfulness of their hearts and lives is naked and 
open before him. 

R 



258 PSALM LIV. 

It. The fault of sin. Is there any harm in it? Yes; it is iniquity, Ter. I, 4; 
it is an unrighteous thing ; it is that which there is no good in, ver. 1,3; it is an 
evil thing, it is the worst of evils ; it is that which makes this world such an 
evil world as it is; it is going back from God, ver. 3. 

III. The fountain of sin. How comes it that men are so bad ? Surely it is 
because there is no fear of God before their eyes. They say in their hearts. 
There is no God at all to call us to an account, none that we need to stand 
in awe of. Men's bad practices flow from their bad principles; if they profess 
to know God, yet in works, because in thoughts, they deny him. 

IV. The folly of sin. He is a fool (in the account of God, whose judgment 
we are sure is' right) that harbours such corrupt thoughts: atheists, whether 
in opinion or practice, are the greatest fools in the world. They that do not 
seek God, they do not understand; they are like brute beasts that have no 
understanding ; for man is distinguished from the brutes, not so much by the 
powers of reason as by a capacity for religion. The workers of iniquity, what- 
ever they pretend to, they have no knowledge. Those may truly be said to 
know nothing that do not know God, ver. 4. 

V. The filtinness of sin. Sinners are corrupt, ver. 1 ; their nature is vitiated 
?.nd spoiled; and the more noble the nature is the more vile it is when it is 
depraved ; as that of the angels. Corruptio optimi eat pessima,—' The best 
things when corrupted become the worst.' Their iniquity is abominable, it 
is odious to the Holy God, and it renders them so; whereas otherwise he hates 
nothing that he has made. It makes men filthy, altogether filthy ; wilful sinners 
(pardon the expression) even stink above ground in the nostrils of the God of 
heaven and the holy angels. What neatness soever proud sinners pretend to, 
it is certain wickedness is the greatest nastiness in the world. 

VI. The fruit of sin. See to what a degree of barbarity it brings men at last. 
When men's hearts are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, see their 
cruelty to their brethren, that are bone of their bone ; because they will not 
run with them to the same excess of riot, they eat them up as they eat bread ; 
as if they were not only become beasts, but beasts of prey. And see their 
contempt of God at the same time; they have not calied upon him, but scorn 
to be beholden to him. 

VII. The fear and shame that attend sin ; ver. 5, " There were they in great 
fear," who had made God their enemy; their own guilty consciences frightened 
them, and filled them with horror, though otherwise there was no apparent 
cause of fear : " the wicked flees when none pursues." See the ground of this 
fear ; it is because God hath formerly scattered the bones of those that encamped 
against his people ; not only broken their power, and dispersed their forces, but 
siain them, and reduced their bodies to dry bones, like those scattered at the 
grave's mouth, Ps. cxli. 7. Such will be the fate of those that lay siege to the 
camp of the saints, and the beloved city, Hev. xx. 9 ; and the apprehensions of 
this cannot but put those into frights that eat up God's people. This enables 
the virgin, the daughter of Zion, to put them to shame, and expose them, because 
God hath despised them ; to laugh at them, because He that sits in heaven 
laughs at them. We need not look upon those enemies w r ith fear whom God 
looks upon with contempt. If he despiseth them, w r e may. 

Lastly. The faith of the saints, and their hope and power touching the cure 
of this great evil, ver. 6. There will come a Saviour, a great salvation, a salva- 
tion from sin. Oh that it might be hastened! for it will bring in glorious and 
joyful times. There were those in the Old Testament times that looked and 
ho"ped, that prayed and w r aited, for this redemption. 1. God would in due time 
save his church from the sinful malice of its enemies, which would bring joy to 
Jacob and Israel, that had long been in a mournful, melancholy state. Such 
salvations were often wrought, and all typical of the everlasting triumphs of 
the glorious church. 2. He will save air believers t from their own iniquities, 
that they may not be led captive by them, which will be everlasting matter of 
joy to them. From this work the Redeemer had ''his name Jesus, for he shall 
save his people from their sins," Mat. i. 21. 



PSALM LIY. 

The key of this psalm hangs at the door, for the title tells us upon what occasion it was 
penned, when the inhabitants of Ziph, men of Judah, types of Judas the traitor, 
betrayed David to Saul, by informing him where he was, and putting him in a way how 
to seize him. This they did twice, 1 Sam. xxui. 19 ; xxvi. I, and it is upon record 
to their everlasting infamy. The psalm is sweet ; the former part of it, perhaps, was 
meditated when he was in his distress, and when the danger was over was put into 
writing, and the two last verses added, which speak his thankfulness for the deliver- 
ance ; which yet might be written in faith, even then when he was in the midst of his 
flight. Here, I. He complains to God of the malice of his enemies, and prays for help 



PSALM LI V. 2o9 

against then., ver. 1 — 3. II. He comforts himself with an assurance of the Divine 
favour and protection, and that in due time his enemies should be confounded, and he 
delivered, ver. 4 — 7. What time we are in distress, we may comfortably sing this 
psalm. 

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, MaschiL A Psalm of David, when the 
Ziphims came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us ? 




AVE me, 0 God, by thy name, 
1 And judge me by thy strength. 



2 Hear my prayer, 0 God ; 

Give hear to the words of my mouth. 

3 For strangers are risen up against me, 
And oppressors seek after my soul : 

They have not set God before them. Selah. 

We may observe here, 

First. The great distress that David was now in, which the title gives aD 
account of. Ihe Ziphims came of their own accord and informed Saul wher 
David was, with a promise to deliver him into his hand. One w ould hay 
thought, when David was retired into the country, he should not have been 

Eursued, into a desert country, he should not have been discovered; and into 
is own country, he should not have been betrayed; and yet it seems he was. 
Never let a good man expect to be safe and easy till he comes to heaven. How 
treacherous, how officious were these Ziphims ! It is well God is faithful, for 
i men are not to be trusted, Mic. vii. 5. 

Secondly. His prayer to God for succour and deliverance, ver. 12. He appeals 
1 to God's strength, by which he was able to help him; and to his name, by which 
he was engaged to help him ; and begs he would save him from his enemies, and 
judge him, that is, plead his cause, and judge for him. David has no other plea 
to depend upon but Gods name, no other power to depend upon but God's 
strength, and those he makes his refuge and confidence. This would be the 
j effectual answer of his prayers, ver. 2, which, even in his flight, when he had 
not opportunity for solemn address to God, he was ever and anon lifting up 
i to heaven : "Hear my prayer," which comes from my heart, "and give ear to 
the words of my mouth." 

Thirdly. His plea, which is taken from the character of his enemies, ver. 3. 
I. They are strangers. Such were the Ziphites, unworthy the name of Israelites; 
they have used me more basely and barbarously than the Philistines themselves 
jj would have done. The worst treatment may be expected from those who, 
I having broken through the bonds of relation and alliance, make themselves 
I strangers. 2. They are oppressors. Such was Saul, who, as a king, should 
i have used his power for the protection of his good subjects, but abused it for 
I their destruction. Nothing so grievous as oppression in the seat of judgment, 
| Encl. iii. 16. Paul's greatest perils were by his own countrymen, and by false 
£ brethren, 2 Cor. xi. 26, and so were David's. 3. They were very formidable and 
i threatening. They not only hated him and wished him ill, but they rose up 
j against him in a body, joining their power to do him a mischief. 4. 1' hey were 
i very spiteful and malicious. They " seek after my soul ;" they hunt for the pre- 
| cious life, no less will satisfy them. We may in faith pray that God would not 
l by his providence give success, lest it should look like giving countenance, to 
t such cruel, bloody men. 5. They were very profane and atheistical; and'fjv 
f this reason he thought God was concerned in honour to appear against them : 
I "They have not set God before them," that is, they have quite cast off the 
jji thoughts of God, they do not consider that his eye is upon them, that in fight- 
ing against his people they fight against him. nor have they any dread of the 
certain fatal consequences of such an unequal engagement. Note, From those 
who do not set God before them no good is to be expected; nay, what wicked- 
ness will not such men be guilty of? What bonds of nature, or friendship, or 
gratitude, or covenant, will hold those that have broken through the fear of 
God ? " Selah ;" mark this. Let us all be sure to set God before us at ail times, 
i for if we do not, we are in danger of going all to naught. 

4 Eehold, God is mine helper : 

The Lord is with them that uphold my soul. 

5 He shall reward evil unto mime enemies : 
Cut them off in thy truth. 



260 



PSALM LIV. 



6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee : 

I will praise thy name, 0 Lord ; for it is good 

7 For he hath delivered me out of all trouble : 

And mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies. 

We have here the lively actings of David's faith in his prayer, by which he 
was assured that the issue would be comfortable, though the attempt upon him 
was formidable. 

First. He was sure that he had God on his side; that God took his part, 
ver. 4. He speaks it with an air of triumph and exultation, " Behold, God is 
mine helper." If we be for him, he is for us ; and if he be for us, we shall 
have such help in him as that we need not fear any power engaged against us. 
Though men and devils aim to be our destroyers, they shall not prevail while 
God is our helper. " The Lord is with them that uphold my soul ;" compare 
Ps. cxviii. 7, " The Lord taketh my part with them that help me." There are 
some that uphold me, and God is one of them ; he is the principal one ; none of 
them could help me, if he did not help them. Every creature is that to us, and 
no more, that God makes it to be. He means, The Lord is he that doth uphold 
my soul, and keep me from tiring in my work, and sinking under my burthens. 
He that by his providence uphold all things by his grace upholds the souls 
of his people. God, that will in due time save his people, doth in the meantime 
sustain them and bear them up, so that the spirit he has made shall not fail 
before him. 

Secondly. God taking part with him he doubted not but his enemies should 
both tlee and fall before him ; ver. 5, " He shall reward evil unto mine enemies 
that observe me," seeking an opportunity to do me a mischief. The evil they 
designed against me the righteous God will return upon their own heads. 
David would not render evil to them ; but he knew God would : " I, as a deaf 
man, heard not, for thou wilt hear." The enemies we forgive, if they repent 
not, God will judge ; and for this reason we must not avenge ourselves, because 
God hath said, " V engeance is mine." But he prays, " Cut them off in thy truth." 
This is not a prayer of malice, but a prayer of truth, for it has an eye to the 
word of God, and only desires the performance of that. There is truth in God's 
threatening^ as well as in his promises, and sinners that repent not will find 
it so to their cost. 

Thirdly. He promiseth to give thanks to God for all the experiences he had 
had of his goodness to him; ver. 6, "I will sacrifice unto thee/' Though sacri- 
fices were expensive, yet, when God required that his worshippers should in 
that way praise him, David would not only offer them, but offer them freely, 
and without grudging. All our spiritual sacrifices must in this sense be free- 
will offerings, for God loves a cheerful giver. Yet he will not only bring his 
sacrifice, which was but the shadow, the ceremony, he will mind the substance. 
" I will praise thy name." A thankful heart, and the calves of our lips giving 
thanks to his name, are the sacrifices God will accept. " I will praise thy name, 
for it is good." Thy name is not only great, but good, and therefore to be 
praised. To praise thy name is not only what we are bound to, but it is good, 
it is pleasant, it is profitable ; it is good for us, Ps. xcii. 1, therefore " 1 will 
praise thy name." 

Fourthly. He speaks of his deliverance as a thing done. ver. 7. I will praise 
thy name, and say, " He hath delivered me ; " this shall be my song then. That 
which he rejoiceth in is a complete deliverance, "He hath delivered me from 
all trouble;" and a deliverance to his heart's content, "Mine eye hath seen 
its desire upon mine enemies ;" not seen them cut off and ruined, but forced 
to retreat ; tidings being brought to Saul that the Philistines were upon him, 
I Sam. xxiii. 27, 28. That was all David desired, to be himself < safe ; when he 
saw Saul draw off his forces he saw his desire. " He hath delivered me from 
all trouble." Either, 1. With this thought David comforted himself when he 
was in distress, "He hath delivered me from all trouble" hitherto, and many 
a time 1 have gained my point, and seen my desire on mine enemies, therefore 
he will deliver me out of this trouble. We should thus in our greatest straits 
encourage ourselves with our past experiences. Or, 2. With this thought he 
magnified his present deliverance when the fright is over, that it was an earnest 
of farther deliverance. He speaks of the completing of his deliverance as a 
thing done, though he had as yet many troubles before him ; because, having 
God's promise for it, he was as sure of it as if it was done already. He that 
hath begun to deliver me from this trouble shall deliver me from all troubles, 
and shall at length give me to " see my desire upon mine enemies." This may, 
perhaps, point at Christ, of whom David was a type ; God would deliver him 
out of all the troubles of his state of humiliation, and he was perfectly sure of 
it. And all things are said to be put under his feet ; for, though " we see not 
yet all things put under him," yet we are sure "he shall reign till all his enemies 



PSALM LV. 



261 



be made his footstool," and he shall see his desire upon tnem. However, it is 
an encouragement to all believers to make that use of their particular deliver- 
ances which St. Paul doth, like David here, 2 Tim. iv. 17,18, "He that delivered 
me from the mouth of the lion, shall deliver me from every evil work, and will 
preserve me to his heavenly kingdom." 

PSALM LV. 

It is the conjecture of many expositors that David penned this psalm upon occasion of 
Absalom's rebellion, and that the particular enemy he here speaks of, that dealt 
treacherously with him, was Ahithophel ; and some will therefore make David's 
troubles here typical of Christ's sufferings, and Ahithophel's treachery a figure of Judas', 
because they both hanged themselves. But there is nothing in it that is particularly 
cpplied to Christ in the New Testament. David was in great distress when he penned 
this psalm. I. He prays that God would manifest his favour to him, and pleads his 
own sorrow and fear, ver. 1 — 8. II. He prays that God would manifest his dis- 
pleasure against his enemies, and pleads their great wickedness and treachery^ 
ver. 9 — 15; and again, ver. 20, 21. III. He assures himself that God would in due 
time appear for him against his enemies, comforts himself with the hopes of it, and 
encourageth others to trust in God, ver. 16 — 19; and again, ver. 22,23. In singing 
this psalm we may. if there be occasion, apply it to our own troubles ; if not, we may 
sympathize with those to whose case it comes nearer, foreseeing that there will be 
at last indignation and wrath to the persecutors, salvation and joy to the persecuted. 

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David. 

GIVE ear to my prayer, O God; 
And hide not thyself from my supplication. 

2 Attend unto me, and hear me : 

I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise ; 

3 Because of the voice of the enemy, 
Because of the oppression of the wicked : 
For they cast iniquity upon me, 

And in wrath they hate me. 

4 My heart is sore pained within me : 

And the terrors of death are fallen upon me. 

5 Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, 
And horror hath overwhelmed me. 

6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove ' 
For then would I fly away, and be at rest. 

7 Lo, then would I wander far off, 

And remain in the wilderness. Selah. 
.8 I would hasten my escape 

From the windy storm and tempest. 

In these verses we have, 

First. David praying. Prayer is a salve for every sore, and a relief to the 
spirit under every burthen. "Give ear to my prayer, O God," ver. 1, 2. He 
doth not set down the petitions he offered up to God in his distress, but begs 
that God would hear the prayers which at every turn his heart lifted up to God, 
and grant an answer of peace to them ; " Attend to me, hear me." Saul would 
not hear his petitions, his other enemies regarded not his pleas, but, Lord, be 
thou pieased to hearken to me. "Hide not thy face from my supplication;" 
either as one unconcerned, and not regarding it, nor seeming to take any notice 
of it ; or, as one displeased, angry at me, and therefore at my prayer. If we, 
in our prayers, sincerely lay open ourselves, our case, our hearts to God, we 
have reason to hope that he will not hide himself, his favours, his comforts 
from us. 

Secondly. David weeping ; for in this he was a type of Christ, that he was 
a man of sorrows, and often in tears ; ver. 2, " 1 mourn in my complaint" or, 
in my meditation, my melancholy musings, "and make a noise;" I cannot 
forbear such sighs and groans, and other expressions of grief, as discover it to 
those about me. Great griefs are sometimes noisy and clamorous, and by that 



262 PSALM LV. 

means are in sonie measure lessened, while those increase that are stifled, and 
have no vent given them. But what was the matter? ver. 3, it is '* because 
of the voice of the enemy," the menaces and insults of Absalom's party, that 
hectored and talked big, and stirred up the people to cry out against David, and 
shout him out of his palace and capital city, as afterwards the chief priests 
stirred up the mob to cry out against the Son of David, " Away with him, 
Crucify him." Yet it was not the voice of the enemy only that fetched tears 
from David's eyes, but their oppression, and the hardship he was thereby 
reduced to. "They cast iniquity upon me." They could not justly charge 
David with any maladministration in his government, could not prove any 
act of oppression or injustice upon him, but they loaded him with calumnies. 
Though they found no iniquity in him relating to his trust as a king, yet they 
cast all manner of iniquity upon him, and represented him to the people as a 
tyrant, fit to be expelled. Innocency itself is no security against violent and 
lying tongues. They hated him themselves, nay, in wrath they hated him; 
there was in their enmity both the heat and violence of anger, or sudden 
passion, and the implacableness of hatred and rooted malice ; and therefore 
they studied to make him odious, that others also might hate him. This made 
him mourn, and the more, because he could remember the time when he was 
the darling of the people, and answered his name, David, — 'a beloved one.' 

Thirdly. David trembling, and in great consternation. AVe may well sup- 
pose him to be so, upon the breaking out of Absalom's conspiracy, and the 
general defection of the people, even those that he had little reason to suspect 

1. See what fear seized him. David was a man of great boldness, and in some 
very eminent instances had signalized his courage, and yet, when the danger was 
surprising and imminent, his heart failed him. Let not the stout man, there- 
fore, glory in his courage any more than the strong man in his strength. Now 
David's heart is sore pained within him; the terrors of death are fallen upon 
him, ver. 4. Now tearfulness of mind, and trembling of body, are come upon 
him, and horror has covered and overwhelmed him, ver. 5; when without are 
lightings, no marvel that within are fears; and if it was upon the occasion 
of Absalom's rebellion, we may suppose that the remembrance of his sin in the 
matter of Uriah, which God was now reckoning with him for, added as much 
more to the fright. Sometimes David's faith made him in a manner fearless, 
and he could boldly say, when surrounded with enemies, " I will not be afraid 
what man can do unto me." But at other times his fears prevail and tyrannize ; 
for the best men are not always alike strong in faith. 

2. See how desirous he was in this fright to retire into a desert, any whither 
to be far enough from hearing the voice of the enemy, and seeing their oppres- 
sions. He said, ver. 6, said it to God in prayer, said it to himself in meditation, 
said it to his friends in complaint, " O that 1 had wings like a dove ! " As much 
as he had been sometimes in love with Jerusalem, now it was become a rebel- 
lious city he longed to get clear of it, and, like the prophet, wisheth he had in 
the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that he might leave his people 
and go from them, for they are an assembly of treacherous men, Jer. ix. 2. 
This agrees very well w ith David's resolution upon the breaking out of that 
plot, " Arise, let us flee, and make speed to depart," 2 Sam. xv. 14. Observe, 

1st. How he would make his escape; he was so surrounded with enemies that 
he saw not how he could escape but upon the wing, and therefore wisheth, 
ft O that I had wings," not like a hawk, that flies strongly, but " like a dove," 
that flies swiftly ; he wishes not for wings to fly upon the prey, but to fly from 
the birds of prey ; for such his enemies were. _ The wings of a dove were most 
agreeable to him who was of a dovelike spirit, and therefore the wings of an 
eagle would not become him. The dove flies low, and takes shelter as soon 
as she can ; and thus would David fly. 

2nd. What he would make his escape from; "from the windy storm and 
tempest," the tumult and ferment that the city was now in, and the danger 
to which he was exposed. Herein he was like a dove that cannot endure noise. 

3rd. AVhat he aimed at in making this escape ; not victory, but rest. " I 
would fly away and be at rest," ver. 6. I would fly any whither, if it were 
to a barren, frightful wilderness, never so far off, so I might be quiet, ver. 7. 
Note, Peace and quietness in silence and solitude is what the wisest and best 
of men have most earnestly coveted, and the more when they have been vexed 
and wearied with the noisiness and clamour of those about them. Gracious 
souls wish to retire from the hurry and bustle of this world, where they may 
sweetly enjoy God and themselves ; and if there be any_ true peace on this side 
heaven, it is they that enjoy it in those retirements. This makes death desirable 
to a child of God, that it is a final escape from all the storms and tempests of 
this world to perfect and everlasting rest. 

( J Destroy, 0 Lord, and divide their tongues : 
For I have seen violence and suite in the city. 



PSALM LV. 263 

10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof : 
Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. 

1 1 Wickedness is in the midst thereof : 
Deceit and guile depart not from her streets 

1 2 For it was not an enemy that reproached me ; 

Then I could have borne it : \_ se if against me ; 

Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify 1dm- 
Then I would have hid myself from him : 

13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, 
My guide, and mine acquaintance. 

1 i We took sweet counsel together, 

And walked unto the house of God in company. 
1 5 Let death seize upon them, 

And let them go down quick into hell: 

For wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them. 

David here complains of his enemies, whose wicked plots had brought him, 
though not to his faith's end, yet to his wit's end, and prays against them by the 
spirit of prophecy. Observe here, 

First. The character he gives of the enemies he feared. They were of the 
worst sort of men, and his description of them agrees very well with Absalom 
and his accomplices. 

1. He complains of the city, Jerusalem, which strangely fell in with Absalom, 
and fell off from David, so that he had none there but his own guards and ser- 
vants that he could repose any confidence in ; "How is that faithful city become 
a harlot!" David did not take the representation of it from others, but with 
his own eyes, and with a sad heart, did himself see nothing but violence and 
strife in the city, ver. 9; for when they grew disaffected and disloyal to David 
they grew mischievous one to another. If he walked the rounds upon the wails 
of the city, he saw that violence and strife went about it day and night, and 
mounted its guards, ver. 10. All the arts and methods which the rebels used for 
the fortifying of the city were made up of violence and strife, and there were 
no remains of honesty or love among them. If he looked into the heart of the 
city, mischief and injury, mutual wrong and vexation, were in the midst of it; 
wickedness, all manner of wickedness, is in the midst thereof. Jusque datum 
sceleri, — 'wickedness was legalized;' "deceit and guile," and all manner of 
treacherous dealing, " departed not from her streets," ver. 11. It may be meant 
of the base and barbarous usage they gave to David's friends and such as they 
knew were firm and faithful to him; they did them all the mischief they could by 
fraud or force. Is this the character of Jerusalem, the royal city, and which 
is more, the holy city ? and in David's time too. so soon after the thrones of 
judgment and the testimony of Israel were both placed there? Is "this the 
city that men call the perfection of beauty ?" Lara. ii. 15. Is Jerusalem, the 
head-quarters of God's priests, so ill taught ? Can Jerusalem be ungrateful 
to David himself, its own illustrious founder, and be made top hot for him ? Let 
us not think strange at the corruptions and disorders of this church on earth, 
but long to see the new Jerusalem, where there is no violence or strife, no 
mischief or guile, and into which no unclean thing shall enter, nor any thing 
tiiat disquiets. 

2. He complains of one of the ringleaders of the conspiracy, that had been 
very industrious to foment jealousies, to misrepresent him and his government, 
and to incense the city against him ; it was one that reproached him, as if he 
either abused his power, or neglected the use of it, for that was Absalom's 
malicious suggestion; "There is no man deputed of the king to hear thee," 

2 Sam. xt. 3. That, and other the like accusations, were industriously spread 
among the people. And who was most active in it? Not a sworn enemy, not 
Shimei, or any of the nonjurors ; "then I could have borne it," for I should not 
have expected better from them, (and we find how patiently he did bear Shimei's 
curses.) not one that professed to hate me, then I would have stood upon my 
guard against him, would have hid myself and my counsels from him. so that 
it would not have been in his power to betray me; "but it was thou, a man 
mine equal," ver. 13. The Chaldee paraphrase names Ahithophel as the person 



264 PSALM LV. 

here meant, and nothing in that plot seems to have discouraged David so 
much as to hear that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom, 
2 Sam. xv. 31, for he was the king's counsellor, 1 Chr. xxvii. 33. "It was thou, 
a man mine equal," one whom I esteemed as myself, a friend as mine own soul, 
whom I had laid in my bosom, and made hail-fellow with myself; to whom 
I had communicated all my secrets, and who knew my mind as well as I myself 
did ; my guide with whom I advised, and by whom I was directed in all my 
affairs, whom I made president of the council, and prime minister of state; my 
intimate acquaintance, and familiar friend; this is the man that now abuseth 
me. I have been kind to him ; but I find him thus basely ungrateful: I have 
put a trust in him, but I find him thus basely treacherous; nay, and he could not 
have done me the one half of the mischief he doth, if I had not shewed him so 
much respect. All this must needs be very grievous to an ingenuous mind, and 
yet this was not all. This traitor had seemed a saint, else he had never been 
David's bosom friend; ver. 14, "We took counsel together," spent many an 
hour together with a great deal of pleasure in religious discourse ; or, as Dr. 
Hammond reads it, ' we joined ourselves together to the assembly ;' I gave him 
the right hand of fellowship in holy ordinances, and then "we walked to the 
house of God in company," to attend the public service. Note, 1st. There 
always has been, and always will be, a mixture of good and bad, sound and 
unsound, in the visible church, between w r hom, perhaps, for a long time, we can 
discern no difference, but the Searcher of hearts dotn. David, who went to 
the house of God in his sincerity, had Ahithophel in company with him, who 
went in his hypocrisy. The pharisee and the publican went together to the 
temple to pray; but, sooner or later, they that are perfect, and they that are 
not, will be made manifest. 2nd. Carnal policy may carry men on very far and 
very long in a profession of religion, while it is in fashion and will serve a turn. 
In the court of pious David, none more devout than Ahithophel, and yet his 
heart not right in the sight of God. 3rd. We must not wonder if we be sadly 
deceived in some that have made great pretensions to those two sacred things, 
— religion and friendship. David himself, though a very wise man, was thus 
imposed upon, which may make our like disappointments the more tolerable. 

Secondly. His prayers against them, which we are both to stand in awe of 
and to comfort ourselves in, as prophecies, but not to copy into our prayers 
against any particular enemies of our own. He prays, 

1. That God would disperse them as he did the Babel builders; ver. 9, 
"Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues;" that is, blast their counsels, by 
making them to disagree among themselves, and clash with one another. Send 
an evil spirit among them, that they may not understand one another; but be 
envious and jealous one of another. This prayer was answered in the turning 
of Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness, by setting up the counsel of Hushai 
against it. God often destroys the church's enemies by dividing them; nor 
is there a surer way to the destruction of any people than their division. A 
kingdom, an interest, divided against itself, cannot long stand. 

2. Thau God would destroy them, as he did Dathan and Abiram, and their 
associates, who were confederate against Moses, whose throat being an open 
sepulchre, the earth therefore opened, and swallowed them up. This was then 
a new thing which God executed, Num. xvi. 30. But David prays that it might 
now be repeated, or something equivalent; ver. 15, "Let death seize upon 
them " by Divine warrant, " and let them go down quick into hell;" let them 
be dead, and buried, and damned in a moment; for wickedness is wherever they 
are, it is in the midst of them. The souls of impenitent sinners go down quick, 
or alive, into hell; for they have a perfect sense of their miseries, and shall, 
therefore, live still, that they may be still miserable. This prayer is a prophecy 
of the utter, the final, the everlasting ruin of all those who, whether secretly 
or openly, oppose and rebel against the Lord's Messiah. 

1 6 As for me, I will call upon God ; 
And the Lord shall save me. 

1 7 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, 
And cry aloud : 

And he shall hear my voice. [was against me : 

18 He hath delivered my soul in -peace from the batile that 
For there were many with me. 

19 God shall hear, and afflict them, 
Even he that abide th of old. Selah. 
Because they have no changes, 



PSALM LV. 



265 



Therefore they fear not God. [with him: 

20 He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace 
He hath broken his covenant. 

21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, 
But war was in his heart: 

His words were softer than oil, 
Yet were they drawn swords. 

22 Cast thy burden upon the Lokd, 
And he shall sustain thee : 

He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. 

23 But thou, 0 God, shalt bring them down into the pit of 

destruction : [days ; 

Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their 
But I will trust in thee. 

In these verses, 

First. David perseveres in his resolution to call upon God ; being -well assured 
that he should not seek him in vain ; ver. 16, " As for me, " let them take what 
course they please to secure themselves ; let violence and strife be their guards, 
prayer shall be mine ; this I have found comfort in, and therefore this 1 will 
abide by. "I will call upon God," and commit myself to him, "and the Lord 
shall save me;" " for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord," in a right 
manner, " shall be saved," Rom. x. 13. He resolves to be both fervent and frequent 
in this duty. I. He will pray fervently. " I will pray, and cry aloud ;" 1 will 
meditate, so the former word signifies ; I will speak with my own heart, and the 
prayer shall come from thence. Then we pray aright when we pray with all that 
is within us ; think first, and then pray over our thoughts ; for the true nature 
of prayer is lifting up the heart to God. And having meditated, he will cry, 
he will cry aloud; the fervour of his spirit in prayer shall be expressed, and yet 
more excited by the intenseness and earnestness of his voice. 2. He will pray 
frequently, every day, and three times a day; "Evening, and morning, and at 
noon." It is probable this had been his constant practice, and he resolves 
to continue it now he is in his distress. And then we may come the more 
boldly to the throne of grace in trouble, when we do not then first begin to 
scrape acquaintance with God, as 1 may say, but it is what we have constantly 
practised, and the trouble finds the wheels of prayer agoing. They that think 
three meals a day little enough for the body ought much more to think three 
solemn prayers a day little enough for the soul, and to count it a pleasure, not 
a task. As it is fit in the morning we should begin the day with God, and hi 
the evening close it with him, so it is fit in the midst of the day we should retire 
awhile to converse with him. It was Daniel's practice to pray three times a day, 
Dan. vi. 10; and noon was one of Peter's hours of prayer, Acts x. 9. Let not 
us be weary of praying often, for God is not weary of hearing ; " he shall hear 
my voice," and not blame me for coming too often, but the oftener the better, 
the more w elcome. 

Secondly. He assures himself that God would in due time give an answer 
of peace to his prayers. i 

1. That he himself should be delivered, and his fears prevented; those fears 
with which he was much disordered, ver. 4, 5, by the exercise of faith were now 
silenced, and he begins to rejoice in hope ; ver. 18, " God has delivered my soul 
in peace," that is, he will deliver it, and David is as sure of the deliverance 
as if it were already wrought. His enemies were at war with him, and the 
battle was against him, but God delivered him in peace, that is, brought him 
off with as much comfort as if he had never been in danger.- If he did not 
deliver him in victory yet he delivered him in peace, inward peace, he delivered 
his soul in peace ; by patience and holy joy in God he kept possession of that. 
Those are safe and easy whose hearts and minds are kept by that "peace 
of God which passeth all understanding," Phil. iv. 7. David, in his fright, 
thought all were against him, but now he sees there were many w T ith him, — 
more than he imagined; his interest proved better than he expected, and tnis 
he gives God the glory of ; for it is he that raiseth us up friends when we 
need them, and makes them faithful to us. There were many with him ; for 
though his subjects deserted him, and went over to Absalom, yet God was 
with him, and the good angels With an eye of faith, he now sees himself sur- 



26G PSALM LV. 

rounded, as Elisna was, with chariots of fire, and horses of fire, and therefore 
triumphs thus, " There are many with me," more with me than against me 
2 Kin. vi. 16, 17. 

2. That his enemies should be reckoned with, and brought down. They had 
frighted him with their menaces, ver. 3, but here he saith enough to frighten 
them, and make them tremble with more reason, and no remedy, for they could 
not ease themselves of their fears as David could, by faith in God. 

1st. David here gives their character, as the reason why he expected God 
would bring them down. First. They were impious and 'profane, and stand 
in no awe of God, of his authority or wrath; ver. 19, "Because they have no 
changes," no afflictions, no interruption to the constant course of their pros- 
perity, no crosses to empty them from vessel to vessel, " therefore they fear not 
God ;" they live in a constant neglect and contempt of God and religion, which 
is the cause of all their other wickedness, and by which they are certainly 
marked for destruction. Secondly. They are treacherous and false, and will 
not be held by the most sacred and solemn engagements ; ver. 20, 44 He hath put 
forth his hand against such as be at peace with him," — that never provoked him, 
nor gave him any cause to quarrel with them; nay, to whom he had given all i 

E ossicle encouragement to expect kindness from nim. He has put forth his 
and against those whom he had given his hand to, "and has broken his cove- 
nant," both with God and man, — has perfidiously violated his engagements 
to both, than which nothing makes men riper for ruin. Thirdly. They are 
base and hypocritical; pretending friendship while they design mischief; 
ver. 21, "The words of his mouth " (probably he means Ahithophel particularly,) 
"were smoother than butter, and softer than oil; "so courteous was he, and 
obliging, — so free in his professions of respect and kindness, and the proffers 
of his service, — and yet at the same time, war was in his heart ;" and all this 
courtesy was but a stratagem of war, and those very words had such a mis- 
chievous # design in them that they were as drawn swords designed to stab. 
They smile in a man's face, and cut his throat at the same time, as Joab, that 
kissed and killed. Satan is such an enemy that flatters men into their ruin ; 
"when he speaks fair, believe him not." 

2nd. David here foretells their ruin. First. " God shall afflict them," and 
bring them into straits and frights, and recompense tribulation to them that 
have troubled his people, and this in answer to the prayers of his people; 
" God shall hear and afflict them," — hear the cries of the oppressed, and speak 
terror to their oppressors; " even he that abideth of old," who is God from 
everlasting and world without end, and who sits Judge from the beginning 
of time, and hath always presided in the affairs of the children of men. Mortal 
men, though never so high and strong, will easily be crushed by an eternal 
God, and are a very unequal match for him. This the saints have comforted 
themselves with in reference to the threatening power of the church's enemies, 
Hab. i. 12, " Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord?" Secondly. "God shall 
bring them down," not only to the dust, but "to the pit of destruction," ver. 23 : 
to the bottomless pit, which is called destruction, Job xxvi. 6. He afflicted 
them, ver. 19, to see if that would humble and reform them ; but they not being 
wrought upon by that, he shall at last bring them to ruin. Those that are not 
reclaimed by the rod of affliction will certainly be brought down into the pit 
of destruction. They are bloody and deceitful men ; that is, the worst of men, 
and therefore shall not live out half their days, that is, not naif so long as men 
ordinarily live, and as they might have lived in a course of nature, and as they 
themselves expected to live. They shall live as long as the Lord of life, the 
righteous judge, has appointed, with whom the number of our months is, 
but he has determined to cut them off by an untimely death in the midst 
of their days. They were bloody men, and cut others off, and therefore God 
will justly cut them off. They were deceitful men, and defrauded others of the 
one half perhaps of what was their due, and now God will cut them short, 
though not of that which was their due, yet of that which they counted upon. 

Thirdly. He encourageth himself and all good people to commit themselves 
to God, with confidence in him. He himseli resolves to do so; ver. 23, " I will 
trust in thee," in thy providence, and power, and mercy, and not in my own 
prudence, strength, or merit. When bloody and deceitful men are cut off in the 
midst of their days, I shall still live by faith in thee. And this he will have 
others to do ; ver. 22, " Cast thy burthen upon the Lord," whoever thou art 
that art burthened, and whatever the burthen is. * Cast thy gift upon the Lord,' i 
so some read it; whatever blessings God has bestowed upon thee to enjoy, 
commit them all to his custody, and particularly commit the keeping of thy soul 
to him. Or ; whatever it is that thou desirest God should give thee, leave it to 
him to give it thee in his own way and time. * Cast thy care upon the Lord/ 
so the Seventy, to which the apostle refers, 1 Pet. v. 7. Care is a burthen; it 
maketh the Heart stoop, Pr. xii. 25 ; we must cast it upon God by faith and 
prayer, commit our way and works to him ; " Let him do as seemeth him good," 
and we will be satisfied. To cast our burthen upon God is to stay ourselves 



PSALM L VI. 



267 



on his providence and promise, and to be very easy in the assurance that all 
shall work for good. If we do so, it is promised, 1. That he will sustain us, 
both support and supply us: will himself carry us in the arms of his power, 
as the nurse carries the sucking child ; will strengthen our spirits so by his 
Spirit as that thev shall sustain the infirmity. He has not promised presently 
to free us from that trouble which gives rise to our cares and fears, but he will 
provide that we be not tempted above what we are able, and that we shall be 
able according as we are tempted. 2. That he " will never suffer the righteous 
to be moved," to be so shaken by any troubles as to quit either their duty to 
God or their comfort in him. However, ' He will not suffer them to be moved 
for ever/ as some read it; though they fall, they shall not be utterly cast down. 

PSALM LVL 

It seems by this, and many other psalms, that even in times of the greatest trouble and 
distress David never hung his harp upon the willow trees, never unstrung it, jv laid 
it by ; but when his dangers and fears were greatest yet still he was in tune for singing 
God's praises. He was in imminent peril when he penned this psalm, at least when 
he meditated it; yet even then his meditation of God was sweet. I. He complains 
of the malice of his enemies, and begs mercy for himself, and justice against them, 
ver. 1, 2, 5 — 7. II. He confides in God, being assured that he took his part, comforting 
himself with this, that therefore he was safe, and should be victorious, and that while 
he lived he should praise God. ver. 3, 4, 8—13. How pleasantly may a good Chris- 
tian, in singing this psalm, rejoice in God, and praise him for what he will do, as 
well' as for what he hath done. 

To the chief Musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim, Michtam of David, when 
the Philistines took him in Gath. 

BE merciful unto me, 0 God : for man would swallow me 
He fighting daily oppresseth me. [up ; 

2 Mine enemies would dally swallow me up: [High. 
For they be many that fight against me, 0 thou most 

3 What time I am afraid, 
I will trust in thee. 

4 In God I will praise his word, 
In God I have put my trust ; 

I will not fear what flesh can do unto mc. 

5 Every day they wrest my words : 

All their thoughts are against me for evil. 

6 They gather themselves together, 

They hide themselves, they mark my steps, 
When they wait for my soul. 

7 Shall they escape by iniquity ? 

In thine anger cast down the people, 0 God. 

David in this psalm, by his faith, throws himself into the hands of God, then 
when he had by his fear and folly thrown himself into the hands of the Philis- 
tines. It was when they took him in Gath, whither he fled for fear of Saul, 
forgetting the quarrel they had with him for killing Goliath: but they soon put 
him in mind of it, 1 Sam. xxi. 10, 11. Upon that occasion he changed his beha- 
viour, but with so little rutfle to his temper that then he penned both this 
psalm and the 34th. This is called Michtam, 'a golden psalm.' So some other 

Ssalms are entitled, but this has something peculiar in the title ; it is " upon 
onath-elem-rechokim," which signifies, 'the silent dove afar off;' some apply 
that to David himself, who wished for the wings of a dove on which to fly 
away. He was innocent and inoffensive, mild and patient as a dove; was at 
this time driven from his nest, from the sanctuary, Ps. lxxxiv. 3 ; was forced 
to wander afar off, to seek for shelter in distant countries. There he was like 
the doves of the valleys, mourning and melancholy ; but silent, neither mur- 
muring against God nor railing at the instruments of his trouble; herein a type 
of Christ, who was as a sheep dumb before the shearers, and a pattern to 
Christians, who. wherever they are, and whatever injuries are done them, 
ought to be as silent doves. In this former part of the osalm, 



2G8 PSALM LVI. 

First. He complains to God of the malice and wickedness of his enemies, 
to shew what reason he had to fear them, and what cause, what need, there 
was that God should appear against them ; ver. 1, " Be merciful to me, O God." 
That petition includes all the good we come to the throne of grace for. If we 
obtain mercy there, we obtain all we can desire ; and need no more to make 
us happy. It implies likewise our best plea, not our merit, but God's mercy ; his 
free, rich mercy. He prays he might lind mercy with God ; for with men he 
could find no mercy. When he fled from the cruel hands of Saul he fell into 
the cruel hands of the Philistines. Lord, saith he, be thou merciful to me now, 
or I am undone. The mercy of God is what we may flee to, and trust to, and 
in faith pray for, w T hen we are surrounded on all sides with difficulties and 
dangers. He complains, 

1. That his enemies were very numerous ; ver. 2, " They be many that fight 
against me," and think to overpower me with numbers. Take notice of this, 
" O thou Most High," and make it to appear that wherein they deal proudly 
thou art above them. It is a point of honour to come in to the help of one against 
many ; and if God be on our side, how many soever they are that tight against 
us, we may upon good grounds boast that there are more with us ; for (as 
that great general said,) How many do we reckon him for?' 

2. That they were very barbarous. They would swallow him up, ver. 1 ; and 
again, ver. 2, they sought to devour him; no less would serve ; they came upon 
him with the utmost fury, like beasts of prey, to eat up his flesh, Ps. xxvii. 2. 
Man would swallow him up, those of his own kind, from whom he might have 
expected humanity. The ravenous beasts prey not upon those of their own 
species, yet a bad man would devour a good man if ne could. They are men 
weak and frail ; make them to know that they are so, Ps. ix. 20. 

3. That they were very unanimous ; ver. 6, " They gather themselves to- 
gether." Though they were many^ and of different interests among themselves, 
yet they united and combined against David, as Herod and Pilate against the 
Son of David. 

4. That they were very powerful; quite too hard for him if God did not 
help him. " They fight against me," ver. 2 ; they oppress me, ver. 1 ; I am 
almost overcome and borne down by them, and reduced to the last extremity. 

5. That they were very subtle and crafty; ver. 6, "They hide themselves;" 
industriously cover their designs, that they may the more effectually prosecute 
and pursue them. They hide themselves as a lion in his den, that they may 
mark my steps ; that is, they observe every thing I say and do with a critical 
eye, that they may have something to accuse me of. Thus Christ's enemies 
watched him, Lu. xx. 20. Or, they have an eye upon all my motions, that they 
may gain an opportunity to do me a mischief, and may lay their snares for me. 

6. That they were very spiteful and malicious. They put invidious construc- 
tions upon every thing he said, though never so honestly meant, and prudently 
expressed; ver. 5, " They wrest my words," put them upon the rack to extort 
that out of them which was never in them, and so they made him an offender 
for a word, Isa. xxix. 21 j misrepresenting it to Saul, and aggravating it, to 
incense him yet more against him. They made it their whole business to ruin 
David, all their thoughts were against him for evil, which put evil interpre- 
tations upon all his words. 

7. That they were very restless and unwearied. They continually waited 
for his soul ; it was the life, the precious life, they hunted for ; it was his death 
they longed for, ver. 6. They fought daily against him, ver. 1, and would daily 
swallow him up, ver. 2, and every day they wrested his words, ver. 5. Their 
malice would not admit the least cessation of arms, or the acts of hostility, but 
they were continually pushing at him. Such as this is the enmity of Satan and 
his agents against the kingdom of Christ, and the interests of his holy religion, 
which, if we cordially espouse, we must not think it strange to meet with such 
treatment as this, as though some strange thing happened to us. Our betters 
have been thus used ; " so persecuted they the prophets." 

Secondly. He encourageth himself in God, and in his promises, power, and 
providence, ver. 3, 4. In the midst of his complaints, and before he has said 
what he has to say of his enemies, he triumphs in the Divine protection. 1. He 
resolves to make God his confidence, then when dangers were most threaten- 
ing, and all other confidences failed ; " what time I am afraid," in the day of my 
fear, when 1 am most terrified from without, and most timorous within, then 
"I will trust in thee," and thereby my fears shall be silenced. Mote, There 
are some times which are in a special manner times of fear with God s people ; 
and in these times it is their duty and interest to trust in God, as their God, 
and to know whom they have trusted. This will fix the heart, and keep it 
in peace. 2. He resolves to make God's promises the matter of his praises, 
and so we have reason to make them ; ver. 4, " In God I will praise," not 
only his work which he has done, but " his word " which he has spoken ; I will 
give him thanks for a promise, though not yet performed. 11 In God • " that is, 



PSALM LVI. 269 

in his strength, and by his assistance, 1 will both glory in his word and give 
him the glory of it. "His word;" that is, his providences, (so some,) every 
event that he orders and appoints concerning me. When I speak well of God, 
with him I will speak well of every thing that he doth. 3. Thus supported, 
he will bid defiance to all adverse powers ; when " in God I have put my 
trust," I am safe, I am easy, and " I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." 
It is but flesh, and cannot do much ; nay, it can do nothing but by Divine 
permission. As we must not trust to an arm of flesh when it is engaged for us, 
so we must not be afraid of an arm of flesh when it is stretched out against us. 

Thirdly. He foresees and foretells the fall of those that fought against him, 
and of all others that think to establish themselves in and by any wicked prac- 
tices ; ver. 7, " Shall they escape by iniquity?" They hope to escape God's judg- 
ments as they escape men's, by violence and fraud, and the arts of injustice 
and treachery; but shall they escape? No, certainly, they shall not; the sin 
of sinners will never be their security ; nor will either their impudence or their 
hypocrisy bring them oft' at God's bar ; God will in his anger cast down, and 
cast out such people, Rom. ii. 3. None are raised so high, or settled so firm, 
but that the justice of God can bring them down, both from their dignities and 
from their confidences; "Who knows the power of God's anger," how high it 
can reach, and how home it can strike ? 

8 Thou tellest my wanderings : 
Put thou my tears into thy bottle : 




LACHRYMATORIES. 

Are they not in thy book ? 
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn 
This I know; for God is for me. [back : 

10 In God will I praise his word : 

In the Lord will I praise his word. 

1 1 In God have I put my trust : 

I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. 

12 Thy vows are upon me, 0 God: 
I will render praises unto thee. 

13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death : 
Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, 

That I may walk before God in the light of the living? 

Several things David here comforts himself with in the day of his distress and 
fear. 

First. That God took particular notice of all his grievances and all his griefs, 
ver. 8. 1. Of all the inconveniences of his state; "Thou tellest my wander- 
ings," 'my fiittings,' so the old translation. David was now but a young man, 
Sunder thirty,) and yet he had had many removes from his father's house to the 



270 PSALM LVI. 

court, thence to the camp, and now driven out to sojourn where he could find 
a place, but not allowed to rest any where ; "hunted like a partridge upon the 
mountains." Continual terrors and toils attended him ; but this comforted him, 
that God kept a particular account of all his motions, and numbered all the 
weary steps he took by night or by day. Note, God takes cognizance of all 
the afflictions of his people, and those whom men have cast out from their con- 
verse he has not cast out from his care and love. 2. Of all the impressions 
those made upon his spirit. When he was wandering, he was often weeping: 
and therefore prays, " Put thou my tears into thy bottle," to be preserved ana 
looked upon ; nay, I know they are in thy book, the book of thy remembrance ; 
God has a bottle and a book for his people's tears, both those for their sins and 
those for their afflictions. This intimates, 1st. That he observes them with 
compassion and tender concern ; he is afflicted in their afflictions, and knows 
their souls in adversity. As the blood of his saints and their deaths are pre- 
cious in the sight of the Lord, so are their tears, not one of them shall fall to the 
ground. " I have seen thy tears," 2 Kin. xx. 5; " I have heard Ephraim bemoan- 
ing himself," Jer. xxxi. 18. 2nd. That he will remember them, and review them, 
as we do the accounts we have booked. Paul was mindful of Timothy s tears, 
2 Tim. i. 4 ; and God will not forget the sorrows of his people. The tears of 
God's persecuted people are bottled up, and sealed among God's treasures; and 
when these books come to be opened, they will be found vials of wrath which 
will be poured out upon their persecutors, whom God will surely reckon with 
for all the tears they have forced from his people's eyes; and they will be 
breasts of consolations to God's mourners, whose sackcloth will be turned into 
garments of praise. God will comfort his people according to the time wherein 
he has afflicted them, and give to them to reap in joy who sowed in tears. 
What was sown a tear will come up a pearl. 

Secondly. That his prayers would be powerful for the defeat and discomfiture 
of the enemies, as well as for his own support and encouragement; ver. 9, 
"When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back;" I need no other 
weapons but prayers and tears; " this I know, for God is for me," to plead my 
cause, to protect and deliver me, and if God be for me, who can be against me 
so as to prevail? The saints have God for them, they may know it; and to 
him they must cry when they are surrounded with enemies, which if they do 
in faith they shall find a Divine power exerted and engaged for them ; their 
enemies shall be made to turn back; their spiritual enemies, against whom we 
fight best upon our knees, Eph. vi. 19. 

Thirdly. That his faith in God would set him aoove the fear of man, 
ver. 10, 11. Here he repeats with a strong pathos what he had said, ver. 4, "In 
God will 1 praise his word," that is, I will firmly depend upon the promise for 
the sake of him that made it, who is true and faithful, and has wisdom, power, 
and goodness enough to make it good. When we give credit to a man's bill 
we honour him that drew it. So w r hen we do and suffer for God in a depend- 
ence upon his promise, not staggering at it, we give glory to God, we praise his 
word, and so give praise to him. Having thus put his trust in God, he looks 
with a holy contempt upon the threatening power of man. "In God have 1 put 
my trust," and in him only, and therefore, " 1 will not be afraid what man can 
do unto me," though I know very well what he would do if he could, ver. 1, 2. 
This triumphant word, so expressive of a holy magnanimity, the apostle puts 
into the mouth of every true believer, whom he makes a Christian hero, 
Heb. xiii. 6. We may each of us boldly say, " The Lord is my helper," and then 
" I will not fear what man shall do unto me;" for he has no power but what he 
has given him from above. 

Fourthly. That he was in bonds to God ; ver. 12, "Thy vows are upon me, O 
God." Not upon me as a burthen which 1 am lo'aded with, but as a badge 
which I glory in, as that by which I am known to be thy menial servant ; not 
upon me as fetters that hamper me, (such are superstitious vows,) but upon me 
as a bridle that restrains me from what would be hurtful to me, and directs me 
in the way of my duty. " Thy vows," that is, the vows I have made to thee, to 
which thou art not only a witness but a party, and which thou hast commanded 
and encouraged me to make. It is probable, he means especially those vows 
which he had made to God in the day of his trouble and distress, which he 
would retain the remembrance of, and acknowledge the obligations of when 
his fright was over. Note, It ought to be the matter of our consideration and 
joy, that the vows of God are upon us; our baptismal vows renewed at the 
Lord's table, our occasional vows under convictions, under corrections. By 
these we are bound to live to God. 

Fifthly. That he should still have more and more occasion to praise him ; "I 
will render praises unto thee." This is part of the performances of his vows ; 
for vows of thankfulness properly accompany prayers for mercy ; and when 
the mercy is received must be made good. When we study what we shall 
render, this is the least we can resolve upon, to render praises to God. Poor 
returns for rich receiving. Two things he will praise God for: 



PSALM LVIL 271 

1. For what he had done for him; ver. 13; "Thou hast delivered my soul," 
my life, " from death," which was just ready to seize me. If God have delivered 
us from sin, either from the commission of it by preventing grace, or from the 
punishment of it by pardoning mercy, we have reason to own that he has thereby 
delivered our souls from death, which is the wages of sin. If we who were by 
nature dead in sin are quickened together with Christ, and are made spiritually 
alive, we have reason to own that God has delivered our souls from death. 

2. For what he would do for him; "Thou hast delivered my soul from 
death," and so hast given me a new life, and thereby hast given me an earnest 
of farther mercy, that thou wilt " deliver my feet from falling." Thou hast 
done the greater, and therefore thou wilt do the lesser; thou hast began a good 
work, and therefore thou wilt carry it on, and perfect it. This may be taken 
either as the matter of his prayer, pleading his experience, or as the matter of 
his praise, raising his expectations ; and those that know how to praise in faith 
will give God thanks for mercies in promise and prospect as well as in possession. 
See here, 1st. What David hopes for, that God would deliver his feet from fall- 
ing either into sin, which would wound his conscience, or into the appearance 
of sin, from which his enemies would take occasion to wound his good name. 
Those that think they stand must take heed lest they fall, because the best stand 
no longer than God is pleased to^ uphold them. We are weak, our way is slip- 
pery, many stumblingblocks are in it, our spiritual enemies are industrious to 
thrust us "down ; and therefore we are concerned by faith and prayer to com- 
mit ourselves to his care who keepeth the feet of his saints. 2nd. What he 
builds this hope upon; " Thou hast delivered my soul from death," and therein 
hast magnified thy power and goodness, and put me into a capacity of receiving 
farther mercy from thee ; and now wilt thou not secure and crown thy own 
work ? God never brought his people out of Egypt to slay them in the wilder- 
ness. He that in conversion delivers the soul from so great a death as sin is will 
not fail to preserve it to his heavenly kingdom. 3rd. What he designs in these 
hopes; " That I may walk before God in the light of the living," that is, First. 
That I may get to heaven, the only land of light and life ; for in this world dark- 
ness and death reign. Secondly. That I may do my duty while this life lasts. 
Note, This we should aim at in all our desires and expectations of deliverance 
both from sin and trouble, that we may do God so much the better service; 
that, "being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we may serve him 
without fear." 

PSALM LVIL 

This psalm is very like that which goes next before it; it was penned upon a like occa- 
sion, when David was both in danger of trouble and in temptation to sin. It begins 
as that did, "Be merciful to rae; 1 ' the method also is the same. I. He begins with 
prayer and complaint, yet not without some assurance of speeding in his request, 
ver. 1 — 6. II. He concludes with joy and praise, ver. 7 — 11 ; so that from hence we 
may take direction and encouragement both in our supplications and in our thanks- 
givings, and may offer both to God in singing this psalm. 

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul 

in the cave. 

BE merciful unto me, 0 God, be merciful unto me ; 
For my soul trusteth in thee : 

Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, 
Until these calamities be overpast. 

2 I will cry unto God most high : 

Unto God that performeth all things for me. 

3 He shall send from heaven, and save me [Selah. 
From the reproach of him that would swallow me up, 
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. 

4 My soul is among lions : 

And I lie even among them that are set on fire, 

Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, 

And their tongue a sharp sword. 

5 Be thou exalted, 0 God, above the heavens ; 



272 



PSALM L VII. 



Let thy glory be above all the earth. 
6 They have prepared a net for my steps ; 
My soul is bowed down : 
They have digged a pit before me, 

Into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah. 

The title of this psalm has one word new in it, Al-taschith, — destroy not.' 
Some make it to be only some known tune to which this psalm was set ; others 
apply it to the occasion and matter of the psalm. Destroy not, that is, David 
would not let Saul be destroyed, when now in the cave there was a fair oppor- 
tunity of doing it, and his servants would fain have done it; No, saith David, 
" destroy him not," I Sam. xxiv, 4, 6 ; or rather, God would not let David be 
destroyed by Saul ; he suffered him to persecute David, but still under this 
limitation, Destroy him not ; as he permitted Satan to afflict Job, only save his 
life. David must not be destroyed, for a blessing is in him, Isa. lxv. 8 ; even 
Christ, the best of blessings. When David was in the cave in imminent peril, 
he here tells us what were the workings of his heart towards God ; and happy 
they that have such good thoughts as these in their minds when they are in 
danger. 

First. He supports himself with faith and hope in God, and prayer to him, 
ver. 1, 2. Seeing himself surrounded with enemies, he looks up to God with 
that suitable prayer, " Be merciful to me, O Lord; "which he again repeats, 
and it is no vain repetition, "Be merciful unto me." It was the publican's 
prayer, Lu. xviii. 13. It is pity any should use it slightly and profanely, should 
cry, 'God be merciful to us,' or i Lord ; have mercy upon us ' when they mean 
only to express their wonder, or surprise, or vexation ; but God and his mercy 
are not in all their thoughts. It is with much devout affection that David here 
prays, "Be merciful unto me, O Lord;" look with compassion upon me, and 
in thy love and pity redeem me. To recommend himself to God*s mercy, he 
here professeth, 

1. That all his dependence is upon God. "My soul trusteth in thee," ver. 1. 
He did not only profess trust in God, but his soul did indeed rely on God only, 
with a sincere devotion, and self-dedication, and an entire complacency and 
satisfaction. He goes to God, and at the footstool of the throne of his grace 
humbly professeth his confidence in him, " In the shadow of thy wings will I 
make my refuge," as the chickens take shelter under the wings of the hen, when 
the birds of prey are ready to strike at them, " until these calamities be over- 
past." 1st. He was confident his troubles would end well in due time; these 
calamities will be overpast ; the storm will blow over. Non si male nunc et 
olim sic erit, — 'Though now distressed, I shall not always be so.' Our Lord 
Jesus comforted himself with this in his sufferings; Lu. xxii. 37, "The things 
concerning me have an end." 2nd. He was very easy under the Divine protec- 
tion in the meantime. First. He comforted himself in the goodness of God's 
nature, by which he is inclined to succour and protect his people, as the hen is 
by instinct to shelter her young ones. God comes upon the wing to the help 
of his people, which notes a speedy deliverance, Ps. xviii. 10 ; and he takes 
them under his wing, which notes warmth and refreshment, even when the 
calamities are upon them : see Mat. xxiii. 37. Secondly. In the promise of his 
word, and the covenant of his grace ; for it may refer to the outstretched wings 
of the cherubims, between which God is said to dwell, Ps. lxxx. 1 ; and from 
whence he gave his oracles. To God as the God of grace will I fly, and his 
promise shall be my refuge, and a sure passport it will be through all these 
dangers. God by his promise offers himself to us to be trusted, we by our faith 
must accept of him, and put our trust in him. 

2. That all his desire is towards God ; ver. 2, " I will cry unto God most high" 
for succour and relief; to him that is most high will I lift up my soul, and pray 
earnestly, even "unto God that performeth all things for me." Note, 1st. In 
every thing that befalls us we ought to see and own the hand of God. What* 
ever is done is of his performing, in it his counsel is accomplished, and the Scrip- 
ture is fulfilled. 2nd. AVhatever God performs concerning his people, it will 
appear in the issue to have been performed for them, and for their benefit. 
Though God be high, most high, yet he condescends so low as to take care 
that all things be made to work for good to them. 3rd. This is a good reason 
why we should in our straits and difficulties cry unto him; not only pray, 
but pray earnestly. 

3. That all his expectation is from God; ver. 3, " He shall send from heaven 
and save me." They that make God their only refuge, and fly to him by faith 
and prayer, may be sure of salvation in his way and time. Observe here, 1st. 
Whence he expects the salvation. " From heaven." Look which way he will 



PSALM LYII. 272 

on this earth, and refuge fails, no help appears, but he looks for it "from 
heaven." They that lift up their hearts to things above, may from thence 
expect all good. 2nd. What the salvation is that he expects. He trusts God 
will save him from the reproach of those that would swallow up, that aimed 
to ruin him, and in the meantime did all they could to vex him. Some read 
it, 'He shall send from heaven and save me, for he hath put to shame him 
that would swallow me up;' he hath disappointed their designs against me 
hitherto, and therefore he will perfect my deliverance. 3rd. What he will 
ascribe his salvation to ; " God shall send forth his mercy and truth." God 
is good in himself, and faithful to every word that he hath spoken, and so 
he makes it appear when he works deliverance for his people. W e need no 
more to make us happy, but to have the benefit of the mercy and truth of God, 
Ps. xxv. 10. 

Secondly. He represents the power and malice of his enemies ; ver. 4, " My 
soul is among lions." So fierce and furious was Saul, and those about him 
against David, he might have been as safe in a den of lions as among such men, 
that were continually roaring against him, and ready to make a prey of him. 
They are set on fire, and breathe nothing but flame ; they set on fire the course 
of nature, inflaming one another against David, and they were themselves set 
on fire of hell, Jas. hi. 6. They were sons of men, from whom one might have 
expected something of the reason and compassion of a man ; but they were 
beasts of prey in the shape of men, their teeth which they gnashed upon him, 
and with which they hoped to tear him to pieces, and to eat him up, were 
spears and arrows fitted for mischiefs and murders ; and their tongues, with 
which they cursed him and wounded his reputation, was as a sharp sword to 
cut and kill: see Ps. xlvii. 10. A spiteful tongue is a dangerous weapon 
wherewith Satan's instruments fight against God's people. He describes their 
malicious projects against him, ver. 6, and shews the issue of them; "They 
have prepared a net for my steps " in which to take me, that I might not again 
escape out of their hands ; " They have digged a pit before me," that I might, 
ere 1 was aware, run headlong into it. See the policies of the church's enemies, 
see the pains they take to do mischief ; but let us see what comes of it. 1. It is in- 
deed some disturbance to David; "My soul is bowed down." It made him droop 
and hang the head to think that there should be those that bore him so much 
ill-will. But, 2. It was destruction to themselves ; they digged a pit for David, 
" into the midst whereof they are fallen." The mischief they designed against 
David returned upon themselves, and they were themselves embarrassed in 
their counsels. Then when Saul was pursuing David, the Philistines were 
invading him ; nay, in the cave, when Saul thought David should fall into his 
hands, he fell into the hands of David, and lay at his mercy. 

Thirdly. He prays to God to glorify himself and his own great name ; ver. 5, 
Whatever comes of me and my interest, " Be thou exalted, O God, above the 
heavens," be thou praised by the holy angels, those glorious inhabitants of the 
upper world ; " and let thy glory be above," or over " all the earth ;" let all the 
inhabitants of this earth be brought to know and praise thee. Thus God's 
glory should lie nearer our hearts, and we should be more concerned for that 
than for any particular interests of our own. When David was in the greatest 
distress and disgrace, he did not pray, Lord, exalt me, but, Lord, exalt thine 
own name. Thus the Son of David, when his soul was troubled, and he prayed, 
" Father, save me from this hour," presently withdrew that petition, and pre- 
sented this in the room of it, " For this cause came I to this hour, Father, glorify 
thy name," Jno. xii. 27, 28. Or it may be taken as a plea to enforce his petition 
for deliverance : Lord, send from heaven to save me, and thereby thou wilt 
glorify thyself as the God both of heaven and earth. Our best encouragement 
in prayer is taken from the glory of God, and to that, therefore, more than our 
own comfort 3 we should have an eye in all our petitions for particular mercies ; 
for this is made the first petition in the Lord's prayer, as that which regulates 
and directs all the rest, "Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name." 

7 My heart is fixed, 0 God, my heart is fixed : 
I will sing and give praise. 

8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp : 
I myself will awake early. 

9 I will praise thee, 0 Lord, among the people : 
I will sing unto thee among the nations. 

J 0 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, 
And thy truth unto the clouds. 



274 



PSALM LVIL 



11 Be thou exalted, 0 God, above the heavens: 

Let thy glory be above all the earth. 

How strangely is the tune altered here ! David's prayers and complaints, by 
the lively actings of faith, are here all of a sudden turned into praises and 
thanksgivings ; his sackcloth is loosed, and he is girded with gladness, and his 
hallelujahs are as fervent as his hosannas. This should make us in love with 
prayer, that sooner or later it will be swallowed up in praise. Observe, 

First. How he prepares himself for the duty of praise ; ver. 7, " My heart is 
fixed, O God, my heart is fixed/' My heart is erect, or lifted up, (so some,) which 
w T as bow r ed down, ver. 6. "My heart is fixed," 1. With reference to God's 

Providences, it is prepared for every event, being stayed upon God, Ps. cxii. 7; 
sa. xxvi. 3. "My heart is fixed," and then "none of these things move me," 
Acts xx. 24. If by the grace of God we be brought into this even composed 
frame of spirit, we have great reason to be thankful. 2. With reference to the 
worship of God; "My heart is fixed," to sing and give praise. It is implied 
that the heart is the main thing required in all acts of devotion ; nothing is 
done to purpose in religion farther than it is done with the heart. The heart 
must be fixea ; fixed for the duty, fitted and put in frame for it ; fixed in the 
duty by a close application ; " attending on the Lord without distraction." 

Secondly. How he excites himself to the duty of praise; ver. 8, " Awake up my 
glory," that is, my tongue. Our tongue is our glory, and never more so than 
when it is employed in praising God. Or, my soul, that must be first awakened. 
Dull and sleepy devotions will never be acceptable to God; we must stir up 
ourselves and all that is within ^us to praise God; with a holy fire must that 
sacrifice be kindled, and ascend in a holy flame. David's tongue will lead, and 
his psaltery and harp will follow, in these hymns of praise. " I myself will 
awake," not only I will not be dead, and drowsy, and careless in this work, but 
I will be in the most lively frame that may be, as one newly awakened out of 
a refreshing sleep. He will awake early to this work, early in the morning, 
to begin the day with God; early in the beginnings of a mercy. When God 
is coming towards us with his favours, we must go forth to meet him with our 
praises. 

Thirdly. How he pleaseth himself, and (as I may say) even prides himself in 
the work of praise. So far is he from being ashamed to oavii his obligations to 
God, and dependence upon him, that he resolves to praise him among the people, 
and to sing unto him among the nations, ver. 9. This intimates, 1. That his own 
heart was much affected and enlarged in praising God. He would even make 
the earth ring with his sacred songs, that all might take notice how much 
he thought himself indebted to the goodness of God. < 2. That he desired to 
bring others in to join with him in praising God. He will publish God's praises 
among the people, that the knowledge, and fear, and love of God might be pro- 
pagated, and the ends of the earth might see his salvation. When David\vas 
driven out into heathen lands, he would not only not worship their gods, but he 
would openly avow his veneration for the God of Israel, would take his religion 
along with him wherever he went, would endeavour to_ bring others in love 
with it, and leave the sweet savour of it behind him. David in his psalms, which 
fill the universal church, and will to the end of time, may be said to be still 
praising God among the people, and singing to him among the nations, for 
all good people make use of his words in praising God. Thus St. John in 
his writings is said to "prophesy again before many peoples and nations," 
Rev. x. 11. 

Fourthly. How he furnisheth himself with matter for praise, ver. 10. That 
which was the matter of his hope and comfort, ver. 3, " God shall send forth his 
mercy and his truth," is here the matter of his thanksgiving : " Thy mercy is 
great unto the heavens," that is 2 it is great beyond conception and expression ; 
"and thy truth unto the clouds/' that is, it is great beyond discovery, for what 
eye can reach that which is wrapped up in the clouds ? God's mercy and truth 
reach to the heavens, for they will bring all such to heaven as lay up their trea- 
sure in them, and build their hopes upon them. God's mercy and truth are 
praised even to the heavens, that is, by all the bright and blessed inhabitants of 
the upper world, who are continually raising God's praises to the highest, while 
David on earth is endeavouring to spread his praises to the farthest, ver. 9. 

Fifthly. How he leaves it at last to God to glorify his own name ; ver. 11, "Be 
thou exalted, O God." The same w r ords which he had used, ver. 5, to sum up 
his prayers in, he here useth again (and no vain repetition) to sum up his prai=3s 
in ; Lord, I desire to exalt thy name, and that ail the creatures may exalt it ; 
but what can the best of us do towards it? Lord, take the work into thine own j 
hands; do it thyself, "be thou exalted, O God." In the praises of the church 
triumphant thou art exalted to the heaven, and in the praises of the church 
militant thy glory is throughout all the earth ; but thou art above all the bless- 
ing and praise of both, Nek. ix. 5, and therefore, Lord, exalt thyself " above the ; 
heavens, and above all the earth:" " Father, glorify thine own name ; thou hast . 
glorified it, glorify it yet again." 



PSALM LVIII. 



275 



It is the probable conjecture of some, Amyraldus particularly, that before Saul began to 
prosecute David by force of arms, and raised the militia to seize him, he formed a 
process against him by course of law; upon which he was condemned unheard, and 
attainted as a traitor by the great council, or supreme court of judicature, and then 
proclaimed an outlaw; qui caput gerit lupinum, — 'an outlawed wolf,' whom any man 
might kill, and no man might protect. And upon occasion of passing this bill of 
attainder, which the elders did to curry favour with Saul, David penned this psalm, 
wherein, I. He describes their sin, and aggravates that, ver. 1 — 5. II. He imprecates 
and foretells their ruin, and the judgments which the righteous God would bring upon 
them for their injustice, ver. 6 — 9; which would redound, 1. To the comfort of the 
saints, ver. 10; 2. To the glory of God, ver. 11. Sin appears here both exceedingly 
sinful and exceedingly dangerous, and God a just avenger of wrong; with which we 
should be affected in singing this psalm. 

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David. 

DO ye indeed speak righteousness, 0 congregation ? 
Do ye judge uprightly, 0 ye sons of men ? 

2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness ; 

Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. 

3 The wicked are estranged from the womb : 

They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 

4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: 

They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; 

5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, 
Charming never so wisely. 




SERPENT CHARMERS. 

We have reason to think that this psalm refers to the malice of Saul and his 
janizaries against David, because it bears the same inscription (Al-taschith, and 
Michtam of David,) with that which goes before and that which follows, both 
which appear by the title to have been penned with reference to that persecu- 
tion through which God preserved him that he was not destroyed, Al-taschith, 
'destroy not;' and therefore the psalms he then penned were precious to him, 
Michtam, David's jewels, as Dr. Hammond translates it. In these verses David, 
not as a king, for he was not yet come to the throne, but as a prophet, m God s 
name arraigns and convicts his judges, with more authority and > justice than 
they shewed in prosecuting him. Two things he chargeth them with : 



276 



PSALM LVIII. 



First. The corruption of their government. They were a congregation, a 
bench of justices, nay, perhaps a congress or convention of the states, from 
whom one might have expected fair dealing, for they were men learned in the 
laws, had been brought up in the study of these statutes and judgments, which 
were so righteous, that those of other nations were not to be compared with 
them. One cannot think a congregation of such could be bribed and biassed 
with pensions, and yet it seems they were, because the son of Kish could do 
that for them which the son of Jesse could not, 1 Sam. xxii. 7. He had vine- 
yards, and fields, and preferments to give them, and therefore to please him 
they would do any thing, right or wrong. Of all the melancholy views which 
Solomon took of this earth and its grievances, nothing vexed him so much as to 
see that in the place of judgment wickedness was there, Eccl. iii. 16. So it was 
in Saul's time. 

1. The judges would not do right, would not protect or vindicate oppressed 
innocency ; ver. 1, "Do ye indeed speak righteousness, or judge uprightly ?" 
No, you are far from it, your own consciences cannot but tell you that you do not 
discharge the trust reposed in you as magistrates, by which you are obliged to 
be " a terror to evildoers, and a praise to them that do well/' Is this the justice 
you pretend to administer? Is this the patronage, this the countenance* which 
an honest man, and an honest cause, may expect from you ; remember you are 
sons of men, mortal and dying, and that stand upon the same level before God 
with the meanest of those you trample upon, and must yourselves be called to 
an account and judged. You are sons of men, and therefore we may appeal to 
yourselves, and to that law of nature which is written in every man's heart, 
"Do ye indeed speak righteousness?'' And will not your second thoughts 
correct what you have done ? Note, It is good for us often to reflect upon what 
we say with this serious question, Do w r e indeed speak righteousness? That we 
may unsay what we have spoken amiss, and may proceed no farther in it. 

2. They did a great deal of wrong ; they used their power for the support 
of injury and oppression; ver. 2," In heart you work wickedness." All the 
wickedness of the life is wrought in the heart. It intimates that they wrought 
with a great deal of plot and management, not by surprise, but with premedita- 
tion and design, and with a strong inclination to it, and resolution in it. #< The 
more there is of the heart in any act of wickedness the worse it is, Eccl. viii. 11. 
And what was their wickedness ? It follows : " You weigh the violence of your 
hands in the earth," or in the land, the peace of wmich you are appointed to be 
the conservators of. They did all the violence and injury they could, either to 
enrich or revenge themselves, and they weighed it ; that is, 1st. /They did it with 
a great deal of craft and caution ; You frame it by rule and line, so the word 
signifies, that it may effectually answer your mischievous intentions ; such mas- 
ters are you of the art of oppression. 2nd. They did it under colour of justice. 
They held the balances (the emblem of justice) in their hands as if they designed 
to do right, and right is expected from them, but the result is violence and 
oppression, which is done the more effectually for being done under the 
umbrage of law and right. 

Secondly. The corruption of their nature. This was the root of bitterness 
from which that gall and wormwood sprung ; ver. 3, " The wicked,*' who in 
heart work wickedness, "are estranged from the womb," estranged from God. 
and all good, alienated from the Divine life, and its principles, pow r ers, ana 
pleasures, Eph. iv. 18. A sinful state is a state of estrangement from that 
acquaintance with God and service of him which we were made for. Let none 
wonder that these wicked men dare do such things, for wickedness is bred in 
the bone with them ; they brought it into the world with them, they have in 
their natures a strong inclination to it, they learned it from their wicked parents, 
and have been trained up in it by a bad education; they are called, and not 
miscalled, transgressors from the womb, one can therefore expect no other but 
that they will deal very treacherously : see Isa. xlviii. 8. They go astray from 
God and their duty as soon as they be born, that is, as soon as possibly they 
can ; the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts presently appears with the 
first operations of reason ; as the wheat springs up, the tares spring up with it. 
Three instances are here given of the corruption of nature : 

1. Falsehood. They soon learn to speak lies, and bend their tongues like their 
bow for that purpose, Jer. ix, 3. How soon will little children tell a lie to 
excuse a fault, or in their own commendation ! no sooner can they speak but 
they speak to God's dishonour. Tongue sins are some of the first of our actual 
transgressions. 

2. Malice. Their poison, that, is, their ill-will, and the spite they bore to 
goodness and all good men, particularly^ to David, was like the poison of a 
serpent, innate, venomous, and very mischievous, and that which they can never 
be cured of. We pity a dog that is poisoned by accident, but hate a serpent that 
is poisonous by nature. Such was the cursed emnity in this serpent's brood 
against the Lord and his anointed. 



PSALM LVIII. 277 

3. Untractableness. They are malicious, and nothing will work upon them, 
no reason, no kindness, to mollify them, and bring them to a better temper. 
" They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear," ver. 4, 5. The psalmist 
having compared these wicked men, whom he here complains of, to serpents, 
for their poisonous malice, takes occasion from thence upon another account to 
compare them to the deaf adder, or viper, concerning which there was then this 
vulgar tradition, that whereas by music, or some other art, they had a way of 
charming serpents, so as either to destroy them or at least disable them to do 
mischief, this deaf adder would lay one ear to the ground, and stop the other 
with her tail, so that she could not hear the voice of the enchantment, and so 
defeated the intention of it, and secured herself. The using of this comparison 
doth neither verify the story, nor, if it were true, justify the use of this enchant- 
ment ; for it is only an allusion to the report of such a thing, to illustrate the 
obstinacy of sinners in a sinful way. God's design in his word and providence 
is to cure serpents of their malignity. To this end, how wise, how powerful, 
how well-chosen are the charms ! How forcible the right words ! But all in 
vain with the most of men: and what is the reason? It is because they will 
not hearken. None so deaf as those that will not hear. We have piped unto 
men, and they have not danced; how should they, when they have stopped 
their ears ? 

6 Break their teeth, 0 God, in their mouth : 

Break out the great teeth of the young lions, 0 Lord. 

7 Let them melt away as waters tvhich run continually : 
When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them 

be as cut in pieces. 

8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away : 
Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not 

9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, [see the sun. 
He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both Irving, 

and in his wrath. 

10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: 
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 

1 1 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the 

righteous : 

Verily he is a God that judge th in the earth. 

In these verses we have, 

First. David's prayers against his enemies, and all the like enemies of God's 
church and people ; for as such he looks upon them, and is acted by a public 
spirit in praying against them, and not by any private revenge. 

1. He prays that they might be disabled to do any farther mischief ; ver. 0, 
" Break their teeth, O God." Not so much that they might not feed themselves, 
as that they might not be able to make a prey of others, Ps. iii. 7. He doth not 
say, Break their necks ; no, let them live to repent, " Slay them not, lest my 
people forget ; " but break their teeth for they are lions, they are young lions 
that live by rapine. 

2. That they might be disappointed in the plots they had already laid, and 
might not gain their point. m " When he bendeth his bow," and takes aim "to 
shoot his arrows" at the upright in heart, "let them be as cut in pieces," ver. 7. 
Let them fall at his feet, and never come near the mark. 

3. That they and their interest might waste and come to nothing ; that they 
might "melt away as waters that ran continually," that is, as the waters of 
a land-flood, which, though they seem formidable for a while, soon soak into the 
ground, or return to their channels. Or, in general, " as waters spilt upon the 

ground, which cannot be gathered up again," but gradually dries away and 
isappears. Such shall the floods of ungodly men be which make us afraid 
sometimes, Ps. xviii. 4 ; so shall the proud waters be reduced which threaten 
to go over our soul, Ps. cxxiv. 4, 5. Let us by faith then see what they shall be, 
and then we shall not fear what they are. He prays, ver. 8, that they might 
melt as a snail ; which wastes by her own motion, in every stretch it makes, 
leaving some of its moisture behind, which by degrees must needs consume it, 
though it make a path to shine after it. He that like a snail in her house is 



278 PSALM LVIII. 

plenus sui, — 'full of himself;' that pleaseth himself, and trusts to himself, doth 
but consume himself, and will quickly bring himself to nothing. And he prays, 
that they; might be 'like the untimely birth or a woman; which dies as soon 
as it begins to live, and never sees the sun. Job in his passion wished himself 
had been such a one, Job iii. 16; but he knew not what he said. We may in 
faith pray against the designs of the church's enemies, as the prophet doth, 
Hps. ix. 14, " Give them, O Lord, what wilt thou give them? Give them a 
miscarrying womb, and dry breasts." Which explains this here. 

Secondly. His predictions of their ruin ; ver. 9, " Before your pots can feel 
the" heat of a fire of "thorns" made under them, which they will presently 
do, — for it is a quick fire, and violent while it lasts, — so speedily, with such a 
hasty and vehement flame, God shall hurry them away; as terribly and as 
irresistibly as with a whirlwind, as it were alive, as it were in fury. The pro- 
verbial expressions are somewhat difficult, but the sense is plain. I. That the 
judgments of God oftentimes surprise wicked people in the midst of their 
jollity, and hurry them away of a sudden. When they are beginning to walk 
in the light of their own fire, and the sparks of their own kindling, they are 
made to lie down in sorrow, Isa. 1. 11; and their laughter proves like the 
crackling of thorns under a pot, the comfort of which is soon gone, ere they 
can say, "Alas, I am warm," Eccl. vii. 6. 2. That there is no standing before 
the destruction that comes from the Almighty; for "Who knows the pow r er 
of God's anger ?" When God will take sinners away, dead or alive, they cannot 
contest with him. " The wicked is driven away in his wickedness." Now there 
are two things which the psalmist promiseth himself would be the good effects 
of sinners' destruction : 

m 1st. That saints w r ould be encouraged and comforted by it; ver. 10, "The 
righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance." The pomp and power, 
the prosperity and success of the wicked is a discouragement to the righteous ; 
it saddens their hearts, and weakens their hands, and is sometimes a strong 
temptation to them to question their foundations, Ps. lxxiii. 2, 13. But when 
they see the judgments of God hurrying them aw r ay, and just vengeance taken 
on them for all the mischief they have done to the people of God, they rejoice 
in the satisfaction thereby given to their doubts, and the confirmation thereby 
given to their faith in the providence of God, and his justice and righteousness 
in governing of the world. They shall rejoice in the victory thus gained over 
that temptation, by seeing their end, Ps. lxxiii. 17. "He shall w r ash his feet in 
the blood of the wicked;" that is, there shall be abundance of blood shed, 
Ps. lxviii. 23 ; and it shall be as great a refreshment to the saints to see God 
glorified in the ruin of sinners as it is to a weary traveller to have his feet 
washed. It shall likewise contribute to their sanctification ; the sight of the 
vengeance shall make them tremble before God, Ps. cxix. 120, and shall con- 
vince them of the evil of sin, and the obligations they lie under to that God 
who pleads their cause, and will suffer no man to do them wrong, and go 
unpunished for it. The joy of the saints in the destruction of the wicked, 
is then a holy joy, and justifiable, when it helps to make them holy, and to 
purify them from sin. 

2nd'. That sinners would be convinced and converted by it, ver. 11. The 
vengeance God sometimes takes on the wicked in this world will bring men to 
say, "Verily, there is a reward for the righteous." Any man may draw this 
inference from such providences ; and many a man shall, who before denied 
even these plain truths, or doubted of them. Some shall have this confession 
extorted from them ; others shall have their minds so changed, that they shall 
willingly own it, and thank God who has given them to see it, and see it with 
satisfaction :— that God is ; and, First. That he is the bountiful Kewarder of 
his saints and servants. ' Verily,' (' how T ever it be,' so it may be read,) 'there 
is a fruit to the righteous ; s whatever damage a man may sustain, whatever 
hazard he may run, and whatever hardship he may undergo for his religion, 
he shall not only be no loser, but an unspeakable gainer by it in the issue. Even 
in this world "there is a reward for the righteous;" they shall be recompensed 
in the earth. They shall be taken notice of; honoured and protected, that 
seemed slighted, despised, and abandoned. Secondly. That he is the righteous 
Governor of the world ; and will surely reckon with the enemies of his kingdom. 
Verily, however it be, though wicked people prosper, and bid defiance to 
Divine justice, yet it shall be made to appear to their confusion, that the 
world is not governed by chance, but by a Being of infinite wisdom and justice ; 
" there is a God that judgeth in the earth," though he has prepared his throne 
in the heavens. He presides in all the affairs of the children of men, and 
directs and disposeth them according to the counsel of his will to his own 
glory ; and he will punish the wicked, not only in the world to come, but in 
the earth, where they have laid up their treasure, and promised themselves a 
happiness, — " In the earth" that the Lord may be known by the judgments which 
he executeth ; and they may be taken as earnests of a judgment to come. "He 



PSALM LIX. 



279 



is a God," so we read, not a weak man, not an angel, not a mere name, not fas 
the atheists suggest) a creature of men's fear and fancy; not a deified hero, 
not the sun and moon, as idolaters imagined, but a God, a self-existent, perfect 
Being; he it is that judgeth the earth. His favour, therefore, let us seek ; from 
whom every man's judgment proceeds, and to him let all judgment be referred. 



PSALM LIX. 

This psalm is of the same nature and scope with six or seven foregoing psalms. They 
are all David's complaints of the malice of his enemies, and of their cursed and cruel 
designs against him; his prayers and prophecies against them ; and his comfort and 
confidence in God as his God. The first is the language of nature, and may be 
allowed ; the second of a prophetical spirit, looking forward to Christ, and the 
enemies of his kingdom, and therefore not to he drawn into a precedent ; the third, 
of grace and a most holy faith, which ought to be imitated by every one of us. In 
this psalm, I. He prays to God to defend and deliver him from his enemies, repre- 
senting them as very ill men, barbarous, malicious, and atheistical, ver. 1 — 7. II. He 
foresees and foretells the destruction of his enemies, which he would give to God the 
glory of, ver. 8 — 17. As far as it appears that any of the particular enemies of God's 
people fall under these characters, we may in singing this psalm read their doom, 
and foresee their ruin. 

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and 
they watched the house to kill him. 




.ELIVER me from mine enemies, 0 my God : 
Defend me from them that rise up against me. 



2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, 
And save me from bloody men. 

3 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul : 
The mighty are gathered against me ; 

Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, 0 Lord. 

4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault: 
Awake to help me, and behold. 

5 Thou therefore, 0 Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, 
Awake to visit all the heathen : 

Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah. 

6 They return at evening: 
They make a noise like a dog, 
And go round about the city. 

7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth : 
Swords are in their lips: 

For who, say they, doth hear ? 

m The title of this psalm acquaints us particularly with the occasion on which 
it was penned ; it was when Saul sent a party of his guards to beset David's 
house in the night, that they might seize him and kill him ; we have the story 
1 Sam. xix. 11. It was when his hostilities against David were newly begun; 
and he had but just before narrowly escaped Saul's javelin. These first 
eruptions of Saul's malice could not but put David into disorder, and be both 
grievous and terrifying ; and yet he kept up his communion with God, and such 
a composure of mind as that he was never out of frame for prayer and praises. 
Happy they whose intercourse with Heaven is not intercepted or broken in 
upon by their cares, or griefs, or fears, or anv of the hurries (whether outward 
or inward) of an afflicted state. In these verses, 

First. David prays to be delivered out of the hands of his enemies, and that 
their cruel designs against him might be defeated; ver. 12, "Deliver me from 
mine enemies, O my God." Thou art God, and canst deliver me ; my God, 
under whose protection I have put myself; and thou hast promised me to be 
a God all-sufficient, and therefore in honour and faithfulness thou wilt deliver 



280 



PSALM LIX. 



me. Set me on high out of the reach of the power and malice of them that 
rise up against me, and above the fear ot it. Let me be safe, and see myself so, 
safe and easy, safe and satisfied. O deliver me, and save me. He cries out 
as one ready to perish ; and that had his eye to God only for salvation and 
deliverance. He prays, ver. 4, "Awake to help me; "take cognizance of my 
case, beheld that with an eye of pity, and exert thy power for my relief. Thus 
the disciples in the storm awoke Christ, saying, "Master, save us, we perish;" 
and thus earnestly should we pray daily, to be defended and delivered from our 
spiritual enemies ; the temptations of Satan, and the corruptions of our own 
hearts which war against our spiritual life. 

Secondly. He pleads for deliverance. Our God gives us leave not only to 
pray, but to plead with him; "to order our cause before him, and to fill our 
mouth with arguments ; " not to move him, but to move ourselves. David doth 
so here. 

1. He pleads the ill character of his enemies. They are workers of iniquity, 
and therefore not only his enemies, but God's enemies. They are bloody men, 
and therefore not only his enemies, but enemies to all mankind; Lord, let not 
the workers of iniquity prevail against one that is a worker of righteousness ; 
nor bloody men against a merciful man. 

2. He pleads their malice against him, and the imminent danger he was in 
from them, ver. 3. Their spite is great ; They aim at my soul, my life, my better 
part ; they are subtle and very politic, they lie in wait, taking an opportunity 
to do me a mischief. They are all mighty, men of honour and estates, ana 
interest in court and country ; they are in a confederacy, they are united by 
league, and actually gathered together against me ; combined both in con- 
sultation and action. They are very ingenious in their contrivances, and very 
industrious in the prosecution of them; ver. 4, "They run and prepare them- 
selves," with the utmost speed and fury to do me a mischief. He takes particular 
notice of the brutish carriage of the messengers that Saul sent to take him; 
ver. t>, "They return at evening" from the posts assigned them in the day, to 
apply themselves to their works of darkness, (their night work which may well 
be their day shame,) and then " they make a noise" like a hound in pursuit of the 
hare. Thus did David's enemies when they came to take him, raise an outcry 
against him as a rebel, and a traitor, and a man not ht to live; with this clamour 
"they went round about the city," to put David into an ill name, if possible, to 
set the mob against him, at least to prevent their being incensed against them ; 
which otherwise they had reason to fear they would be, so much was David 
their darling. Thus the persecutors of our Lord Jesus, who are compared to 
dogs, Ps. xxii. 16, ran him down with noise, for else they could not have taken 
him, at least "not on the feast day, lest there should be an uproar among the 

eople. They belch out with their mouth the malice that boils in their 
earts ; yer. 7, Swords are in their lips," that is, reproaches that wound my 
heart with grief, Ps. xlii. 10; and slanders that wound my reputation, and 
stab that. They were continually suggesting that which drew and whet Saul's 
sword against him, and the fault is laid upon the false accusers. The sword, 
perhaps, had not been in Sauls hand, if it had not been first in their hps. 

3. He pleads his own innocency, not as to God, (he was never backward to 
own himself guilty before him,) but as to his persecutors ; w r hat they charged 
him with was utterly false, nor had he ever said or done any thing to deserve 
such treatment from them; ver. 3, " Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, 
O Lord;" thou knowest, who knowest all things. And again, ver. 4, 'Svithout 
my fault." Note, 1st. The innocency of the godly will not secure them from 
the malignity of the wicked. Those that are harmless like doves yet for 
Christ's sake are hated of all men, as if they were noxious like serpents, and 
obnoxious accordingly. 2nd. Though our innocency will not secure us from 
troubles, yet it will greatly support and comfort us under our troubles. The 
testimony of our conscience for us, that we have behaved ourselves well 
towards those that behave themselves ill towards us, will be very much our 
rejoicing in the day of evil. 3rd. If we are conscious to ourselves of our inno- 
cency, we may with humble confidence appeal to God, and beg of him to plead 
our injured cause, which he will do in due time. 

4. He pleads that his enemies were profane and atheistical, and bolstered 
themselves up in their enmity to David with the contempt of God; "For who, 
say they, doth hear?" ver. 7. Not God himself, Ps. x. 11 ; xciv. 7. Note, It is 
not strange if those regard not what they say who have made themselves 
believe that God regards not what they say. 

Thirdly. He refers himself and his cause to the just judgment of God, ver. 5. 
The Lord, the Judge, be judge between him and his persecutors. In this 
appeal to God he has an eye to him as the Lord of hosts, that has power to 
execute judgment, having all creatures, even hosts of angels, at his command ; 
and as the God of Israel, to whom he was in a peculiar manner king and 
judge^ and would appear on the behalf of those that are upright, that are 



PSALM LIX. 281 

Israelites indeed. When Saul's hosts persecuted him, he had recourse to God 
as the Lord of all hosts ; when those maligned him who in spirit were strangers 
to the commonwealth of Israel, he had recourse to God as the God of Israel. 
He desires, that is, he is very sure, that God will awake to visit all the nations ; 
will make an early and exact inquiry into the controversies and quarrels that 
are among the children of men. There will be a day of visitation, ha. x. 3 ; 
and to that day David refers himself with this solemn appeal, "Be not mer- 
ciful to any wicked transgressors, Selah;" mark that. 1. If David were 
conscious to himself that he was a wicked transgressor, he would not expect 
to find mercy. But as to his enemies he could say, he was no transgressor at 
ail ; ver. 3, 4, " Not for my transgression," and therefore thou wilt appear for 
me. As to God, he could say he was no wicked transgressor ; for though he 
had transgressed, he was a penitent transgressor, and did_ not obstinately 
persist in what he had done amiss. 2. He knew his enemies were wicked 
transgressors ; wilful, and malicious, and hardened in their transgressions, 
both against God and man ; and therefore he sues for justice against them. 
" Judgment without mercy." Let not those expect to find mercy who never 
shewed mercy, for such are wicked transgressors. 

8 But thou, 0 Lord, shah laugh at them; 
Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision. 

9 Because of his strength will I wait upon thee : 
For God is my defence. 

1 0 The God of my mercy shall prevent me : 

God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies. 

1 1 Slay them not, lest my people forget : 
Scatter them by thy power ; 

And bring them down, 0 Lord our shield. 

12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips 
Let them even be taken in their pride : 

And for cursing and lying which they speak. [not be : 

13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may 
And let them know that God ruleth in Jacob 

Unto the ends of the earth. Selah. 

14 And at evening let them return ; 
And let them make a noise like a dog, 
And go round about the city. 

15 Let them wander up and down for meat, 
And grudge if they be not satisfied. 

16 But I will sing of thy power ; 

Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning : 
For thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of 

17 Unto thee, 0 my strength, will I sing : [my trouble, 
For God is my defence, and the God of my mercy. 

David here encourageth himself in reference to the threatening power of his 
enemies with a pious resolution to wait upon God, and a believing expectation 
that hi; should yet praise him. 

t First. He resolves to wait upon God; ver. 9, "Because of his strength," 
either the strength of his enemies, the fear of which drove him to God, or 
because of God's strength, the hope of which drew him to God, " will I wait 
'apon thee," with a believing dependence upon thee, and confidence in thee. 
It is our wisdom and duty in times of danger and difficulty to wait upon God ; 
for he is our defence, our high place, in whom we shall be safe. He hopes, 
1. That God will be to him a God of mercy ; ver. 10, " The God of my mercy 



282 PSALM LIX. 

shall prevent me " with the blessings of his goodness, and the gifts of his mercy ; 
prevent my fears, prevent my prayers, and be better to me than my own expect- 
ations. It is very comfortable to us in prayer to eye God, not only as the God 
of mercy, but as the God of our mercy, the author of all good in us, and the 
giver of all good to us. Whatever mercy there is in God, it is laid up for us. 
and is ready to be laid out upon us. Justly doth the psalmist call God's mercy 
his mercy ; for all the blessings of the new covenant are called the sure mercies 
of David, Isa. lv. 3 ; and they are sure to all the seed. 

2. That he will be to his persecutors a God of vengeance. His expectation of 
this he expresseth partly by way of prediction, and partly by way of petition, 
which comes all to one ; for his prayer that it might be so amounts to a pro- 
phecy that it shall be so. And so here are several things which he foretells 
concerning his enemies, or observers, that sought occasions against him, and 
opportunity to do him a mischief ; in all which he should see his desire, not a 
passionate or revengeful desire, but a believing desire upon them, ver. 10. 

1st. He foresees that God would expose them to scorn, as they had indeed 
made themselves ridiculous, ver. 8. They think God doth not hear them, doth 
not heed them, " but thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them " for their folly, to 
think that he that planted the ear shall not hear ; and thou shalt have, not them 
only, but all other such heathenish people that live without God in the world, 
in derision. Note, Atheists and persecutors are worthy to be laughed at, and 
had in derision : see Ps. ii. 4 ; Pr. i. 26 ; Isa. xxxvii. 22. 

2nd. That God would make them standing monuments of his justice ; ver. 11, 
" Slay them not," let them not be killed outright, "lest my people forget." If 
the execution be soon done, the impressions of it will not be deep, and therefore 
will not be durable, but will quickly wear off. Swift destructions startle men 
for the present, but they are soon forgotten ; for which reason he prays that 
this might be gradual : " Scatter them by thy power," and let them carry about 
with them in their w r anderings such tokens of God's displeasure as may spread 
the notice of their punishment to all parts of the country. Thus Cain himself, 
though a murderer, w r as not slain, lest the vengeance should be forgotten, but 
was sentenced to be a fugitive and a vagabond. Note, When we think God's 
judgments come slowdy upon sinners, we must conclude that God has wise 
and holy ends in the gradual proceedings of > his wrath. So scatter them, as 
that they may never again unite to do mischief, " bring them down, O Lord, 
our shield." If God have undertaken the protection of his people, as their 
shield, he will doubtless humble and abase all those that fight against them. 

3rd. That they might be dealt with according to their deserts ; ver. 12, " For 
the sin of their mouth, even for the words of their lips ; " for every word they 
speak has sin in it. Let them for this be taken in their pride, even for their 
cursing others and themselves, (a sin Saul was subject to, 1 Sam. xiv. 28, 44,) 
and lying. Note, First. There is a great deal of malignity in tongue sins, 
more than is commonly thought of. Secondly. Cursing, and lying, and speak- 
ing proudly, are some of the worst of the sins of the tongue; and that man is 
truly miserable whom God deals with according to the desert of these, "making 
his own tongue to fall on him." 

4th. That God would glorify himself as Israel's God and king in their 
destruction; ver. 13, "Consume them in wrath, consume them;" that is, fol- 
low them with one judgment after another till they be utterly ruined; let 
them be sensibly but gradually wasted, that they themselves, while they are in 
the consuming, may know, and that the standers-by may likewise draw this 
inference from it, "That God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth." 
Saul and his party think to rule and carry all before them, but they shall be 
made to know that there is a higher than they, that there is one w r ho doth and 
will overrule them. The design of God's judgments is to convince men that 
the Lord reigns : that he fulfils his own counsels, gives law to all the creatures, 
and disposeth all things to his own glory ; so that the greatest of men are under 
his check, and he makes what use he pleases of them. He rules in Jacob, for 
there he keeps his court, there he is known, and his name is great ; but he rules 
to the end of the earth, for all nations are within the territories of his kingdom. 
'He rules to the ends of the earth, even over those that know him not, but he 
rules for Jacob,' so it may be read ; he has an eye to the good of his church in 
the government of the world; the administrations of that government, even to 
the ends of the earth, are " for Jacob his servant's sake, and Israel's his elect," 
Isa. xlv. 4. 

5th. That he would make their sin their punishment, ver. 14; compare ver. 6. 
Their sin was hunting for David, to make a prey of him; their punishment 
should be, that they should be reduced to such extreme poverty, that they 
should hunt about for meat to satisfy their hunger, and should miss of it as 
they missed of David. Thus they should be not cut off at once, but scattered, 
ver. 11, and gradually consumed, ver. 13. They that die by famine die by 
inches, and feel themselves die, Lam. iv. 9. He foretells that they should be 



PSALM LX. 283 

forced to beg t?ieir bread from door to door. First. That they should do it 
with the greatest regret and reluctancy imaginable. " To beg they are ashamed," 
(which makes it the greater punishment to them,) and therefore they do it at 
evening, when it begins to be dark, that they may not be seen ; at the time when 
other beasts of prey creep forth, Ps. civ. 20. Secondly. That yet they should 
be very clamorous and loud in their complaints, which would proceed from 
a great indignation at their condition, which they cannot in the least degree 
reconcile themselves to. "They shall make a noise like a dog." AY hen they 
were in quest of David they made a noise like an angry dog snarling and bark- 
ing ; now, when they are in quest of meat, they shall make a noise like a hungry 
dog howling and wailing. Those that repent of their sins, when they are in 
trouble, mourn like doves: those whose hearts are hardened, when they are 
in trouble, make a noise like dogs, ''like a wild bull in a net, full of the fury of 
the Lord:" see Hos. vii. 14, "They have not cried unto me with their heart, 
when they howled on their beds for corn and wine." Thirdly. That they 
should meet with little relief, but the hearts of people should be very much 
hardened towards them, so that they should "go round about the city ? and 
wander up and down for meat," ver. 15, and should get nothing but by dint of 
importunity, according to our marginal reading, * if they be not satisfied they 
will tarry all night ;' so that what people do give them is not with good will, 
out only to be rid of them, lest by their continual coming they weary them. 
Fourthly. That they should be insatiable, which is the greatest misery of all 
in a poor condition. " They are greedy dogs which can never have enough," 
Isa. lvi. 11, " and they grudge if they be not satisfied." A contented man, if he 
has not what he would have, yet doth not grudge, doth not quarrel with Pro- 
vidence, nor fret within himself ; but those whose god is their belly, if that be 
not filled, and its appetites gratified, fall out both with God and themselves. 
It is not poverty, but discontent, that makes a man unhappy. 

Secondly. He expects to praise God, that God's providence would find him 
matter for praise, and that God's grace would work in him a heart for praise 3 
ver. 16, 17. Observe, 

1. What he would praise God for. 1st. He would praise his power, and his 
mercy; both should be the subject matter of his song. Power without mercy 
is to be dreaded; mercy without power is not what a man can expect mucn 
benefit from ; but God's power by which he is able to help us, and his mercy by 
which he is inclined to help us, will justly be the everlasting praise of all the 
saints. 2nd. He would praise him because he had many a time and all along 
found him his defence and his refuge in the day of trouble. God brings his 
people into trouble, that they may experience his power and mercy in protect- 
ing and sheltering them, and may have occasion to praise him. 3rd. He would 
praise him because he had still a dependence upon him, and a confidence in him, 
as his strength to support him and carry him on in his duty, his defence to keep 
him safe from evil, and the God of his mercy to make him happy and easy. H e that 
is all this to us is certainly worthy of our best affections, praises, and services. 

2. How he would praise God. 1st. He would sing. As that is a natural 
expression of joy, so it is an instituted ordinance for the exerting and exciting 
of holy joy and thankfulness. 2nd. He would sing aloud, as one much affected 
with the glory of God, that was not ashamed to own it, and that desired to 
affect others with it. He will sing of God's power, but he will sing aloud of his 
mercy; the consideration of that raises his affections more than any thing else. 
3rd. He would sing aloud in the morning, when his spirits were most fresh and 
lively. God's compassions are new every morning, and therefore it is fit to 
begin the day with his praises. 4th. He would sing unto God, ver. 17, to his 
honour and glory, and with him in his eye. As we must direct our prayers to 
God, so to him we must direct our praises and must look up, making melody to 
the Lord. 

PSALM LX. 

After many psalms which David penned in a day of distress, this comes, which was cal- 
culated for a day of triumph ; it was penned after he was settled on the throne, upon 
occasion of an illustrious victory which God blessed his forces with over the Syrians 
and Edomites. It was when David was in the zenith of his prosperity, and the affairs 
of his kingdom seem to have been in abetter posture than ever they were either before 
or after: see 2 Sam. viii. 3, 13; 1 Chr. xviii. 3, 12. David in prosperity was as devout 
as David in adversity. In this psalm, I. He reflects upon the ill state of the public 
interests for many years, in which God had been contending with them, ver. 1 — 3. 
II. He takes notice of the happy turn lately given to their affairs, ver. 4. HI. 
He prays for the deliverance of God's Israel from their enemies, ver. 5. IV. He 
triumphs in hope of their victories over their enemies, and begs of God to carry them on 
and complete them, ver. 6 — 12. In singing this psalm we may have an eye both to the 
acts of the church and to the state of our own souls, both which have their struggles. 



284 PSALM LX. 

To the chief Musician upon Shushan-eduth, Michtam of David, to teach ; when 
he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, when Joab returned, 
and smote of Edoni in the valley of salt twelve thousand. 

OGOD, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, 
Thou hast been displeased ; 0 turn thyself to us again. 

2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble ; thou hast broken it : 
Heal the breaches thereof ; for it shake th. 

3 Thou hast shewed thy people hard things : 

Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. 

4 Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, 
That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. 

5 That thy beloved may be delivered ; 
Save with thy right hand, and hear me. 

The title gives us an account, 1. Of the general design of the psalm. It is 
Michtam, David's jewel, and it is to teach. The Levites must teach it the 
people, and by it teach tnem both to trust in God, and to triumph in him ; we 
must in it teach ourselves and one another. In a day of public rejoicing, we 
have need to be taught to direct our joy to God, and to terminate it in him, to 
give none of that praise to the instruments of our deliverance which is due 
to him only, and to encourage our hopes with our joys. 2. Of the particular 
occasion of it. It was at a time. 1st. When he w^as in war with the Syrians, 
and still had a conflict with tnem, both those of Mesopotamia and those of 
Zobah. 2nd. When he had gained a great victory over the Edomites by his 
forces under the command of Joab, who had left twelve thousand of the enemy 
dead upon the spot. David has an eye to both these concerns in this psalm ; he 
is in care about his strife with the Assyrians, and in reference to that he prays. 
He is rejoicing in his success against the Edomites, and with reference to that 
he triumphs, with a holy confidence in God, that he would complete the victory. 
We have our cares at the same time that we have our joys, and they may serve 
for a balance to each other, that neither may exceed. They may likewise fur- 
nish us with matter both for prayer and praise, for both must be laid before 
God with suitable affections and devotions. If one point be gained, yet in 
another we are still striving. _ The Edomites are vanquished, but the Syrians 
are not ; therefore "let not him that girdeth on the harness boast as if He had 
put it off." In these verses, which begin the psalm, we have, 

First. A melancholy memorial of the many disgraces and disappointments 
which God had for some years past put the people under. During the reign 
of Saul, especially in the latter end of it, and during David's struggle with the 
house of Saul, while he reigned over Judah only, the affairs of the kingdom 
were much perplexed, and the neighbour nations were vexatious to them. 
1. He complains of hard things which they had seen, that is, which they had 
suffered, ver. 3, while the Philistines and other ill neighbours took all advan- 
tages against them. God sometimes shews even his own people hard things 
in this world, that they may not take up their rest in it, but may dwell at ease 
in him only. 2. He owns God's displeasure to be the cause of all the hardships 
they had undergone. "Thou hast been displeased" by us, displeased against 
us, ver. 1, and in thy displeasure hast cast us off, and scattered us ; hast put us 
out of thy protection, else our enemies could not have prevailed thus against 
us. They had never picked us up and made a prey of us, if thou hadst not 
broke the staff of bands {Zee. xi. 14) by which we were united, and so scattered 
us. Whatever our trouble is, and whoever are the instruments of it, we must 
own the hand of God, his righteous hand, in it. 3. He laments the ill effects 
and consequences of the miscarriages of the late years. The whole nation was 
in a convulsion; "Thou hast made the earth to tremble," or the land. The 
generality of the people had dreadful apprehensions of the issue of these things ; 
the good people themselves were in a consternation. " Thou hast made us to 
drink the wine of astonishment." We were like men intoxicated and at our 
wit's end, not knowing how to reconcile these dispensations with God"s pro- 
mises and his relation to his people. We .are at a gaze, can do nothing, nor 
know w r e what to do. 

Nov/ this is mentioned here Ho teach,' that is, for the instruction of the people. 
When God is turning his hand in our favours, it is good to remember our 
former calamities. 1st. That we may retain the good impressions they made 
upon us, and may have them revived. Our souls must still have the afflic- 
tion and the misery in remembrance, that they may be humbled within us, 



PSALM LX. 



285 



Lam. iii. 19, 20. 2na. That God's goodness to us in relieving us and raising us 
up may be the more magnified ; for it is as life from the dead, so strange, so 
refreshing. Our calamities serve as foils to our joys. 3rd. That we may not 
be secure, but may always rejoice with trembling, as those that know not how 
soon we may be returned into the furnace again which we were lately taken 
out of, as the silver is when it is not thoroughly refined. 

Secondly. A thankful notice of the encouragement God had given them to 
hope that though things had been long bad, they would now begin to mend; 
ver. 4, "Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee," (for, as bad as the 
times are, there is a remnant among us that desire to fear thy name, for whom 
thou hast a tender concern,) "that it maybe displayed" by thee, "because of 
the truth" of thy promise, which thou wilt perform, and to be displayed by them 
in defence of truth and equity, Ps. xlv. 4. This banner was David's govern- 
ment, the establishment and enlargement of it over all Israel. # The pious 
Israelites, who feared God, and had a regard to the Divine designation of David 
to the throne, took his elevation as a token for good, and like the lifting up of a 
banner to them. 1. It united them, as soldiers are gathered together to their 
colours. They that were scattered, ver. 1, divided among themselves, and so 
weakened and exposed, when he was fixed upon the throne, coalesced in him. 
2. It animated them, and put life and courage into them, as the soldiers are heart- 
ened by the sight of their banner. 3. It struck a terror upon their enemies, to 
whom they could now hang out a flag of defiance. Christ, the Son of David, is 
given for an ensign of the people, Isa. xi. 10; for a banner to those that fear 
God. In him, as the centre of their unity, they are gathered together in one *, to 
him they seek, in him they glory and take courage ; his love is the banner over 
them, and in his name and strength they wage war with the powers of darkness, 
and under him the church becomes terrible as an army with banners. 

Thirdly. An humble petition for seasonable mercy. 

1. That God would be reconciled to them, though he had been displeased with 
them. In his displeasure their calamities began, and therefore in his favour 
their prosperity must begin ; " O turn thyself to us again," ver. 1 ; smile upon 
us, and take part with us ; be at peace with us, and in that peace we shall have 
peace. Tranquillus Deus tranquiLlat omnia, — ' A God at peace with us spreads 
peace over all the scene.' 

2. That they might be reconciled to one another, though they had been broken 
and wretchedly divided among themselves. " Heal the breaches of our land," 
ver. 2 ; not only the breaches made upon us by our enemies, but the breaches 
made among ourselves by our unhappy divisions. Those are breaches which 
the folly and corruption of man makes, and which nothing but the wisdom and 

race of God can make up and repair, by pouring out a spirit of love and peace, 
y which only a shaken, shattered kingdom is set to rights, and saved from ruin. 

3. That thus they might be preserved out of the hands of their enemies ; ver. 3, 
" That thy beloved may be delivered," and not made a prey of, " save with thy 
right hand," with thine own pow-er, and by such instruments as thou art pleased 
to make the men of thy right hand, "and hear me." They that fear God are his 
beloved ; they are dear to him as the apple of his eye ; they are often in distress, 
but they shall be delivered; God's own right hand shall save them, for they that 
have his heart have his hand. " Save them, and hear me." Note, God's praying 
people may take the general deliverances of the church as answers to their 
prayers in particular. If we improve what interest w r e have at the throne of 
grace for blessings for the public, and those blessings be bestowed, besides the 
share we have with others in the benefit of them, we may each of us say with a 
peculiar satisfaction, God has therein heard me, and answered me. 

6 God hath spoken in his holiness ; 

I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, 
And mete out the valley of Succoth. 

7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine ; 
Ephraim also is the strength of mine head ; 
Judah is my lawgiver ; 

8 Moab is my washpot ; 

Over Edom will I cast out my shoe : 
Philistia, triumph thou because of me. 

9 Who will bring me into the strong city ? 
Who will lead me into Edom ? 



286 PSALM LX. 

10 Will not thou, 0 God, which hadst cast us off? 

And thou, 0 God, which didst not go out with our 
] 1 Give us help from trouble : [armies ? 

For vain is the help of man. 
12 Through God we shall do valiantly : 

For he it is that shall tread down our enemies. 




SHECHEM. — ver. 6. 

David is here rejoicing in hope, and praying in hope. Such are the triumphs 
of the saints, not so much upon the account of what they have in possession, as 
of what they have in prospect; ver. 6, " God hath spoken in his holiness;" that 
is, he hath given me his word of promise, has "sworn by his holiness, and he 
will not lie unto David," Ps. lxxxix. 35; therefore "I will rejoice," and please 
myself with hopes of the performance of the promise, which was intended for 
more than a pleasing promise. Note, God's word of promise, being a firm foun- 
dation of hope, is a full fountain of joy to all believers. 

First. Two things David here rejoiceth in the prospect of : 

1. The perfecting of this revolution in his own kingdom. God, having spoken 
m his holiness, that David shall be king, he doubts not but the kingdom is all 
his own, as sure as if it were already in his hand. "I will divide Sh-ech em," a 
pleasant city in mount Ephraim, "and mete out the valley of Succoth" as my 
own ; ver. 7, " Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine," and both entirely reduced. 
Ephraim would furnish him with soldiers for his life-guards and his standing 
forces ; Judah would furnish him with able judges for his courts of justice; and 
thus Ephraim would be the strength of his head, and Judah his lawgiver. Thus 
may an active believer triumph in the promises, and take the comfort of all the 
good contained in them ; for they are all Yea and Amen in Christ. " God hath 
spoken in his holiness," and then pardon is mine, peace mine, grace mine, Christ 
mine, heaven mine, God himself mine ; " All is yours, for you are Christ's," 
1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. 

2. The conquering of the neighbour nations that had been vexatious to Israel, 
were still dangerous, and opposed the throne of David; ver. 8, Moab shall be 
enslaved, and put to the meanest drudgery. The Moabites became David's 
servants, 2 Sam. viii. 2 Edom shall be made a dunghill to throw old shoes 
upon ; at leasL David shall take possession of it as his own, which was signified 
by drawing off his shoe over it, Ra. iv. 7 ; and as for the Philistines, let them, if 
they dare, triumph over him as they had done, he will soon force them to change 
their note. Rather let those that know their own interest triumph because of 
him; for it would be the greatest kindness imaginable to them to be brought 
into subjection to David, and communion with Israel. 

But the war is not yet brought to an end; there is a strong city (Rabbah per- 
haps) of the children of Amnion, which yet holds out; Edom is not yet subdued. 
Now, 1st. David is here inquiring for help to carry on the war. " Who will 
bring me into the strong city?" What allies, what auxiliaries can I depend 



PSALM LXI. 287 

; upon to make me master of the enemies' country and their strongholds? They 
: that have begun a good work cannot but desire to make a thorough work of it, 
, and to bring it to perfection. 2nd. He is expecting it from God only. " Wilt 
! not thou, O God?" for thou hast spoken in thine holiness; and wilt not thou 
I be as good as thy word? He takes notice of the frowns of Providence they had 
been under ; " Thou hadst," in appearance, "cast us off; thou didst not go forth 
with our armies." When they were defeated and met with disappointments, 
they owned it was because they wanted, that is, because they had forfeited, the 
gracious presence of God with them; yet they do not therefore fly off from 
him, but rather take so much the faster hold of him : and the less he had done 
for them of late the more they hoped he would do. At the same time that they 
own God's justice in what was past they hope in his mercy for what was to 
come. Though thou hadst cast us off. yet thou wilt not contend for ever, thou 
wilt not always chide ; though thou nadst cast us off, yet thou hast begun to 
shew mercy, and wilt thou not perfect what thou hast begun? The Son of 
David in his sufferings seemed to be cast off by his Father, when he cried out, 
" Why hast thou forsaken me ? " and yet even then he obtained a glorious vic- 
tory over the powers of darkness and their strong city, a victory which will 
undoubtedly be completed at last ; for he is gone forth conquering and to con- 
quer. The Israel of God. his spiritual Israel, through him likewise are more 
than conquerors. Though sometimes they may be tempted to think that God 
has cast them off, and may be foiled in particular conflicts, yet God will bring 
them into the strong city at last. Vincimur in prcelio, sed non in bello, — ' We are 
foiled in a battle, but not in the whole war.' A lively faith in the promise will 
assure us, not only that the God of peace shall tread Satan under our feet 
shortly, but that it is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. 

Secondly. He prays in hope. His prayer is, " Give us help from trouble," 
ver. 11. liven in the day of their triumph they see themselves in trouble, because 
still in war, which is troublesome even to the prevailing side. None therefore 
can delight in war, but those that love to fish in troubled waters. The help from 
trouble they pray for is preservation from those they were at war with. Though 
now they were conquerors, yet (so uncertain are the issues of war) unless God 
gave them help in the next engagement, they might go by the worst ; therefore, 
Lord, send us help from the sanctuary. Help from trouble is rest from war, 
which they prayed for, as those that contended for equity, not for victory. Sic 
qumrimus pacem, — ' Thus we seek for peace.' 

The hope with which they support themselves in this prayer has two things 
in it: 1. A diffidence of themselves, and all their creature confidences. "Tain 
is the help of man;" and then only we are qualified to receive help from God 
when we are brought to own the insufficiency of all creatures to do that for us 
which we expect him to do. 2. A confidence in God, and in his power and 
promise ; ver. 12, " Through God we shall do valiantly," and so we shall do vic- 
toriously ; for he it is, and he only, that shall tread down our enemies, and shall 
have the praise of it. Note, 1st. Our confidence in God must be so far from 
superseding, that it must encourage and quicken our endeavours in the way of 
our duty. Though it is God that performeth all things for us, yet there is some- 
thing to be done by us. 2nd. Hope in God is the best principle of true courage. 
Those that do their duty under his conduct may afford to do it valiantly ; for 
what need they fear who have God on their side ? 3rd. It is only through God, 
and by the influence of his grace, that we do valiantly. It is he that puts strength 
into us, and inspires us, who of ourselves are weak and timorous, with courage 
and resolution. 4th. Though we do never so valiantly, the success must be 
attributed entirely to him ; for "he it is that shall tread down our enemies," and 
not we ourselves. All our victories, as well as our valour, are from him, and 
therefore at his feet all our crowns must be cast. 



PSALM LXI. 

David in this psalm, as in many others, begins with a sad heart, but concludes with an 
air of pleasantness ; begins with prayers and tears, but ends with songs of praise. 
Thus the soul by being lifted up to God returns to the enjoyment of itself. It should 
seem David was driven out and banished when he penned this psalm, whether by 
Saul or Absalom is uncertain; some think by Absalom, because he calls himself the 
king, ver. 6, but that refers to the King Messiah. David in this psalm resolves t> 
persevere in his duty, encouraged thereto both by his experience and by his expec- 
tations. I. He will call upon God, because God had protected him, ver. 1—3. II. He 
will call upon God, because God had provided well for him, ver. 4, 5. III. He will 
praise God, because he had an assurance of the continuance of God's favour to him, 
ver. 6 — 8. So that in singing this psalm we may find that which is very expressive both 
of our faith and of our hope, of our prayers and of our praises. And some passages 
in this psalm are very peculiar. 



283 



PSALM LX1. 



To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David. 

[TEAK my cry, 0 God ; 
JLX Attend unto my prayer. 

2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my 

heart is overwhelmed : 
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 

3 For thou hast been a shelter for me, 
And a strong tower from the enemy. 

4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever : 

I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah. 

In these verses we may observe, 

First. David's close adherence and application to God by prayer in the day of 
his distress and trouble. Whatever comes, " I will cry unto thee," ver. 2 ; not 
cry to other gods, but to thee only ; not fall out with thee because thou affiictest 
me, but still look unto thee, and wait upon thee; not speak to thee in a cold and 
careless manner, but cry to thee with the greatest importunity and fervency of 
spirit, as one that will not let thee go except thou bless me. This he will do, 
1. Notwithstanding his distance from the sanctuary, the house of prayer, where 
he used to attend, as in the court of requests : "From the end of the earth," or of 
the land, from the most remote and obscure corner of the country, " will I cry 
unto thee." Note, W r herever we are we may have liberty of access to God, 
and may find a way open to the throne of grace. Undique ad calos tantwidem est 
via, — ' Heaven is equally accessible from all places.' Nay. because I am here in 
the end of the earth, in sorrow and solitude, therefore I will cry unto thee. 
Note, That which separates us from our other comforts should drive us so 
much the nearer to God, the fountain of all comfort. 2. Notwithitanding the 
dejection and despondency of his spirit. Though my heart is overwhelmed, it 
is not so sunk, so burthened, but that it may be lifted up to God in prayer. If 
it is not capable of being thus raised, it is certainly too much cast down Nay, 
because my heart is ready to be overwhelmed, therefore I will cry unto thee, 
•for by that means it will be supported and relieved. Note, Weeping must 
quicken praying, and not deaden it. " Is any afflicted ? let him pray," J as. v. 13 ; 
Ps. cii., title. 

Secondly. The particular petition he put up to God when his heart was over- 
whelmed, and he was ready to sink. " Lead me to the rock that is higher than 
I ;" that is, 1. To the rock which is too high for me to get up to, unless thou help 
me to it ; Lord, give me such an assurance and satisfaction of my own safety as 
I can never attain to but by thy special grace working such a faith in me. 2. To 
the rock, on the top of which I shall be set farther out of the reach of my 
troubles, and nearer the serene and quiet region, than I can be by any power or 
wisdom of my own. God's power and promise is a rock that is higher than we ; 
this rock is Christ. They are safe that are in him. We cannot get upon this 
rock unless God by his power lead us. "I will put thee in the clift of the 
rock," Ex. xxxiii. 22. We should therefore, by faith and prayer, put ourselves 
under a Divine conduct, that we may be taken under a Divine direction. 

Thirdly. His desire and expectation of an answer of peace. He begs in faith, 
ver. 1, " Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer ;" that is, let me have the 
present comfort of knowing that I am heard, Ps. xx. 6, and in due time let me 
have that which I pray for. 

Fourthly. The ground of this expectation, and the plea he useth to enforce his 
petition ; ver. 3. " Thou hast been a shelter for me," I have found in thee a rock 
higher than I, therefore I trust thou wilt still lead me to that rock. Note, Past 
experiences of the benefit of trusting in God, as they should engage us still to 
keep close to him, so they should encourage us to hope that it will not be in 
vain. "Thou hast been my strong tower from the enemy," and thou art as 
strong as ever, and thy name as much a refuge to the righteous as ever it was, 
Pr. xviii. 10. 

Fifthly. His resolution to continue in the way of duty to God, and dependence 
on him. ver. 4. 1. The service of God shall be his constant work and business. 
All those must make it so who expect to find God their shelter and strong 
tower ; none but his menial servants have the benefit of his protection : " I will 
abide in my tabernacle for ever." David was now banished from the tabernacle, 
which was his greatest grievance, but he is assured that God by his providence 
would bring him back to his tabernacle, because he had by his grace wrought in 
him such a kindness for the tabernacle, as that he was resolved to make it his 
perpetual residence, Ps. xxvii. 4. He speaks of abiding in it for ever, because 



PSALM LXI. 289 

that tabernacle was a type and figure of heaven IL.b. \x \ 9. 24, and those 
that dwell in God's tabernacle, as it is a house of duty, during their short eve 
on earth, shall dwell in that tabernacle which is the house of glory during an 
endless ever. 2. The grace of God, and the covenant of grace, shall be his 
constant comfort r " 1 will make my refuge in the covert of his wings,'' as the 
chickens seek both warmth and safety under the wings of the hen. Those that 
have found God a shelter to them ought still to have recourse to him in all 
their straits. This advantage they have that abide in God's tabernacle, that 
in the time of trouble he shall there hide them. 

5 For thou, 0 God, hast heard my vows: [name. 
Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy 

6 Thou wilt prolong the king's life : 
And his years as many generations. 

7 He shall abide before God for ever : 

0 prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him. 

8 So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, 
That I may daily perform my vows. 

In these verses we may observe, 

First. With what pleasure David looks back upon what God had done for 
him formerly; ver. 5, " Thou, O God, hast heard my vows;" that is, 1. The 
vows themselves which I made, and with which I bound my soul. Thou hast 
taken notice of them; thou hast accepted them because made in sincerity, and 
been well pleased with them; thou hast been mindful of them, and put me in 
mind of them. God put Jacob in mind of his vows, Gen. xxxi. 13; xxxv. I. 
Note, God is a witness to all our vows, all our good purposes, and ail our 
solemn promises of new obedience. He keeps an account of them, which should 
be a good reason with us, as it was with David here, why we snould perform 
our vows, ver. 8 ; for he that hears the vows we made will make us hear from 
them if tney be not made good. 2. The prayers that went along with those 
vows; those thou hast graciously heard and answered, which encouraged 
him now to pray, " O God, hear my cry." He that never did say to the seed 
of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain, will not now begin to say so Thou hast heard 
my vows, and given a real answer to them; for "thou hast given me the 
heritage of those that fear thy name." Note, 1st. There is a peculiar people 
in the world that fear God's name, — that with a holy awe and reverence accept 
of, and accommodate themselves to, all the discoveries he is pleased to make 
of himself to the children of men. 2nd. There is a heritage peculiar to that 
peculiar people, — present comforts, earnests of their future bliss. God himself 
is their inheritance, their portion for ever. The Levites, that had God for their 
inheritance, must take up with him, and not expect a lot like their brethren. 
So those that fear God have enough in him, and therefore must not complain 
if they have but little of the world. 3rd. We need desire no better heritage 
than chat of those which fear God. If God deal with us as he uses to deal 
with those that love his name, we need not desire to be any better dealt with. 

Secondly. With what assurance he looks forward to the continuance of his 
life; ver. 6, "Thou wilt prolong the king's life." This may be understood 
either, 1. Of himself. If it were penned before he came to the crown, yet, 
being anointed by Samuel, and knowing what God had spoken in his holiness, 
he could in faith call himself the king, though now persecuted as an outlaw. 
Or, perhaps it was penned when Absalom sought to unking him, and forced 
him into exile. There were those that aimed to shorten his life, but he trusted 
to God to prolong his life, which he did to the age of man set by Moses, 
namely, seventy years ? which^ spent in serving his generation according to the 
will of God, {Acts xiii. 36,) might be reckoned as many generations, because 
many generations would be the better for him. His resolution was to abide 
in God's tabernacle for ever, ver. 4, in a way of duty ; and now his hope is, that 
he shall abide before God for ever in a way of comfort. Those abide to good 
purpose in this world that abide before God, that is, that serve him, and walk 
m his fear j and they that do so shall abide before him for ever. He speaks 
of himself m the third person, because the psalm was delivered to the chief 
musician, for the use of the church, and he would have the people in singing 
of it to be encouraged with an assurance that, notwithstanding the malice of 
his enemies, their king, as they wished, should live for ever. Or, 2. Of the 
Messiah, the king of whom he was a type. It was a comfort to David to think, 
whatever became of him, the years of the Lord's anointed should be as many 

T 



290 



PSALM LXII. 



generations, and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no 
end. The Mediator shall abide before God for ever, for he always appears 
in the presence of God for us, and ever lives making intercession ; and because 
he lives we shall live also. 

Thirdly. With what importunity he begs of God to take him and keep hirn 
always under his protection ; " O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve 
him." God's promises, and our faith in them, are not to supersede, but to 
quicken and encourage prayer. David is sure that God will prolong his life, 
and therefore prays that he would preserve it ; not that he would prepare him 
a strong life-guard, or a well fortified castle, but that he would prepare mercy 
and truth for his preservation ; that is, that God's goodness would provide for 
his safety according to the promise. We need not desire to be better secured 
than under the protection of God's mercy and truth. This may be applied to 
the Messiah ; let him be sent in the fulness of time in " performance of the 
truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham," Mic. vii. 20 ; Lu. i. 72, 73. 

Fourthly. With what cheerfulness he vows the grateful returns of duty to 
God; ver. 8, " So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever." Note, God's pre- 
serving us calls upon us to praise him ; and therefore we should desire to live 
that we may praise him ; " Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee." We must 
make praising God the work of our time, even to the last. As long as our lives 
are prolonged, we must continue praising God \ and then it shall be made the 
work of our eternity, and we shall be praising him for ever. " That I may daily 
perform my vows." His praising God was itself the performance of his vows, 
and it disposed his heart to the performance of his vows in other instances. 
Note, 1. The vows we have made we must conscientiously perform. 2. Praising 
God and paying our vows to him must be our constant daily work. Every day 
we must be doing something towards it, because it is all but little in com- 
parison with what is due ; because we daily receive fresh mercies, and because 
if we think much to do it daily we cannot expect to be doing it eternally. 



PSALM LXII. 

This psalm has nothing in it directly either of prayer or praise ; nor doth it appear upon 
what occasion it was penned, nor whether upon any particular occasion, whether 
mournful or joyful. But in it, I. David with a great deal of pleasure profesaeth his 
own confidence in God, and dependence upon him, and encourageth himself to con- 
tinue waiting on him, ver. 1 — 7. II. With a great deal of earnestness he excites and 
encourageth others to trust in God likewise, and not in any creature, ver. 8 — 12. And 
in singing it we should stir up ourselves to wait on God. 

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. 

TKULY my soul waiteth upon God : 
From him cometh my salvation. 

2 He only is my rock and my salvation ; 

He is my defence ; I shall not be greatly moved. 

3 How long will ye imagine mischief against a man ? 
Ye shall be slain all of you : 

As a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. 

4 They only consult to cast him down from his excellency : 
They delight in lies : 

They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. 

5 My soul, wait thou only upon God ; [Selah. 
For my expectation is from him. 

6 He only is my rock and my salvation : 
He is my defence ; I shall not be moved. 

7 In God is my salvation and my glory : 

The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. 

In these verses we have, 

First. David's profession of dependence upon God, and upon him only, for all 
good ; ver. 1, " Truly my soul waiteth upon God." * Nevertheless,' so some, 



PSALM LXII. 291 

or f however it be;' whatever difficulties or dangers I may meet with, though 
God frown upon me, and I meet with discouragements in my attendance on him, 
yet still "my soul waiteth upon God ;" or, is silent to God, as the word is ; saith 
nothing against what he doth, but quietly expects what he will do. We are 
in the way both of duty and comfort when our souls wait upon God, that is, 
when we cheerfully refer ourselves and the disposal of all our affairs to his 
will and wisdom ; when we acquiesce in, and accommodate ourselves to, all the 
dispensations of his providence ; and patiently expect a doubtful event with an 
entire satisfaction in his righteousness and goodness, however it be. " Is not 
my soul subject to God?" so the Seventy; so it is, certainly so it ought to be; 
our wills must be melted into his will. My soul hath respect to God ; for 
" from him cometh my salvation." He doubts not but his salvation will come, 
though now he was threatened and in danger ; and he expects it to come from 
God, and from him only ; for in vain is it hoped for from hills and mountains, 
Jer. iii. 23 ; Ps. cxxi. 1, 2. From him I know it will come, and therefore on him 
will I patiently wait till it doth come ; for his time is the best time. We may 
apply it to our eternal salvation, which is called the salvation of God, Ps. 1. 23. 
From him that comes; he prepared it for us; he prepares us for it, and pre- 
serves us to it ; and therefore let our souls wait on him, to be conducted 
through this world to that eternal salvation in such a way as he thinks tit. 

Secondly. The ground and reason of this dependence; ver. 2, "He only is my 
rock and my salvation, he is my defence." 1. He hath been so many a time, in 
him I have found shelter, and strength, and succour; he hath by his grace 
supported me, and borne me up under my troubles, and by his providence 
defended me from the insults of my enemies, and delivered me out of the 
troubles into which I was plunged; and therefore " I trust he will deliver me," 
2 Cor. i. 10. 2. He only can be my rock and my salvation. Creatures are insuf- 
ficient ; they are nothing without him, and therefore I will look above them 
to him. 3. He hath by covenant undertaken to be so ; Even he that is the 
Rock of ages is my rock, that is the God of salvation is my salvation, that is 
the Most High is my high place ; and therefore I have all the reason in the 
world to confide in him. 

Thirdly. The improvement he makes of bis confidence in God. 

1. Trusting in God, his heart is fixed. If God is my strength and mighty 
deliverer, "I shall not be greatly moved ;" that is, I shall not be undone and 
ruined; I maybe shocked, but 1 shall not be sunk; or, I shall not be much 
disturbed and disquieted m my own breast. I may be put into some fright, 
but I shall not be afraid with any amazement, nor so as to be put out of the 
possession of my own soul. I may be perplexed., but not in despair, 2 Cor. iv. 8. 
This hope in God will be an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast. 

2. His enemies are slighted, and all their attempts against him looked upon 
with contempt, ver. 3, 4. If God be for us, we need not fear what man can 
do against us, though never so mighty and malicious. t He here, 1st. Gives a 
character of his enemies. They imagine mischief, design it with a great deal 
of the serpent's venom, and contrive it with a great deal of the serpent's sub- 
tlety ; and this against a man, one of their own kind, — against one single man 
that is not an equal match for them, for they are many. They continued their 
malicious prosecution though Providence had often defeated their mischievous 
designs. How long will ye do it ? Will ye never be convinced of your error ? 
Will your malice never nave spent itself? They are unanimous in their con- 
sultations to cast an excellent man down from his excellency,— to draw an 
honest man from his integrity, to entangle him in sin, — which is the only thing 
that can effectually cast us down from our excellency; to thrust a man whom 
God has exalted down from his dignity, and so to fight against God. Envy was 
at the bottom of their malice. They were grieved at David's advancement, and 
therefore plotted, by diminishing his character and blackening that, which was 
casting him down from his excellency, to baulk his preferment. In order to this 
they belie him, and love to hear such ill characters given of him, and such ill 
reports raised and spread concerning him, as they # themselves know to be false ; 
"they delight in lies." And as they make no conscience of lying concerning him, 
to do him a mischief, so they make no conscience of lying to him, to conceal the 
mischief they design, and accomplish it the more effectually; " 'they bless with 
their mouth," they compliment David to his face, " but they curse inwardly ; " 
that is, in their hearts they wish him all mischief, and privately they are 

E lotting against him, and in their cabals carrying on some ill design or other 
y which they hope to ruin him. It is dangerous putting our trust in men 
who are thus false; but God is faithful. 2nd. He reads their doom; pro- 
nounceth a sentence of death upon them, not as a king, but as a prophet: 
"Ye shall be slain, all of you," by the righteous judgments of God. Saul and 
his servants were slain by the Philistines on mount Gilboa, according to this 
prediction. Whoever seeks the ruin of God's chosen are but preparing ruir 
for themselves. God's church is built upon a rock which will stand, but the? 
that fight against it, and its patrons, and protectors, shall be "as a bowing 



292 



PSALM LXIL 



wall, and a tottering fence." which, having a rotten foundation, sinks with its 
own weight, falls of a sudden, and buries those in the ruins of it that put 
themselves under the shadow and shelter of it. David, having put his ecr~ 
fidence in God, thus foresees the overthrow of his enemies, and in effect sets 
them at defiance, and bids them do their worst. 

3. He is himself encouraged to continue waiting upon God; ver. 5 — 7, "My 
soul, wait thou only upon God." Note, The good we do we should stir up 
ourselves to continue doing, and to do yet more and more, as those that have 
through grace experienced the comfort and benefit of it. We have found it 
good to wait upon God, and therefore should charge our souls, and even charm 
them into such a constant dependence upon him, as may make us always easy. 
He had said, ver. 1, "From him cometh my salvation;" he saith, ver. 5, "My 
expectation is from him." His salvation was the principal matter of his expect- 
ation ; let him have that from God and he expects no more. His salvation 
being from God, all his other expectations are from him. If God will save mv 
soul, as to every thing else let e him do what he pleaseth with me, and I will 
acquiesce in his disposals, knowing they shall all turn to my salvation, Phil. i. 19. 
He repeats, ver. 6, what he had said concerning God, ver. 2, as one that was 
not only assured of it, but greatly well pleased with it, and dwelt much upon it 
in his thoughts. " He only is my rock and my salvation, he is my defence ; " I 
know he is ; but there he adds, " I shall not be greatly moved ;" here, " 1 shall not 
be moved" at all. Note, The more faith is acted the more active it is ; crescii 
eundo, — 'it grow r s by being exercised.' The more we meditate upon God's 
attributes and promises, and our own experience, the more ground we get of 
our fears, which, like Haman, when they begin to fall, shall fall before us, and 
we shall be kept in perfect peace, Isa. xxvi. 3. And as David's faith in God 
advanceth to an unshaken staidness, so his joy in God improves itself into a 
holy triumph; ver. 7, "In God is my salvation and my glory." Where our 
salvation is, there our glory is ; for what is our salvation but the glory to be 
revealed, — the eternal weight of glory? and there our glorifying must be. In 
God let us boast all the day long. " The rock of my strength," that is, my strong 
rock, on wmich I build my hopes, and stay myself^ " and my refuge" to which I 
flee tor shelter when I am pursued, "is in God," and in him only. I have no 
other to flee to, no other to trust to ; the more I think of it the better satisfied 

I am in the choice I have made. Thus. doth he delight himself in the Lord, and 
then ride upon the high places of the earth, Isa. lviii. 14. 

8 Trust in him at all times ; ye people, 
Pour out your heart before him : 
God is a refuge for us. Selah. 

9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, 
And men of high degree are a lie : 
To be laid in the balance, 

They are altogether lighter than vanity. 
10 Trust not in oppression, 

And become not vain in robber) 7 : 

If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. 

I I God hath spoken once ; 
Twice have I heard this ; 

That power helongeth unto God. 
12 Also unto thee, 0 Lord, helongeth mercy: 

For thou renderest to every man according to his work. 

Here we have David's exhortation to others to trust in God, and wait upon 
him as he had done. Those that have found the comfort of the ways of God 
themselves will invite others into those ways. There is enough in God for all 
the saints to draw from, and we shall have never the less for others sharing 
with us. 

Fust. He counsels all to wait upon God as he did, ver. 8. Observe, 1. To 
whom he gives this good counsel ; " Ye people," that is, all people, all shall be 
welcome to trust in God, for he is "the confidence of all the ends of the earth," 
Ps. lxv. 5 ; 'ye people of the house of Israel,' so the Chaldee. They are espe- 
cially engaged and invited to trust in God, for he is the God of Israel ; and 



PSALM LXII. 



293 



« should not a people seek unto their God?" 2. What the good counsel is 
which he gives. 1st. To confide in God; "Trust in him;" deal with him, and 
be willing to deal upon trust ; depend upon him to perform all things for you. 
—upon his wisdom and goodness, his power and promise, his providence and 
gra^e Do this " at all times," that is, we must have an habitual confidence 
in God always ; must live a life of dependence upon him ; must so trust in him 
at all times as not at any time to put that confidence in ourselves or in any 
creature which is to be put in him only. And we must have an actual con- 
fidence in God upon all occasions ; trust in him upon every emergency to guide 
us when we are in doubt ; to protect us when we are in danger ; to supply us 
when we are in want ; to strengthen us for every good word and work. 2nd. To 
converse with God; "Pour out your heart before him." The expression seems 
to allude to the pouring out of the drink-offerings before the Lord. When we 
make a penitent confession of sin, our hearts are therein poured out before 
God 1 Sam. vii. 31 ; but here it is meant of prayer, which, if it be as it should 
be is the pouring out of the heart before God. We must lay our grievances 
before him. offer up our desires to him with all humble freedom, and then 
entirely refer ourselves to his disposal, patiently submitting our wills to his. 
This is pouring out our hearts. 3rd. What encouragement he gives us to take 
this good counsel. " God is a refuge for us;" not only my refuge, ver. 7, but a 
refuge for us all, even as many as will flee to him, and take shelter m him. 

Secondly. He cautions us to take heed of misplacing our confidence, in which, 
as much as in any thing, "the heart is deceitful," Jer. xvii. 5—9. They that 
trust in God truly, ver. 1, will trust in him only, ver. 5. 

1. Let us not trust in the men of this world, for they are broken reeds ; ver. 9, 
" Surely men of low degree are vanity," utterly unable to help us, " and men oi 
high degree are a lie," that will deceive us if we trust to them. Men of low- 
degree, one would think, might be relied on for their multitude and number, 
their bodily strength and service ; and men of high degree for their wisdom, 
power, and influence : but they are neither to be depended upon ; nay, of the 
two, men of high degree are under the worse character,— for they are a lie, 
which notes not only vanity but iniquity. We are not so apt to depend upon 
men of low degree as upon the king and captain of the host, who, by the figure 
they make, tempt us to trust in them, and so when they fail us prove a lie ; but 
lay them in the balance, the balance of the Scripture,— or rather make trial of 
them,— see how they will prove, whether they will answer your expectations 
from them or no ; and you will write Tekel upon them, they are alike lighter 
than vanity. There is no depending upon their wisdom to advise us, their 
X)ower to act for us ; upon their goodwill to us, no, nor upon their promises, in 
comparison with God, nor otherwise than in subordination to him. 

2. Let us not trust in the wealth of this world, let not that be made our strong 
city ; ver. 10, " Trust not in oppression," that is, not in riches got by fraud and 
violence, because where there is a great deal it is commonly got by indirect 
scraping or saving, — our Saviour calls it the mammon of unrighteousness, 
Lu. xvi. 9 ; or, not in the arts of getting riches. Think not that, either because 
you have got abundance or are in the way of getting, that therefore you are 
safe enough ; for this is becoming vain in robbery, that is, cheating yourselves 
while you think to cheat others. He that " trusted in the abundance of his 
riches, strengthened himself in his wickedness," Ps. lii. 7 ; but at his end he will 
be a fool, Jer. xvii. 11. Let none be stupid as to think of supporting them- 
selves in their sin, much less of supporting themselves in this sin ; nay, because 
it is hard to have riches and not to trusty in them, if they increase, though by 
lawful and honest means, we must take heed lest we let out our affections 
inordinately towards them. Set not your heart upon them ; that is, be not 
eager for theim do not take a complacency in them as the rest of your souls, 
nor put a confidence in them as your portion ; be not over solicitous about 
them ; do not value" yourselves and others by them ; make not the wealth of 
the world your chief good and highest end ; in short, do not make an idol of it. 
This we are most in danger of doing when they increase : when the grounds 
of the rich man brought forth plentifully, then he said to nis soul, Take thine 
ease in these things, Lu. xii. 19. It is a smiling world that is most likely to 
draw the heart away from God, on whom only it should be set. 

Thirdly. He gives a very good reason why we should make God our confi- 
dence, because he is a God of infinite power, mercy, and righteousness, 
ver. 11. 12. This he himself was well assured of, and would have us be assured 
of it : God hath spoken once, twice have 1 heard this ;" that is, 1. God hath 
spoken it, and I have heard it, once, yea twice. He hath spoken it, and I have 
heard it by the light of reason, Avhich easily infers it from the nature of the 
infinitely-perfect Being, and from his works both of creation and providence. 
He has spoken it and I have heard once, yea twice ; that is, many a time, by the 
events that have been concerning me in particular, and by the light of revela- 
tion ; by dreams and visions, Job iv. 15 ; by the glorious manifestation of himself 
upon mount Sinai, to which some think it doth especially refer, and by the 



294 



PSALM LXIII. 



written Word. God has often told us what a great and good God he is, and 

we ought as often to take notice of what he told us. Or, 2. Though God spoke 
it but once, I heard it twice ; heard it diligently, not only with my outward 
ears, but with my soul and mind. To some God speaks twice, and they will not 
hear once ; but to others he_ speaks but once, and they hear twice. Compare 
Job xxxiii. 14. Now what is it which is thus spoken and thus heard ? 

1st. That the God with whom we have to do is infinite in power. "Power 
belongs to God;" he is almighty, and can do every thing ; with him nothing is 
impossible; all the powers of all the creatures are derived from him, and 
depend upon him, and are used by him as he pleaseth. His is the power, and 
to him we must ascribe it. This is a good reason why we should " trust in 
him at all times," and live in a constant dependence upon him ; for he is able 
to do all that for us which we trust in him for. 

2nd. That he is a God of infinite goodness. Here he turns his speech to God 
himself, as being desirous to give him the glory of his goodness, which is his 
glory: "Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy." God is not only the 
greatest, but the best of beings. Mercy is with him, Ps. cxxx. 4, 7. He is 
merciful in a way peculiar to himself; he is the Father of mercies, 2 Cor. i. 3. 
This is a farther reason why we should trust in him, and answers the objections 
of our sinfulness and un worthiness,— though we deserve nothing but his wrath, 
yet we may hope for all good from his mercy, which is over all his works. 

3rd. That he never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures; 
" For thou renderest to every man according to his work." Though he doth 
not always do this visibly in this world, yet he will do it in the day of recom- 
pence. No service done him shall go unrewarded, nor any affront given him 
unpunished, unless it be repented of. By this it appears that power and mercy 
belong to him. If he were not a God of power, there are sinners that would be 
too big to be punished ; and if he were not a God of mercy, there are services 
that would be too worthless to be rewarded. This seems especially to speak 
the justice of God in judging upon appeals made to him by wronged innocency. 
He will be sure to judge according to truth, in righting the injured, and 
revenging them on those that have been injurious to them, 1 Kin. viii. 32. Let 
those therefore that are wronged commit their cause to him, and trust to him to 
plead it. 

PSALM LXIII. 

This psalm has in it as much of warmth and lively devotion as any of David's psalms in 
so little a compass. As the sweetest of Paul's epistles were those that bore date out 
of a prison, so some of the sweetest of David's psalms were those that were penned, as 
this was, in a wilderness. That which grieved him most in his banishment was, the 
want of public ordinances ; these he here longs to be restored to the enjoyment of: and 
the present want did but whet his appetite. Yet it is not the ordinances, but the God 
of the ordinances, that his heart is upon. And here we have, I. His desire towards 
God, ver. 1, 2. II. His esteem of God, ver. 3, 4. III. His satisfaction in God, ver. 5; 
IV. His secret communion with God, ver. 6. V. His joyful dependence upon God, 
ver. 7, 3. VI. His holy triumph in God, over his enemies, and in the assurance of his 
own safety, ver. 9 — 11, A devout and pious soul has little need of direction how to 
sing this psalm, so naturally doth it speak its own genuine language; and an unsancti- 

. fied soul, that is unacquainted and unaffected with Divine things, is scarce capable of 
singing it with understanding. 

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 

GOD, thou art my God ; early will I seek thee : 
\J My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee 
In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is ; 
2 To see thy power and thy glory. 

So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 

The title tells us when the psalm was penned, when David was in the wilder- 
ness of Judah : that is, in the forest of Hareth, 1 Sam. xxii. 5 ; or in the wil- 
derness of Ziph, 1 Sam. xxiii. 15. L. Even in Canaan, though a fruitful land, 
and the people numerous, yet there were wildernesses, places less fruitful and 
less inhabited than other places. It will be so in the world, in the church, but 
not in heaven. There it is all city, all paradise, and no desert ground. The 
wilderness there shall blossom as the rose. _ 2. The best and dearest of God's 
saints and servants may sometimes have their lot cast in a wilderness, which 
speaks them lonely and solitary, desolate and affiicted, wanting, wandering, and 
unsettled, and quite at a loss w r hat to do with themselves. 3. All the straits 
and difficulties of a wilderness must not put us out of tune for sacred songs; 
but even then it is our duty and interest to keep up a cheerful communion with 



PSALM LXIII. 295 

God. There are psalms proper for a wilderness, and we have reason to thank 
God it is the wilderness of Judah we are in, not the wilderness of Sin. David 
in these verses stirs np himself to take hold on God, 

First. By a lively, active faith. " O God, thou art my God." Note, In all 
our addresses to God we must eye him as God, and our God, and this will be 
our comfort in a wilderness state. We must acknowledge that God is, that we 
speak to one that really exists, and is present with us when we say, O God, 
which is a serious word, — pity it should ever be used as a byword; and we must 
own his authority over us, and propriety in us, and our relation to him. " Thou 
art my God;" mine by creation, and therefore my rightful owner and ruler; 
mine by covenant and my own consent. We must speak it with the greatest 
pleasure to ourselves and thankfulness to God, as those that are resolved to 
abide by it. " O God, thou art my God." 

Secondly. By pious and devout affections, pursuant to the choice he had made 
of God, and the covenant he had made with him. 

1. He resolves to seek God, and his tavour and grace. " Thou art my God," 
and therefore "I wilL seek thee;" for "should not a people seek unto their 
God?" Isa. viii. 20. We must seek him, that is, we must covet his favour as 
our chief good, and consult his glory as our highest end. We must seek 
acquaintance with him by his word, and seek mercy from him by prayer. We 
must seek him, 1st. Early; that is ? with the utmost care, as those that are 
afraid of missing him ; we must begin our days with him, begin every day with 
him. " Early will I seek thee." 2nd. Earnestly ; " My soul thirsteth for thee, and 
my flesh longeth for thee ; " that is, my whole man is affected with this pursuit 
here " in a dry and thirsty land." Observe, First. His complaint in the want 
of God's favourable presence. He was "in a dry and thirsty land," so he 
reckoned it ; not so much because it was a wilderness as because it was at a 
distance from the ark, from the word and sacraments. This world is \ a weary 
land,' so the word is ; it is so to theworldly, that have their portion in it, it will 
yield them no true satisfaction ; it is so to the godly, that nave their passage 
through it, it is a valley of Baca, they can promise themselves little from it. 
Secondly. His importunity for that presence of God. " My soul thirsteth, longeth 
for thee." His want quickened his desires, which were very intense ; he thirsted 
as the hunted hart for the waterbrooks ; he would take up with nothing short 
of it. And they were very impatient ; ne longed, he languished till he should 
be restored to the liberty of God's ordinances. Note, Gracious souls look 
down upon the world with a holy disdain, and look up to God with a holy 
desire. 

2. He longs to enjoy God. What is it he doth so passionately wish for? 
What is his petition, and what is his request? It is this; ver. 2, "To see thy 
power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." That is, 1st. To 
see it here in this wilderness, as I have seen it in the tabernacle ; to see it in 
secret, as I have seen it in the solemn assembly. Note, When we want the 
benefit of public ordinances^ we should desire and endeavour to keep up the 
same communion with God m our retirements that we have had in the great 
congregation. A closet may be turned into a little sanctuary. Ezekiel had the 
visions of the Almighty in Babylon, and John in the isle of Patmos. When we 
are alone we may have the Father with us, and that is enough. 2nd. To see 
it again in the sanctuary as I have formerly seen it there. He longs to be 
brought out of this wilderness, not that he might see his friends again, and be 
restored to the pleasures and gaieties of the court, but that he might have 
access to the sanctuary, not to see the priests there, and the ceremony of the 
worship, but "to see thy power and glory," that is, thy glorious power, or thy 
powerful glory, which is put for all God's attributes and perfections ^ that 1 
may increase in my acquaintance with them, and have the agreeable impres- 
sions of them made upon my heart. So to behold the glory of the Lord, as to 
be changed into the same image ; 2 Cor. iii. 18, " That I may see thy power and 
glory." He doth not say, as I have seen them, but, as I have seen thee. We 
cannot see the essence of God, but we see him in seeing by faith his attributes 
and perfections. These sights David here pleaseth himself with the remem- 
brance of. Those were precious minutes which he spent in communion with 
God ; he loved to think them over again. These he lamented the loss of, and 
longed to be restored to. Note, That which has been the delight, and is the 
desire, of gracious souls in their attendance on solemn ordinances is, to see God 
and his power and glory in them. 

3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, 
My lips shall praise thee. 

4 Thus will I bless thee while I live : 
I will lift up my hands in thy name. 



296 



PSALM LXIIL 



5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness ; 
And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips : 

6 When I remember thee upon my bed, 
And meditate on thee in the ?iight watches. 

How soon are David's complaints and prayers turned into praises and thanks- 
givings ! After two verses that speak his desire in seeking God, here are some 
that speak his joy and satisfaction in having found him. Faithful prayers may 
presently be turned into joyful praises, if it be not our own fault. "Let the 
hearts of those rejoice thatseek the Lord," .Ps. cv. 3, and let them praise him 
for working those desires in them, and giving them assurance that he will 
satisfy them. David was now in a wilderness, and yet had his heart much 
enlarged in blessing God. Even in affliction we need not want matter for 
praise, if we have but a heart to it. Observe, 

First. What David will praise God for ; ver. 3, " Because thy lovingkindness 
is better than life," than lives. Life, and all the comforts of life ; life m its best 
estate; long life and prosperity. God's lovingkindness is in itself, and in the 
account of all the saints, better than life. It is our spiritual life, and that is 
better than temporal life, Ps. xxx. 5. It is better a thousand times to die in 
God's favour than to live under his wrath. David in the wilderness finds by 
comfortable experience that God's lovingkindness is better than life; ancl 
" therefore," saith he, " my lips shall praise thee." Note, Those that have their 
hearts refreshed with the tokens of God's favour ought to have them enlarged 
in his praises. A great deal of reason we have to bless God we have better 
provisions and better possessions than the wealth of this world can afford us ; 
and that in the service of God, and in communion with him, we have better 
employments and better enjoyments than we can have in the business and con- 
verse of this world. 

Secondly. How r he w T ill praise God, and how T long, ver. 4. He resolves to live 
a life of thankfulness to God, and dependence on him. Observe, 1. His manner 
of blessing God : " Thus will I bless thee." " Thus," as I have now begun: the 
present devout affections shall not pass aw r ay like the morning cloud, but shine 
more and more, like the morning sun. _ Or " thus," that is, I will bless thee with 
^he same earnestness and fervency with wdiich I have prayed to thee. 2. His 
continuance and perseverance therein : " I will bless thee while I live." Note, 
Praising God must be the w r ork of our whole lives. We must always retain 
a grateful sense of his former favours, and repeat our thanksgivings for them ; 
we must every day give thanks to him for the benefits with which we are daily 
loaded. We must in every thing give thanks ; and not be put out of frame for 
this duty by any of the afflictions of this present time. Whatever days w r e live 
to see, how dark and cloudy soever, though the days come of which we say we 
have no pleasure in them ; yet still every day must be a thanksgiving day, even to 
our dying day. In this w r ork we must spend our time, because in this work w r e 
hope to spend a blessed eternity. # 3. His constant regard to God upon all occa- 
sions, which should accompany his praises of him. " I w r ili lift up my hands in 
thy name." We must have an eye to God's name, that is, to all that by which 
ne has made himself knowm, in all our prayers and praises, which we are taught 
to begin w r ith " hallowed be thy name," and to conclude with " thine is the glory." 
This we must have an eye to in our w^ork and w r arfare ; we must lift up our 
hands to our duty 5 and against our spiritual enemies in God's name, that is, in 
the strength of his Spirit and grace, Ps. lxxi. 1<?; Zee. x. 12, We must make 
all our vow r s in God's name, to him we must engage ourselves, and in a depend- 
ence upon his grace. And. w r hen we lift up the hands that hang down, in com- 
fort and joy, it must be in God*s name ; from him our comforts must be fetched, 
and to him they must be devoted. In thee do we boast all the day. 

Thirdly. With what pleasure and delight he w^ould praise God, ver. 5. 

1. With inward complacency. "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and 
fatness." Not only as with bread, which is nourishing, but as with marrow, 
which is pleasant and delicious, Isa. xxv. 6. David hopes he shall return again 
to the enjoyment of God's ordinances, and then he shall thus be satisfied, and 
the more for his having been for a time under restraint. Or, if not, yet in God's 
lovingkindness, and in conversing with him in solitude, he shall be thus satisfied. 
Note, There is that in a gracious God, and in communion with him, which gives 
abundant satisfaction to a gracious soul, Ps. xxxvi. 8 : lxv. 4. And there is that 
in a gracious soul Avhich takes abundant satisfaction in God, and communion 
with him. The saints have a contentment with God, they desire no more than 
his favour to make them happy ; and they have a transcendent complacency in 
God, in comparison with which all the delights of sense are sapless and with- 
out relish ; as puddle w T ater in comparison with the wine of this consolation. 

2. W r ith outward expressions of this satisfaction. He will praise God with 



PSALM LXIII 297 

joyful lips. He will praise him, 1st. Openly. His mouth and lips shall praise 
God. When with the heart man believeth, and is thankful, with the mouth 
confession must be made of both, to the glory of God. Not that the perform- 
ances of the mouth are accepted without the heart, Mat. xv. 8 ; but out of the 
abundance of the heart the mouth must speak, Ps. xlv. 1, both for the exciting 
of our own devout affections and for the edification of others. 2nd. Cheerfully. 
We must praise God with joyful lips: we must address ourselves to that and 
other duties of religion with great cheerfulness, and speak forth the praises 
of God from a principle of holy joy. Praising lips must be joyful lips. 

Fourthly. How he would entertain himself with thoughts of God when he 
was most retired, ver. 6. I will praise thee "when I remember thee upon my 
bed." We must praise God upon every remembrance of him. Now David was 
shut out from public ordinances, he abounded the more in secret communion 
with God, and so did something towards making up his loss. Observe here, 

1. How David employed himself in thinking of God. God was in all his 
thoughts, which is the reverse of the wicked man's character, Ps. x. 4. The 
thoughts of God were ready to him: " I remember thee ;" that is, when I go 
to think, I find thee at my right hand present to my mind. This subject should 
first offer itself as that which we cannot forget or overlook. And they were 
fixed in him: "I meditate on thee." Thoughts of God must not be tran- 
sient thoughts, passing through the mind, but abiding thoughts, dwelling in 
the mind. 

2. When David employed himself thus. Upon his bed, and in the night- 
watches. David was now wandering and unsettled, but wherever he came 
he brought his religion along with him. 'Upon my beds/ so some. Being 
hunted by Saul, he seldom lay two nights together in the same bed ; but 
wherever he lay, if, as Jacob, upon the cold ground, and with a stone for his 
pillow, yet good thoughts of God lay dow r n with him. David was so full of 
business all day, shifting for his own safety, that he had scarce leisure to apply 
himself solemnly to religious exercises, and therefore, rather than want time for 
them, he denied himself his necessary sleep. He was now in continual peril of 
his life, so that we may suppose care and fear many a time held his eyes waking, 
and gave him wearisome nights ; but then he entertained and comforted himself 
with thoughts of God. Sometimes we find David in tears upon his bed, Ps. vi. 6 y 
but thus he wiped away his tears. When sleep^ departeth from our eyes through 
pain or sickness of body, or any disturbance in the mind, our souls" by remem- 
bering God may be at ease and repose themselves. Perhaps an hour's pious 
meditation will do us more good than an hour's sleep would have clone : see 
Ps. iv. 4; xvi. 7 ; xvii. 3; cxix. 62. _ There were night watches kept in the taber- 
nacle for praising God, Ps. cxxxiv. 1, which it is probable David when he had 
liberty joined with the Levites in ; but, now he could not keep place with them, 
he kept time with them, and wished himself among them. 

7 "Because thou hast been my help, 

Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 

8 My soul followeth hard after thee : 
Thy right hand upholcleth me. 

9 But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, 
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 

10 They shall fall by the sword : 
They shall he a portion for foxes. 

11 But the king shall rejoice in God; 

Every one that sweareth by him shall glory : 

But the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. 

David having expressed his desires towards God, and his praises of him, here 
speaks his confidence in him, and his joyful expectations from him ; ver. 7, " In 
the shadow of thy wings I will rejoice/'' alluding either to the wings of the che- 
rubims stretched out over the ark of the covenant, between wirich God is said 
to dwell, — I will rejoice in thine oracles, and in covenant and communion with 
thee ; or to the wings of a fowl, under which the helpless young ones have 
shelter, as the eagles' young ones, Ex. xix. 4, JDeu. xxxii. 11, which speaks the 
Divine power; and the young ones of the common hen, mat. xxiii. 37, which 
SDeaks more of Divine tenderness. It is a phrase often used in the psalms, 
Ps. xvii. 8; xxxvi. 7; lvii. 1; lxi. 4; xci. 4; and nowhere else in this sense, 
except Ru. ii. 12, where Ruth, when she became a proselyte, is said to trust 
under the wings of the God of Israel. It is our duty to rejoice in the shadow 



293 PSALM LXIII. 

of God's wings, which notes our recourse to him by faith and prayer, as 
naturally as the chickens when they are cold or frightened run by instinct 
under the wings of the hen. It intimates also our reliance upon him as able 
and ready to help us, and our refreshment and satisfaction in his care and pro- 
tection. Having committed ourselves to God, we must be easy and pleased, and 
quiet from the fear of evil. Now let us see farther, 

First. What were the supports and encouragements of David's confidence in 
God. Two things were as props to that hope, which the word of God was the 
only foundation of : 

1. His former experiences of God's power in relieving him. "Because thou 
hast been my help," when other helps and helpers failed me, therefore I will 
still rejoice in thy salvation, will trust in thee for the future, and will do it with 
delight and holy joy. Thou hast been not only my helper, but my help ; for we 
could never have helped ourselves, nor could any creature have been helpful to 
us, but by him. Here we may set up our Ebenezer, saying, " Hitherto the Lord 
has helped us," and must therefore resolve that we will never desert him, never 
distrust him, nor ever droop in our walking with him. 

2. The present sense he had of God's grace carrying him on in these pursuits . 
ver. 8, " My soul follows hard after thee," which speaks a very earnest desire, ana 
a serious, vigorous endeavour to keep up communion with God. If we cannot 
always have God in our > embraces, yet we must always have him in our eye, 
reaching forth towards him as our prize, Phil. iii. 14. To press hard after God, 
is to follow him close, as those that are afraid of losing the sight of him, and 
to follow him fast, as those that long to be with him. This David did, and he 
owns to the glory of God, "Thy right hand upholds me." God upholds him, 
1st. Under his afflictions, that he might not sink under him. Underneath are 
the # everlasting arms." 2nd. In his devotions. God upheld him in his holy 
desires and pursuits, that he might not grow weary in well doing. Those that 
follow hard after God would soon fail and give off if God's right hand did not 
uphold them. It is he that strengthens us in the pursuit of him, quickens our 
good affections, and comforts us while we have not yet attained what we are in 
the pursuit of. It is by the power of God, that is his right hand, that we are kept 
from falling. Now this was a great encouragement to the psalmist to hope that 
he would in due time give him that which he so earnestly desired, because he 
had by his grace wrought in him those desires, and kept them up. 

Secondly. What it was that David triumphed in the hopes of. 

1. That his enemies should be ruined, ver. 9, 10. There were those that 
sought his soul to destroy it. Not only his life, which they struck at, both to 

S re vent his coming to the crown, and because they envied and hated him for 
is wisdom, piety, and usefulness, but his soul ; they sought to destroy that by 
banishing him from God's ordinances, which are the nourishment and support 
of the soul, and so doing what they could to starve it ; and by sending him to 
serve other gods, and so doing what they could to poison it, 1 Sam. xxvi. 19. 
But he foresees and foretells, 1st. That they shall go into the lower parts of the 
earth — to the grave — to hell. Their enmity to David would be their death, and 
their damnation ; their ruin, their eternal ruin. 2nd ; That they shall fall by the 
sword — by the sword of God's wrath and his justice — by the sword of man. 
Job xix. 18, 29. They shall die a violent death,- Rev. xiii. 10. This was fulfilled 
in Saul ; he fell by the sword, his own sword. David foretold this, yet he would 
not execute it when it was in the power of his hand, once and again ; for pre- 
cepts, not prophecies, are our rule. 3rd. That "they shall be a portion for 
foxes." Either their dead bodies shall be a prey to ravenous beasts, (Saul lay 
a good while unburied,) or their houses and estates shall be a habitation for 
wild beasts, lsa. xxxiv. 14. Such as this will be the doom of Christ's enemies, 
that oppose his kingdom and interest in the world. " Bring them forth and slay 
them before me," Lu. xix. 27. 

2. That he himself should gain his point at last, ver. 11. That he should be 
advanced to the throne to which he had been anointed. " The king shall 
rejoice in God." 1st. He calls himself the king, because he knew himself to be 
so in the Divine purpose and designation. Thus Paul, while yet in the conflict, 
writes himself more than a conqueror, Rom. 37. Believers are made kings, 
though they are not to have the dominion till the morning of the resurrection. 
2nd. He doubts not but that though he was now sowing in tears, yet he should 
reap in joy. " The king shall rejoice." 3rd. lie resolves to make God the 
alpha and omega of all his joys; he shall rejoice in God. Now this is appli- 
cable to the glories and joys of the exalted Redeemer. Messiah the prince shall 
rejoice in God; he is already entered into the joy set before him, and his glory 
will be completed at his second coming. 

Two things would be the good effect of his advancement. First. It would be 
the consolation of his friends. Every one that swears to him, that is, to David, 
that comes into his interest, and takes an oath of allegiance to him, shall glory 
in his success; or, that swears by him, that is, by the blessed name of God, 



PSALM LXIV. 299 

and not by any idol, Deu. vi. 13. And then it means all good people, that make 
a sincere and open profession of God's name. They shall glory in God ; they 
shall glory in David's advancement. " They that fear thee will be glad when 
they see me." They that heartily espouse the cause of Christ, shall glory in its 
victory at last. " If we suffer with him we shall reign with him." Secondly. It 
would be the confutation of his enemies. " The mouth of them that speak lies," 
of Saulj and Doeg, and others that misrepresented David, and insulted over 
him as if his cause was desperate, "shall be" quite "stopped;" they shall not 
have one word more to say against him, but will be for ever silenced and 
shamed. Apply this to Christ's enemies, those that speak lies to him, as all 
hypocrites do, that tell him they love him, but their hearts are not with him ; 
their mouth shall be stopped with that word, "I know you not whence you 
are," they shall be for ever speechless, Mat. xxii. 12. Those that speak lies 
against him, who " pervert the right ways of the Lord," and speak ill of his holy 
religion, their mouths will be stopped too, in that day when the Lord shall come 
to reckon for all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against 
him. Christ's second coming will be the everlasting triumph of all his faithful 
friends and followers, who may therefore now triumph in the believing hopes 
of it. 

PSALM LXIV. 

The whole psalm has reference to David's enemies, persecutors, and slanderers ; many 
such there were, and a great deal of trouble they gave him, almost all his days, so that 
we need not guess at any particular occasion of penning this psalm. I. He prays to 
God to preserve him from their malicious designs against him, ver. 1, 2. II. He gives 
a very ill character of them, as men marked for ruin by their own wickedness, ver. 3 — 6. 
III. By the Spirit of prophecy he foretells their destruction, which would redound to 
the glory of God, and the encouragement of his people, ver. 7 — 10. In singing this 
psalm we must observe the effect of the old enmity that is in the seed of the woman 
against the seed of the serpent ; and assure ourselves that the serpent's head will he 
broken at last to the honour and joy of the holy seed. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 

TTEAE my voice, 0 God, in my prayer : 
JUL Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. 

2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked ; 
From the insurrection of the workers of iniquity : 

3 Who whet their tongue like a sword, 

And bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bittei 
words : 

4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect : 
Suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not. 

5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter : 
They commune of laying snares privily ; 
They say, Who shall see them ? 

6 They search out iniquities ; 

They accomplish a diligent search : 
Both the inward thought of every one of them, and the 
heart, is deep. 

David in these verses puts in before God a representation of his own danger, 
and of his enemies' character, to enforce his petition that God would protect 
him and punish them. 

First. He earnestly begs of God to preserve him; ver. 1, 2, "Hear my voice, 
O God, in prayer ; " that is, grant me the thing I pray for : and this is it, " Lord, 
preserve my life from fear of the enemy," that is, from the enemy that I am in 
fear of. He makes request for his life, which is in a particular manner dear 
to him, because he knows it is designed to be very serviceable to God and his 
generation. When his life is struck at, it cannot be thought he should alto- 
gether hold his peace : allude to Est. vii. 3, 4. And if he plead his fear of the 
enemy it is no disparagement to his courage ; his father Jacob, that prince with 



300 PSALM LXIV. 

God, did so before him, Gen. xxxii. 11, "Deliver me from the hand of Esau, for 
I fear him." "Preserve my life from fear," that is, not only from the thing 
itself which I fear, but from the disquieting fear of it. And this is in effect the 
preservation of the life ; for fear has torment, particularly the fear of death, by 
reason of which some are all their lifetime subject to bondage. He prays, 
'* Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked," that is, from the mischief 
which they secretly consult among themselves to do against me ; and "from the 
insurrection of the workers of iniquity," who join forces as they join counsels 
to do me a mischief. Observe, the secret counsel ends in an insurrection. 
Treasonable practices begin in treasonable confederacies and conspiracies. 
Hide me from them, that they may not find me, that they may not reach me. 
Let me be safe under thy protection. 

Secondly. He complains of the great malice and wickedness of his enemies. 
Lord, hide me from them, for they are the worst of men, not tit to be connived 
at; they are dangerous men, that will stick at nothing; so that I am undone, if 
tiiou do not take my part. 

1. They are very^ spiteful in their calumnies and reproaches, ver. 3, 4. They 
are described as military men, with their sword and bow ; archers, that take aim 
exactly, secretly, and suddenly shoot at the harmless bird, that apprehends not 
herself in any danger. But, 1st. Their tongues are their swords, flaming swords, 
two-edged swords, drawn swords, drawn in anger, with which they cut, ana 
wound, and kill the good name of their neighbour. The tongue is a little member, 
but like the sword, it boasts great things, Jas. iii. 5. It is a dangerous weapon. 
2nd. Bitter w T ords are their arrows. Scurrilous reflections, opprobrious nick- 
names, false representations, slanders and calumnies, the fiery darts of the 
wicked one, set on fire of hell. For these their malice bends their bows, to 
send out these arrow's with so much the more force. 3rd. The upright man is 
their mark. Against him their spleen is, and they cannot speak peaceably either 
of him or to him. The better any man is, the more he is envied by those that 
are themselves bad, and the more ill is said of him. 4th. They manage it with 
a great deal of art and subtlety. They shoot in secret, that those they shoot at 
may not discover them and avoid the danger, for "in vain is the net spread 
in the sight of any bird." And suddenly do they shoot, without giving a man 
lawful warning, or any opportunity to defend himself. "Cursed be he that" 
tiius "smiteth his neighbour secretly," in his reputation, Deu. xxvii. 24. The e 
is no guard against a pass made by a false tongue. 5th. Herein they fear not* 
that is, they are confident of their success, and doubt not but by these methods 
they shall gain the point w hich their malice aims at. Or, rather, they fear not 
the wrath of God, which will be the portion of a false tongue. They are impu- 
dent and daring in the mischief they do to good people, as if they must never be 
called to an acount for it. 

2. They are very close, and very resolute in their malicious projects, ver. 5. 
1st. They strengthen and corroborate themselves and one another in this evil 
matter, and by joining together in it they make one another the mure bitter 
and the more^bold; Fortiter calumniari, illiquid adhcerebit, — 'Lay on an abun- 
dance of reproach, for it will be sure to stick.' It is bad to do an ill thiug, 
but worse to encourage ourselves and one another in it;, that is doing the 
devil's work for him. It is a sign the heart is hardened to the highest degree, 
when it is thus fully set to do evil, and fears no colours. It is the orhee of 
conscience to discourage men in an evil matter, but when that is bathed the 
case is desperate. 2nd. They consult with themselves and one another how 
to do the most mischief, and most eifectually ; " They commune of laying snares 
privilv." All their communion is in sin; and all their communication is how 
to sin securely. They hold councils of war for finding out the most etreetuai 
expedient to ao mischief ; every snare they lay was talked of before, and was 
laid with all the contrivance of their wicked wits combined. 3rd. They please 
themselves with ah atheistical conceit that God himself takes no notice of 
their wicked practices ; " They say, Who shall see them ? " A practical dis- 
belief of God's omniscience is at the bottom of all the wickedness of the 
wicked. ... . 

3. They are very industrious m putting their projects m execution; ver. 6, 
"They search out iniquity," that is, they take a great deal of pains to find out 
some iniquity or other to lay to my charge ; they dig deep, and look far back, 
and put things to the utmost stretch, that they may have something to accuse 
me of. Or, they are industrious to find out new arts of doing mischief to me ; 
in this "they accomplish a diligent search;" they go through with it, and spare 
neither cost nor labour, "evil men dig up mischief." Half the pains that many 
take to damn their souls would serve to save them. They are masters of all 
the arts of mischief and destruction; for "the inward thought of every one 
of them, and the heart is deep," -deep as hell, desperately wicked, who can 
know it? By the unaccountable wickedness of their wit, and of their will, they 
shew themselves to be both in subtlety and malignity the genuine offspring of 
the old serpent. 



PSALM LXIV. 301 

7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow ; 
Suddenly shall they be wounded. [selves : 

8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon them- 
All that see them shall flee away. 

9 And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God ; 
For they shall wisely consider of his doing. 

10 The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust 
And all the upright in heart shall glory. [in him ; 

We mav observe here, 

First. The judgments of God which should certainly come upon these mali- 
cious persecutors of David. m Though they encouraged themselves in their 
wickedness, here is that which, if they would believe and consider it, was 
enough to discourage them. And it is observable how the punishment answers 
the sin. I. They shot at David secretly and suddenly to wound him ; but "God 
shall shoot at them;" for he "ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors," 
Ps. vii. 13; "against the face of them," Ps. xxi. 12. And God's arrows will hit 
surer, and fly swifter, and pierce deeper than theirs do or can. They have many 
arrows, but they are only bitter words, and words are but wind; the curse 
causeless shall not come. But God has one arrow that will be their death ; his 
curse w r hich is never causeless, and therefore shall come. With it they shall be 
suddenly wounded, that is, their wound by it will be a surprise upon them, 
because they were secure, and not apprehensive of any danger. 2. Their 
tongues fell upon him, but God shall make their own tongues to fall upon 
themselves ;" they do it by the desert of their sin, God doth it by the justice of 
his wrath, ver. 8. When God deals with men according to the desert of their 
tongue-sins, and brings those mischiefs upon them which they have pas- 
sionately and maliciously imprecated upon others, then he makes their own 
tongues to fall upon them; and it is weight enough to sink a man to the 
lowest hell, like a talent of lead. Many have cut their own throats, and many 
more have damned their own souls with their tongues, and it will be an aggra- 
vation of their condemnation ; " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself," art 
" snared in the words of thy mouth." " If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear 
it." They that love cursing it shall come unto them. Sometimes men's secret 
wickedness is brought to light by their own confession ; and then their own 
tongue falls upon themselves. 

Secondly. The influence which these judgments should have upon others; 
for it is done "in the open sight of all," Job xxxiv. 26. 

1. Their neighbours shall shun them, and shift for their own safety; they 
shall flee aw^ay, for fear of partaking in ^heir plagues, and being involved in their 
ruin. So dreadful will it be, and such a noise will it make in the country, they 
shall flee away as- the men of Israel did from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and 
Abiram, Num. xvi. 27. Some think this was fulfilled in the death of Saul; 
when not only his army was dispersed, but the inhabitants of the neighbouring 
country were so terrified with the fall, not only of their king, but of his three 
sons, that they quitted their cities and fled, 1 Sam. xxxi. 7. 

2. Spectators shall reverence the providence of God therein, ver. 9. 1st. 
They shall understand and observe God's hand in all ; and unless we do so we 
are not likely to profit by the dispensations of Providence, Hos. xiv. 9, " They 
shall wisely consider his doing." There is need of consideration and serious 
thought rightly to take the matter of fact, and need of wisdom to put a true 
interpretation upon it. God's doing is well worth our considering, Eccl. vii. 13; 
but it must be considered wisely, that we put not a corrupt gloss upon a pure 
text. e 2nd. They shall be affected with a holy awe of God upon the consi- 
deration of it. All men (all that have any thing of the reason of a man in 
them) shall fear, and tremble because of God's judgments, Ps. cxix. 120. They 
shall fear to do the like, fear being found persecutors of God's people ; smite 
the scorner, and the simple shall beware. 3rd. They shall declare the work of 
God ; they shall speak to one another, and to all about them of the justice of 
God in punishing persecutors. What we wisely consider ourselves, we should 
wisely declare to others, for their edification and the glory of *od ; " This is 
the finger of God." 

3. Good people shall in a special manner take notice of it, and it shall affect 
them with a holy pleasure, ver. 10. 1st. It shall increase their joy. "The 
righteous shall be glad in the Lord," not glad of the misery and ruin of their 
fellow-creatures, but glad that God is glorified; and his word fulfilled, and the 
cause of injured innocency pleaded effectually. 2nd. It shall encourage theii 



302 PSALM LXY. 

faith. They shall commit themselves to him in the way of duty, and be willing 
to venture for him with an entire confidence in him. 3rd. Their joy and faith 
shall both express themselves in a holy boasting. " All the upright in heart,'* 
that keep a good conscience, and approve themselves to God, " shall glory," not 
in themselves, but in the favour of God; in his righteousness and goodness, 
their relation to him, and interest in him. " Let him that glories glory in the 
Lord." 

PSALM LXV. 

In this psalm we are directed to give to God the glory of his power and goodness, which 
appears, I. In the kingdom of grace, ver. 1 ; hearing prayer, ver. 2 ; pardoning sin, 
ver. 3; satisfying the souls of the people, ver. 4; protecting and supporting them, 
ver. 5. II. In the kingdom of providence: fixing the mountains, ver. 6; calming the 
sea, ver. 7 ; preserving the regular succession of day and night, ver. 8 ; and making 
the earth fruitful, ver. 9 — 13. These are blessings we are all indebted to God for, and 
therefore may easily accommodate this psalm to ourselves in singing of it. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm and Song of David. 

PEAISE waiteth for thee, 0 God, in Sion : 
And unto thee shall the vow be performed, 

2 0 thou that hearest prayer, 
Unto thee shall all flesh come. 

3 Iniquities prevail against me : 

As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. 

4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, 

And causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in 
thy courts : 

We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thv house, 
Even of thy holy temple. 

5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, 
0 God of our salvation ; 

Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, 
And of them that are afar off upon the sea : 

The psalmist here has no particular concern of his own at the throne of 
grace ; but begins with an address to God, as the master of an assembly, and 
the mouth of a congregation ; and observe, 

First. How he gives glory to God, ver. 1. 1. By humble thankfulness. 
" Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion ;" waits in expectation of the mercy 
desired, w 7 aits till it arrives, that it may be received with thankfulness at its 
first approach. When God is coming towards us with his favours, we must go 
forth to meet him with our praises, and wait till the day dawn. Praise waits 
w r ith an entire satisfaction in thy holy will, and dependence on thy mercy; when 
we stand ready in every thing to give thanks, then praise waits for God. Praise 
waits thine acceptance ; the Levites by night stood in the house of the Lord, 
ready to sing their songs of praise at the hour appointed, {Ps. cxxxiv. 1, 2,) 
and thus their praise waited for him. * Praise is silent unto thee,' so the word 
is, as wanting words to express the great goodness of God, and being struck 
with a silent admiration at it. As there are holy groanings which cannot be 
uttered, so there are holy adorings which cannot be uttered; and yet shall 
be accepted by Him that searcheth the heart, and knoweth what is the mind of 
the spirit. Our praise is silent, that the praises, of the blessed angels, who 
excel in strength, may be heard. Let it not be told him that I speak; for if a 
man offer to speak forth all God's praise, " surely he shall be swallowed up," 
Job xxxvii. 20. 'Before thee, praise is reputed as silence,' so the Chaldee; 
so far exalted is God above all our blessing and praise. Praise is due to God 
from all the world, but it waits for him in Zion only, in his church, among his 

Eeople. All his works praise him, that is, they minister matter for praise, but 
is saints only bless him by actual adorations. The redeemed church sing 
their new song upon mount Zion, Rev. xiv. 1, 3; in Zion was God's dwelling- 
place, Ps. lxxvi. 2 Happy they who dwell with him there, for they will be 



PSALM LXV. 303 

Still praising him. 2. By sincere faithfulness. "Unto thee shall the vow be 
performed; that is, the sacrifice shall be offered up, which was vowed. We 
shall not be accepted in our thanksgivings to God for the mercies we have 
received, unless we make conscience of paying the vows which we made when 
we were in pursuit of the mercy ; for better it is not to vow than to vow and 
Ot to pay. 

Secondly. What he gives him glory for. 

1. For hearing prayer; ver. 2, "Praise waits for thee;" and why is it so 
ready ? 1st. Because thou art ready to grant our petitions. " O thou that 
nearest prayer;" thou canst answer every prayer ? for thou art able to do for 
us more than we are able to ask or think, Eph. ni. 20; and thou wilt answer 
every prayer of faith either in kind or kindness. It is much for the glory of 
God's goodness, and the encouragement of ours, that he is a God hearing 
prayer, and has taken it among the titles of his honour to be so: and we are 
much wanting to ourselves if we do not take all occasions to give him his title. 
2. Because for that reason we are ready to run to him when we are in our straits. 
Therefore, because thou art a God hearing prayer, "unto thee shall all flesh 
come." Justly doth every man's praise wait for thee, because every man's 
prayer waits on thee, when he is in want or distress, whatever he doth at 
other times. Now only the seed of Israel come to thee, and the proselyte3 
to their religion ; but when thy "house shall be called a house of prayer to all 
people/ then unto thee shall all flesh come, and be welcome, Rom. x. 12, 13. 
To him let us come, and come boldly, because he is a God that hears prayer. 

2. For pardoning sin. In this who is a God like unto him? Mic. vii. 18; 
by this he proclaims his name, Ex.xxxiy. 7; and, therefore, upon this account, 
praise waits for him, ver. 3. Our sins reach to the heavens ; inquiries prevail 
against us," and appear so numerous, so heinous, that when they are set in 
order before us we are full of confusion, and ready to fall into despair. They 
prevail so against us, that we cannot pretend to balance them with any right- 
eousness of our own ; so that when we appear before God our own consciences 
accuse us, and we have no replication to make; and yet," as for our trans- 
gressions, thou shalt " of thine own free mercy, and for the sake of a righteous- 
ness of tfiine own providing, " thou shalt purge them away," so that we shall 
not come into condemnation for them. Note, The greater our danger is by 
reason of sin, the more cause we have to admire the power and riches of God's 
pardoning mercy, which can invalidate the threatening force of our manifold 
transgressions and our mighty sins. 

3. For the kind entertainment he gives to those that attend upon him ; and 
the comfort they have in communion with him. Iniquity must first be purged 
away, ver. 3, and then we are welcome to compass God's altars, ver. 4. They 
that come into communion with God shall certainly find true happiness and full 
satisfaction in that communion. 

1st. They are blessed. Not only blessed is the nation, Ps. xxxiii. 12 ; but 
" blessed is the man," the particular person, how mean soever, " whom thou 
choosest. and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts." 
He is a nappy man, for he hath the surest token of the Divine favour, and the 
surest pledge and earnest of everlasting bliss. Observe here, First. What 
it is to come into communion with God, in order to this blessedness. 1st. It is 
to approach to him by laying hold on his covenant, setting our best affections 
upon him, and letting out our desires towards him; it is to converse with him as 
one we love and value. 2nd. It is to dwell in his courts, as the priests and Levites 
did that were at home in God's house ; it is to be constant in the exercises of 
religion, and apply ourselves closely to them as we do to that which is the 
business of our dwelling-place. Secondly. How we come into communion 
with God. Not recommended by any merit of our own, or brought in by any 
management of our own, but by God's free choice ; "Blessed is the man whom 
thou choosest," and so distinguishest from others who are left to themselves ; 
and it is by his effectual special grace pursuant to that choice. Whom he 
chooseth, he causeth to approach; not only invites them, but inclines and 
enables them to draw nigh to him. He draws them, Jno. vi. 44. 

2nd. They shall be satisfied. Here the psalmist changeth the person ; not, he 
shall be satisfied, the man whom thou choosest, but we shall ; which teacheth 
us to apply the promises to ourselves, and by an active faith to put our own 
names into them. " We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even 
of thy holy temple." Note, First. God's holy temple is his house; there he 
dwells where his ordinances are administered. Secondly. God keeps a good 
house : there is abundance of goodness in his house, righteousness and grace, 
and all the comforts of the everlasting covenant. There is enough for all, 
enough for each; it is ready, always ready, and all on free cost; "without 
money, and without price." Thirdly. In those things there is that which is 
satisfying to a soul, and with which all gracious souls will be satisfied. Let 
them have the pleasure of communion with God and that sufticeUi them : they 
have enough, they desire no more. 



304 PSALM LXV. 

4. For the glorious .operations of his power on their behalf; ver. 5, "Bv 
lerrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation. 
This may be understood of the rebukes which God in his providence some- 
times gives to his own people. He often answers them by terrrible things, for 
the awakening and quickening of them, but always in righteousness^ He 
neither doth them any wrong nor means them any hurt, for even then he is the 
God of their salvation: see i*a. xlv. 15. But it is rather to be understood of 
his judgments upon their enemies. God answers his people's prayers by the 
destructions made for their sakes among the heathen, and the recompence 
he renders to their proud oppressors, as a righteous God, the God to whom 
vengeance belongs, and as the God tnat protects and saves his people. By 
wonderful things,, so some read it; things which are very surprising, and which 
we looked not for, Isa. lxiv. 3. Or, by things which strike an awe upon us, thou 
wilt answer us. The holy freedom that we are admitted to in God's courts, 
and the nearness of our approach to him, must not at all abate our reverence 
and godly fear of him ; for he is terrible in his holy places. 

5. For the care he takes of all his people, howsoever distressed, and whither- 
soever dispersed. " He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth ;" that is, 
of all the saints all the world over, and not theirs only that were of the seed of 
Israel, for he is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews ; the confidence 
of them that are afar off from his holy temple, and the courts of that, that 
dwell in the islands of the Gentiles, or that are in distress upon the sea. They 
tr*ust in thee, and cry to thee when they are at their wits' end, Ps. cvii. 27, 28. 
By faith and prayer we may keep up our communion with God, and fetch in 
comfort from him wherever we are, not only in the solemn assemblies of his 
people, but afar off upon the sea. 

6 Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains ; 
Being girded with power : 

7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas, 

The noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. 

8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at 

thy tokens : [to rejoice 

Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening 

9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it : 

Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is 
Thou preparest them corn, [full of water : 

When thou hast so provided for it. 

1 0 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly : 
Thou settlest the furrows thereof : 

Thou makest it soft with showers : 
Thou blessest the springing thereof. 

1 1 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness ; 
And thy jmths drop fatness. 

12 They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: 
And the little hills rejoice on every side. 

1 3 The pastures are clothed with flocks ; 

The valleys also are covered over with corn ; 
They shout for joy, they also sing. 

That we may be the more affected with the wonderful condescensions of the 
God of grace, it is of use to observe his power and sovereignty as the God of 
nature ; the riches and bounty of his providential kingdom. 

First. He establisheth the earth, and it abideth, Ps. cxix. 90 ; ver. 6, by his own 
strength he setteth fast the mountains ; did set them fast at first, and still keeps 
them firm, though they are sometimes shaken by earthquakes. 



PSALM LXV. 305 

Feriuntque summos 

Fulmina monies. 

' The lightning blasts the loftiest hills.' 

Hence they are called everlasting mountains, Hab. iii. 6. Yet God's covenant 
with his people is said to stand more firm than they, Isa. liv. 10. 

Secondly. He stills the sea, and it is quiet, ver. 7. The sea in a storm makes 
a great noise, which adds to its threatening terror ; but when God pleaseth he 
commands silence among the waves and billows, and lays them to sleep ; turns 
the storm into a calm presently, Ps. cvii. 29. And by this change in the sea, 
as well as bv the former instance of the unchangeableness of the earth, it 
appears that fie whose the sea and the dry land are is girded with power. And 
by this our Lord Jesus gave a proof of his Divine power, that he commanded 
the winds and waves, and they obeyed him. To this instance of the quieting 
of the sea, he adds, as a thing much of the same nature, that he " stills the 
tumult of the people," the common people. Nothing more unruly and disagree - 
able than the insurrections of the mob, the insults of the rabble ; yet even these 
God can pacify in secret ways, and which they themselves are not aware of. 
Or, it may be meant of the outrage of the people that were enemies to Israel, 
Ps. ii. 1. God has many w r ays to still them, and will for ever silence their 
tumults. 

Thirdly. He renews the morning and evening, and their revolution is con- 
s-cant, ver. 8. This regular succession of day and night may be considered, 
1. As an instance of God's great power; and so it strikes an awe upon all. 
" They that dwell in the uttermost parts" of the earth "are afraid at thy signs,"' 
or tokens ; they are by them convinced that there is a supreme Numen, a 
sovereign monarch, before whom they ought to fear and tremble ; for in these 
things the invisible things of God are clearly seen, and therefore they are said 
to be set for signs, Gen. i. 14. Many of them that dwelt in the remote and dark 
corners of the earth were so afraid at these tokens that they were driven to 
worship them, Deu.'vr. 19; not considering that they were God's tokens, undeni- 
able proofs of his power and godhead, and therefore they should have been led 
by them to worship him. 2. As an instance of God's great goodness; and so it 
brings comfort to all. " Thou makest the outgoings of the morning," before 
the sun riseth, "and of the evening," before the sun sets, "to rejoice." As it 
is God that scatters the light of the morning, and draws the curtains of the 
evening, so he doth both in favour to man, and makes both to rejoice; that is, 
gives occasion to us to rejoice in both} so that how contrary soever light and 
darkness are to each other, and how inviolable soever trie partition between 
them, Gen. i. 4, both are equally welcome to the world m their season, it is 
hard to say which is more welcome to us, the light of the morning which 
befriends the business of the day, or the shadows of the evening which befriend 
the repose of the night. Doth the watchman wait for the morning ? so doth the 
hireling earnestly desire the shadow. Some understand it 'of the morning and 
evening sacrifice, which good people greatly rejoiced in, and in which God was 
constantly honoured. Thou makest them to sing, so the word is; for every 
morning and every evening songs of praise were sung by the Levites ; it was 
that which the duty of every day required. And we are to look upon our daily 
worship, alone and with our families, to be both the most needful of our daily 
business and the most delightful of our daily comforts ; and if therein we keep 
iip our communion with God, the outgoings both of the morning and of the 
evening are thereby made truly to rejoice. 

Fourthly. He watereth the earth, and maketh it fruitful. On this instance 
of God's power and goodness he enlarges very much; the psalm being pro- 
bably penned upon occasion either of a more than ordinary plentiful harvest 
or of a seasonable rain after long drought. How much the fruitfulnessof this 
low r er part of the creation depends upon the influence of the upper is easy 
to observe ; if the heavens be as brass, the earth is as iron ; which is a sensible 
intimation to a stupid world, that every good and perfect gift is from above, 
omnia desuper,— all from above;' that we must lift up our eyes above the hills, 
lift them up to the heavens, where the original springs of all blessings are, out 
of sight; and thither must our praises return. As the firstfruits of the earth 
were in the heave- offerings lifted up towards heaven by way of acknowledgment 
that thence they were derived. All God's blessings, even spiritual ones, are 
expressed by his raining righteousness upon us. Now observe how the common 
blessing of rain from heaven and fruitful seasons is here described. 

1. How much there is in it of the power and goodness of God ; which is here 
set forth by a great variety of lively expressions. 1st. God that made the earth 
hereby visits it, sends to it, gives proof of his care of it, ver. 9^ It is a visit in 
mercy, which the inhabitants of the earth ought to return in praises. 2nd God 
that made it dry land hereby w aters it, in order to its fruitfulness. Though the 
products of the earth flourished before God had caused it to rain, yet even then 
there was a mist wdiich answered the intention, and "watered the whole face 
of the ground/ Gen. ii. 5, 6. Our hearts are dry and barren, unless God him- 

U 



306 



PSALM LXY. 



self be as the dew to us, and water us ; and the plants of his own planting he 
will water, and make them to increase. 3rd. Rain is the river of God, which 
is full of water ; the clouds are the springs of this river, which do not tiow at 
random, but in the channel which God cuts out for it. The showers of rain, 
as the rivers of water, he turneth which way soever he pleaseth. 4th. This 
river of God enricheth the earth, which without it would quickly be a poor 
thing. The riches of the earth which are produced out of its surface are every 
jot as valuable, and abundantly more useful and serviceable to man, than those 
which are hid in its bowels. We might live well enough without silver and 
gold, but not without corn and grass. 

2. How much benefit and advantage comes by it to the earth, and to man 
upon it. 

1st. To the earth itself. The rain in season gives it a new face ; nothing more 
reviving, more refreshing, than the rain upon the new-mown grass, Ps. lxxii. 6. 
Even the ridges of the earth, off which the rain seems to siide, are watered 
abundantly, for they drink in the rain which comes often upon them ; the 
furrows of it which are turned up by the plough, in order to the seedness, are 
settled bj the rain, and made fit to receive the seed, ver. 10; they are settled 
by being made soft. That which makes the soil of the heart tender settles it ; 
fur the heart is established with that grace. Thus the springing of the year is 
blessed ; and if the spring, that first quarter of the year, be blessed,, that is an 
earnest of a blessing upon the whole year, which God is therefore said to crown 
with his goodness, ver. 11 ; to compass it on every side, as the head is compassed 
with a crown ; and to complete the comforts of it, as the end of a thing is said 
to crown it. And his paths are said to drop fatness ; for whatever fatness there 
is in the earth which impregnates its products, it comes from the outgoings 
of the Divine goodness. Wherever God goes, he leaves the tokens of his mercy 
behind him, Joel ii. 13, and makes his path thus to shine after him. These com- 
munications of God's goodness to this lower world are very extensive, and 
diffusive ; ver. 12, " They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness/' and not 
only upon the pastures of the inhabited land. The deserts, which man takes 
no care of, and receives no profit from, yet are under the care of the Divine 
providence, and the profits of them redound to the glory of God, as the great 
benefactor of the whole creation, though not immediately to the benefit of man; 
and we ought to be thankful not only for that which serves us, but for that 
which serves any part of the creation, because thereby it turns to the honour 
of the Creator. The wilderness, which makes not such returns as the cultivated 
grounds doth, yet receives as much of the rain of heaven as the must fruitful 
soil; for God doth good to the evil and unthankful. So extensive are the gifts 
of God's bounty, that in them the hills, "the little hills rejoice on every side," 
even the north side, that lies most from the sun. Hills are not above the need 
of God's providence; little hills are not below the cognizance of it. But as 
when he pleaseth he can make them tremble, Ps. cxiv. 6, so when he pleaseth 
he can make them rejoice. 

2nd. To man upon the earth. God, by providing rain for the earth, prepareth 
corn for man, ver. 9. " As for the earth, out of it cometh bread," Job xxviii. 5, 
for out of it cometh corn ; but every grain of corn that comes out of it God 
himself prepared ; and therefore he provides rain for the earth, that thereby he 
may prepare corn for man, under whose feet he has put the rest of the creatures, 
and for whose use he has fitted them. When we consider that the yearly pro- 
duce of the corn is not only an operation of the same power that raiseth the 
dead, but an instance of that power not much unlike it, as appears by that 
of our Saviour, Jno. xii. 24, and that the constant benefit we have by it is an 
instance of that goodness which endureth fur ever, we shall have reason to 
think, it is np less than a God that prepares corn for us. Corn and cattle are 
the tw r o staple commodities with which the husbandman that deals immediately 
in the fruits of the earth is enriched; and both are o wing to the Divine goodness 
in watering the earth, ver. 13. To this it is owing that ''the pastures are 
clothed with flocks,*' ver. 13. So well stocked are the pastures that they seem 
to be covered over with the cattle that are laid in them ; and yet the pasture 
not overcharged ; so well fed are the cattle, that tiiey are the ornament and the 
glory of the pastures in which they are fed. The valleys are so fruitful, that 
they'seem to be covered over with corn, in the time of harvest. The lowest 
parts of the earth are commonly the most fruitful, and one acre of the humble 
valleys is worth five of the lofty mountains. But both corn-ground and pas- 
ture-ground, answering the end of their creation, are said to shout for joy, and 
sing ; because they are serviceable to the honour of God, and the comfort of 
man, and because they furnish us with matter for joy and praise. As there 
is no earthly joy above the joy of harvest, so there was none of the feasts of the 
Lord among the Jews solemnized with greater expressions of thankfulness than 
the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, Ex. xxiii. 16. Let all these 
common gifts of the Divine bounty which we yearly and daily partake of 
increase our love to God as the best of beings, and engage u^ to glority him vvith 
our bodies, which he thus provides so well for. 



PSALM LXYI. 



307 



This is a thanksgiving psalm ; and it is of such a general use and application, thr.t we 
need not suppose it penned upon any particular occasion. All people are here called 
upon to praise God, I. For the general instances of his sovereign dominion and powei 
in the whole creation, ver. 1 — 7. II. For the special tokens of his favour to the 
church, his peculiar people, ver. 8 — 12. And then, III. The psalmist praiseth God 
for his own experiences of his goodness to him in particular, especially in answering 
his prayers, ver. 13 — 20. If we have learned in every thing to give thanks for ancient 
and modern mercies, public and personal mercies, we shall know bow to sing this 
psalm with grace and understanding. 

To the chief Musician, a Song or Psalm. 

MAKE a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: 
2 Sing forth the honour of his name : 
Make his praise glorious. 

3 Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works ! 
Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies 

submit themselves unto thee. 

4 All the earth shall worship thee, [Selah. 
And shall sing unto thee ; they shall sing to thy name. 

5 Come and see the works of God: 

He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. 

6 He turned the sea into dry land : 
They went through the flood on foot : 
There did w^ rejoice in him. 

7 He ruleth by his power for ever ; 
His eyes behold the nations : 

Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah. 

First. In these verses the psalmist calls upon all people to praise God. "All 
lands," 'all the earth,' ver. 1, all the inhabitants of the world that are capable 
of praising God. 1. This speaks the glory of God, that he is worthy to be 
praised by all, for he is good to all, and furnisheth every nation with matter 
for praise. 2. The duty of man ; that all are obliged to praise God. It is part 
of the law of creation, and therefore is required of every creature. 3. A predic- 
tion of the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ. The time should 
come when ail lands should praise God, and this incense should in every place 
be offered to him. 4. A hearty good-will which the psalmist had to this good 
work of praising God. He will abound in it himself, and wishes that God 
might have his tribute paid him by all the nations of the earth, and not by the 
land of Israel only. He excites all lands, 1st. To make a joyful noise to God. 
Holy joy is that devout affection which should animate all our praises; and 
though it is not making a noise in religion that God will accept of, (hypocrites 
are said to cause their voice to be heard on high, Isa. lviii. 4,) yet, in praising 
God, First. We must be hearty and zealous, and what we do must do with 
all our might, with all that is within us. Secondly. We must be open and 
public, as those that are not ashamed of our Master ; and both these are implied 
in making a noise, a joyful noise. 2nd. To sing with pleasure, and to sing forth, 
for the edification of others, the honour of his name ; that is, of all that whereby 
he has made himself known, ver. 2. That which is the honour of God's name 
ought to be the matter of our praise. 3rd. To make his praise glorious as far 
as we can. In praising God we must do it so as to glorify him, and that must 
be the scope and drift of all our praises. Reckon it your greatest glory to praise 
God ; so some. It is the highest honour the creature is capable of, to be to the 
Creator for a name and a praise. 

Secondly. He had called upon all lands to praise God, ver. 1, 4; he foretells 
that they shall do so, " All the earth shall worship thee ; " some in all parts 
of the earth, even the remotest regions, for the everlasting Gospel shall be 
reached to every nation and kindred ; and this is the purport of it, " Worship 
_ im that made heaven and earth," Rev. xiv. 6, 7. And being thus' sent forth, 
it shall not return void, but shall bring all the earth, more or less, to worship 
God and sing unto him. In gospel times God should be worshipped by singing 



303 PSALM LXYL 

of psalms. They shall sing to God; that is, sing to his name; for it is only 
to his declarative glory, — that by which he has made himself known, — not to his 
essential glory, that we can contribute any thing by our praises. 

Thirdly. That we may be furnished with matter for praise, we are here called 
upon to come and see the works of God; for his own works praise him, whether 
we do or not; and the reason why we do not praise him more and better is, 
because we do not duly and attentively observe them. Let us, therefore, see 
God's works, and observe the instances of his wisdom, power, and faithfulness 
in them, ver. 5 ; and then speak of them, and speak of tnem to him 3 ver. 3, "Say 
unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works ! terrible in thy doings ! " 

1. God's works are wonderful in themselves, and such as, when duly con- 
sidered, may justly fill us with amazement. God is terrible ; that is, admirable 
in his works through the greatness of his power ; which is such, and shines so 
bright, so strong in all he doth, that # it may be truly said, there are not any 
works like unto his works. Hence he is said to be fearful in praises, Ex. xv. 11. 
In all his doings towards the children of men he is terrible, and to be eyed with 
a holy awe. Much of religion lies in a reverence for the Divine providence. 

2. They are formidable to his enemies, and have many a time forced and 
frightened them into a feigned submission ; ver. 3, " Through the greatness 
of thy pow r er," before which none can stand, " shall thine enemies submit them- 
selves unto thee."' They shall lie unto thee, so the word is ; that is, they shall 
be compelled sore against their wills to make their peace with thee upon any 
terms. Subjection extorted by fear is seldom sincere, and therefore force is 
no proper means of propagating religion ; nor can there be much joy of such 
proselytes to the church as will in the end be found liars unto it. Deu. xxxiii. 29. 

3. They are comfortable and beneficial to his people, ver. 6. When Israel 
came out of Egypt, "he turned the sea into dry land" before them, which 
encouraged them to follow God's conduct through the wilderness : and when 
they were to enter Canaan, for their encouragement in their wars, Jordan was 
divided before them, and they "went through that flood on foot;" and such 
foot, so signally owned by Heaven, might well pass for cavalry rather than 
infantry in the wars of the Lord. There did the enemies tremble before them, 
Ex. xv. 14, 15; Jos. v. J ; but "there did we rejoice him;" both trust his 
power (for relying on God is often expressed by rejoicing in him) and sing his 
oraise, Ps. cvi. 12. There did we rejoice, that is, our ancestors did, and we 
in their loins. The joys of our fathers were our joys, and we ought to look 
upon ourselves as sharers in them. 

4. They are commanding to all. God by his works keeps up his dominion in 
the world; ver. 7, "He rules by his power for ever, his eyes behold the nations." 
1st. God has a commanding eye. From the height of heaven his eye commands 
all the inhabitants of the world, and he has a clear and full view of them all. 
His eyes run to and fro through the earth; the most remote and obscure nations 
are under his inspection. 2nd. He has a commanding arm. His power rules, 
rules for ever, and is never weakened, never obstructed; " Strong is his hand, 
and high is his right hand." From hence he infers, " Let not the rebellious exalt 
themselves ;" let not those that have revolting and rebellious hearts dare to rise 
up in any overt acts of rebellion against God, as Adonijah exalted himself, say- 
ing, "I w r illbe king." Let not those that are in rebellion against God exalt them- 
selves, as if there were any probability that they should gain their point ; no, let 
them be still, for God hath said, I will be exalted, and man cannot gainsay it. 

8 0 bless our God, ye people, 

And make the voice of his praise to be heard : 

9 Which holdeth our soul in life, 

And suffereth not our feet to be moved. 

10 For thou, O God, hast proved us: 
Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. 

1 1 Thou broughtest us into the net ; 
Thou laidst affliction upon our loins. 

12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; 
We went through fire and through water : 

But thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. 

In these verses the psalmist calls upon God's people in a special manner to 
praise him ; let all lands do it, but Israel's land particularly. " Bless our God j" 
bless him as ours, a God in covenant with us, and that takes care of us as his 



PSALM LXVI 309 

own. Let them make the voice of his praise to be heard," ver. 8 ; for from 
whom should it be heard, but from those who are his peculiar favourites and 
select attendants ? Two things we have reason to bless God for : 

First. Common protection, ver. 9. He "holdeth our soul in life," that it may 
not drop away of itself ; for, being continually in our hands, it is apt to slip 
through our fingers. We must own that it is the good providence of God that 
keeps life and soul together, and his visitation that preserves our spirit; he 
puts our soul in life, so the word is. He that gave us our being, by a constant 
renewed act upholds us in our being, and his providence is a continued creation. 
When we are ready to faint and perish, he restoreth our soul, and so puts it 
as it were into a new life, giving new comforts; Non est vivere, sed valere vita, 
— * It is not existence, but happiness, that deserves the name of life.' But we 
are apt to stumble and fall, and are exposed to many destructive accidents, kill- 
ing disasters as well as killing diseases, and therefore as to these also we are 
guarded by the Divine power ; he " suffereth not our feet to be moved/' pre- 
venting many unforeseen evils, which we ourselves were not aware of our 
danger from. To him we owe it that we have not long ere this fallen into 
endless ruin. " He will keep the feet of his saints."' 

Secondly. Special deliverance from great distress. Observe, 

1. How grievous the distress and danger was, ver. 11, 12. What particular 
trouble of the church this refers to doth not appear ; it might be the trouble of 
some private persons or families only; but, whatever it was, they were sur- 
prised with it, as a bird with a snare, enclosed and entangled in it as a fish in 
a net. They were pressed down with it, and kept under as with a load upon 
their loins, ver. 11 ; but they own the hand of God in it. We are never in the 
net. but God brings us into it; never under affliction, but God lays it upon us. 
Is any thing more dangerous than fire and water? we went through both, that 
is, afflictions of different kinds. The end of one trouble was the beginning of 
another; when we had got clear of one sort of dangers, we found ourselves 
involved in dangers of another sort. Such may be the troubles of the best of 
God's saints; but he has promised, " When thou passest through the waters, 
through the fire, I will be with thee," Isa. xliii. 2. Yet proud and cruel men may 
be as dangerous as fire and water, and more so ; " Beware of men," Mat. x. 17. 
When men rose up against us, that was fire and water, and all that is threaten- 
ing, Ps. cxxiv. 2 — 4 ; and that was the case here. " Thou hast caused men to ride 
over our heads," that is, to trample upon us, and insult over us ; to hector and 
abuse us ; nay. and to make perfect slaves of us. They have said to our souls, 
u Bow down tnat we may go over," Isa. li. 23. While it is the pleasure of good 
princes to rule in the hearts of their subjects, it is the pride of tyrants to ride 
over their heads; yet the afflicted church in this also owns the hand of God, 
Thou hast caused them thus to abuse us ; for the most furious oppressor has no 
power but what is given him from above. 

2. How gracious God's design was in bringing them into this distress and 
danger. See what the meaning of it is ; ver. 10, " Thou, O God ; hast proved 
us and tried us." Then we are likely to get good by our afflictions when we 
look upon them under this notion, for then we may see God*s grace and love 
at the bottom of them, and our own honour and benefit in the end of them. 
By afflictions we are proved as silver in the fire. 1st. That our graces by 
being tried may be made more evident, and so we may be approved, as silver 
when it is touched and marked sterling ; and this will be to our praise at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. i. 7 ; and perhaps in this world. Job's integ- 
rity and constancy were manifested by his afflictions^ 2nd. That our graces 
by' being exercised may be made more strong and active, and so we may be 
improved, as silver when it is refined by the fire, and made more clear from its 
dross ; and this will be to our unspeakable advantage, for thus we are made 
partakers of God's holiness, Heb. xii. 10. Public troubles are for the purifying 
of the church, Dan. xi. 35 ; Rev. ii. 10; Deu. viii. 2. 

3. How glorious the issue was at last. The troubles of the church will cer- 
tainly end well; these do so. For, 1st. The outlet of the trouble is happy. 
They are in fire and water, but they get through them ; ''We went through fire 
and water," and did not perish in the flames or floods. Whatever the troubles 
of the saints are, blessed be God there is a way through them. 2nd. The inlet 
to a better state is much more happy. "Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy 

£lace," into a well-watered place, for the w^ord is, ' like the gardens of the 
,ord,' and therefore fruitful. God brings his people into trouble, that their 
comforts afterwards may be the sweeter, and that their affliction may thus yield 
the peaceable fruit of righteousness, which will make the poorest place in the 
world a wealthy place. 

13 I will go into thy house with burnt offerings; 
I will pay thee my vows, 



310 PSALM LXVL 

14 Which my lips have uttered, 

And my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble. 

1 5 I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the 

incense of rams ; 
I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah. 

1 6 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, 

And I will declare what he hath done for my soul. 
.17 1 cried unto him with my mouth, 
And he was extolled with my tongue. 

18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, 
The Lord will not hear me. 

19 But verily God hath heard me ; 

He hath attended to the voice of my prayer. 

20 Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, 
Nor his mercy from me. 

The psalmist having before stirred up all people, and all God's people in par- 
ticular, to bless the Lord, here stirs up himself, and engageth himself to do it. 

First. In his devotions to his God, ver. 13 — 15, He had called upon others to 
sing God's praises, and to make a joyful noise with them; but for himself his 
resolutions go farther, and he will praise God, 

L. By costly sacrifices, which under the law were offered to the honour of 
God. All people had not wherewithal to offer these sacrifices, or wanted zeal 
to be at such an expense in praising God: but David, for his part, being able, is 
as willing in this chargeable way to pay nis homage to God; ver. 13, " I will go 
into thy house with burnt offerings." His sacrifices should be public in the 
place which God had chosen ; I will go into thy house with them. Christ is 
our temple, to whom we must bring our spiritual gifts, and by whom they are 
sanctified. They should be the best of the kind ; burnt sacrifices, which were 
wholly consumed upon the altar to the honour of God, and of which the offerer 
had no share ; and burnt sacrifices of fatlings, not the lame or the lean, but the 
best fed, and such as would be most acceptable at his own table. God that is 
the best must be served with the best we have. The feast God makes for us 
is a feast of fat things full of marrow, Isa. xxv. 6 ; and such sacrifices should we 
bring to him. He will offer bullocks with goats, so liberal would he be in his 
return of praise, and not_ strait-handed. He would not offer that which cost 
him nothing, but that which cost him a great deal; and this with the incense 
of rams, that is, with the fat of rams, which being burnt upon the altar, the 
smoke of it would ascend like the smoke of incense. Or, rams with incense. 
The incense typifies Christ's intercession, without which the fattest of our 
sacrifices will not be accepted. 

2. By a conscientious performance of his vows. We do not acceptablv praise 
God for our deliverances out of trouble, unless we make conscience of paying 
the vows we made when we were in trouble. This was the psalmist's resolu- 
tion ; ver. 13, 14. " I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered when I 
was in trouble. Note, 1st. It is very common and very commendable when we 
are under the pressure of any affliction, or in the pursuit of any mercy, to make 
vows, and solemnly to speak them before the Lord, to bind ourselves out from 
sin, and bind ourselves^ more closely to our duty; not as if this were an equi- 
valent, or valuable consideration, for the favour of God, but a qualification of us 
to receive the tokens of that favour. 2nd. The vows which we made when we 
were in trouble must not be forgotten when the trouble is over, but be care- 
fully performed, for " better it is not to vow than to vow and not pay." 

Secondly. In nis declarations to his friends, ver. 16. He calls together a con- 
gregation of good people to hear his thankful narrative of God s favours to 
him ; " Come and hear, all ye that fear God," for, 1. You will join with me in my 
praises, and help me in giving thanks \ and we should be as desirous of the assist- 
ance of those that fear God in returning thanks for the mercies we have received 
as in praying for those we want. 2. You will be edified and encouraged by that 
which I have to say; "The humble shall hear of it and be glad," Ps. xxxiv. 2. 
" They that fear thee will be glad when they see me," Ps. cxix. 74 ; and therefore 
let me have their company, and I will declare" to them, not to vain carnal 



PSALM LXYL 



311 



people that will banter it and make a jest of it, (pearls are not to be cast before 
swine,) but to them that fear God, and will make a good use of it. "I will declare 
what God hath done for my soul;" not in pride and vainglory, that he might 
be thought more a favourite of Heaven than other people, but for the honour of 
God, to which we owe this as a just debt, and for the edification of others. 
.Note, God's people should communicate their experiences to each other; we 
should take all occasions to tell one another of the great and kind things which 
God has done for us, especially which he has done for our souls, the spiritual 
blessings with which he hath blessed us in heavenly things. These we should 
be most affected with ourselves, and therefore with these we should be desirous 
to affect others. Now what was it that God had done for his soul? 

1st. He had wrought in him a love to the duty of prayer, and had by his grace 
enlarged his heart in that duty; ver. 17, "I cried unto him with my mouth;" 
but if God, among other things done for our souls, had not given us the spirit 
of adoption, teaching and enabling us to cry, Abba, father, we should never have 
done it. That God has given us leave to pray, a command to pray, encourage- 
ments to pray, and, to crown all, a heart to pray, is what we have reason to 
mention with thankfulness to his praise; and the more if when we cried to him 
with our mouth he was extolled with our tongue, that is, if we were enabled 
by faith and hope to give glory to him then when we were seeking for mercy 
and grace from him ; and to praise him for mercy in prospect, though it be not 
yet in possession. By crying to him we do indeed extol him. He is pleased to 
reckon himself honoured by the humble believing prayers of the upright, and 
this is a great thing which he has done for our souls, that he has been pleased 
so far to twist interests with us, as that in seeking our own welfare we seek his 
glory. ' His exaltation was under my tongue/ so it may be read; that is, 1 was 
considering in my mind how I might exalt and magnify his name. When prayers 
are in our mouths, praises must be in our hearts. 

2nd. He had wrought in him a dread of sin, as an enemy to prayer; ver. 18, 
* If I regard iniquity in my heart," 1 know very well " the Lord will not hear 
me." The Jewish writers, some of them that have the leaven of the Pharisees 
which is hypocrisy, put a very corrupt gloss upon these words; "If 1 regard 
iniquity in my heart," that is, say they, if I allow myself only in heart-sins, and 
iniquity doth not break out in my words and actions, " God will not hear me," 
that is, he will not be offended with me, will take no notice of it, so as to lay it to 
my charge; as if heart-sins were no sins in God's account. The falsehood of this 
our Saviour has shewn in his spiritual exposition of the law, Mat. v. But the 
sense of this place is plain; " If I regard iniquity in my heart," that is, if I have 
favourable thoughts of it; if 1 love it, indulge it, and allow myself in it ; if 1 
treat it as a friend, and bid it welcome; make provision for it, and am loath to 
part with it; if I roll it under my tongue as a sweet morsel, though it be but 
a heart sin, that is thus countenanced and made much of; if I delight in it after 
the inward man; — "God will not hear" my prayer, will not accept it, or be 
pleased with it, nor can 1 expect an answer of peace to it. Note, Iniquity 
regarded in the heart will certainly spoil the comfort and success of prayer , 
for " the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord." They that 
continue in love and league with sin have no interest either in the promise or 
in the Mediator ; and therefore cannot expect to speed in prayer. 

3rd. He had graciously granted him an answer of peace to his prayers : ver. 19, 
"But verily God hath heard me." Though, being conscious to myself of much 
amiss in me, I began to fear that my prayers would have been rejected, yet to 
my comfort I found that God was pleased to regard them. This God did for 
his soul : by answering his prayer, he gave him a token of his favour, and an 
evidence that he had wrought a good w r ork in him ; and therefore he concludes, 
ver. 20, " Blessed be God." The two foregoing verses are the major and minor 
propositions of a syllogism. " If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear 
my prayers," that is the proposition ; "but verily God hath heard me," that is 
the assumption, from which he might have rationally inferred, Therefore 1 do not 
regard iniquity in my heart. But, instead of taking the comfort to himself, he gives 
the praise to God, " Blessed be God ;" whatever are the premises, God's glory 
must always be the conclusion. " God has heard me," and theretore, "Blessed 
be God." Note, What we win by prayer we must wear with praise. Mercies 
in answer to prayer do in a special manner oblige us to be thankful. " He hath 
not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy;" lest it should be thought that the 
deliverance was granted for the sake of some worthiness in his prayer, he 
ascribes it to God's mercy. That he adds by way of correction : It was not my 
prayer that fetched the deliverance, but his mercy that sent it; therefore God 
doth not turn away our prayer, because he doth not turn away his own mercy, 
for that is the foundation of our hopes, and the fountain of our comforts, ana 
therefore ought to be the matter of our praises. 



312 PSALM LXVIL 

This psalm relates to the church, and is calculated for the puhlic. Here is, f. A prayer 
for the prosperity of the church of Israel, ver. 1. II. A prayer for the conversion of the 
Gentiles, and the bringing of them into the church, ver. 2—5. III. A prospect of 
happy and glorious times when God shall do this, ver. 6, 7. Thus was the psalmist 
carried out by the spirit of prophecy to foretell the glorious estate of the Christian 
church, in which Jews and Gentiles should unite into one flock, the beginning of which 
blessed work ought to be the matter of our joy and praise, and the completing of it of 
our prayer and hope in singing this psalm. 

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psaim or Song. 

GOD be merciful unto us, and bless us; 
And cause his face to shine upon us. Selah. 

2 That thy way may be known upon earth, 
Thy saving health among all nations. 

3 Let the people praise thee, 0 God ; 
Let all the people praise thee. 

4 0 let the nations be glad and sing for joy : 
For thou shalt judge the people righteously, 
And govern the nations upon earth. Selah. 

5 Let the people praise thee, 0 God ; 
Let all the people praise thee. 

6 Then shall the earth yield her increase ; 
And God, even our own God, shall bless us. 

7 God shall bless us ; 

And all the ends of the earth shall fear him. 

The composure of this psalm is such as speaks the penman's affections very 
warm and lively ; by which spirit of devotion he was elevated to receive the 
spirit of prophecy concerning the enlargement of God's kingdom. 

First. He begins with a prayer for the welfare and prosperity of the church 
then in being, in the happiness of which he should share, and think himself 
happy, ver. 1. Our Saviour, in teaching us to say, Our Father, has intimated 
that we ought to pray with and for others ; so the psalmist here prays not, God 
be merciful to me and bless me, but to us, and bless us, for we must make sup- 
plication for all saints, and be willing and glad to take our lot with them. We 
are here taught, I. That all our happiness comes from God's mercy, and takes 
rise in that ; and therefore the first thing prayed for is, " God be merciful to us," 
to us sinners, and pardon our sins, Lu. xviii. 13; to us miserable sinners, and 
help us out of our miseries. 2. That it is conveyed by God's blessing, and 
secured in that. God bless us, that is, give us an interest in his promises, and 
confer upon us all the good contained in them. God's speaking well to ua 
amounts to his doing well for us. God bless us, is a comprehensive prayer; 
it is pity such excellent words should ever be used slightly and carelessly, and 
as a byword. 3. That it is completed in the light of his countenance; " God 
cause his face to shine upon us," that is, God by his grace qualify us for his 
favour, and then give us the tokens of his favour. We need desire no more to 
make us happy than to have God's face shine upon us, to have God love us, and 
let us know that he loves us. 'To shine with us,' so the margin reads it; with 
us doing our endeavour, and let it crown that endeavour with success. If he 
by faith walk with God, we may hope that his face will shine with us. 

Secondly. He passeth from this to a prayer for the conversion of the Gentiles; 
ver. 2, " That thy way may be known upon earth." Lord, I pray not only that 
thou wilt be merciful to us, and bless us, but that thou wilt be merciful to all 
mankind, "that thy way may be known upon earth." Thus public spirited 
must we be in our prayers, " Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy 
kingdom come." We shall have never the less of God's mercy, and blessing, 
and favour, for others coming in to share with us. Or it may be taken thus: 
* God be merciful to us Jews, and bless us, that thereby thy way may be known 
upon earth;' that by the peculiar distinguishing tokens of thy favour to us 
others may be allured to come and join themselves to us, saying, " We will go 
with you, for we have heard that God is with you," Zee. viii. 23. These verses, 
which point at the conversion of the Gentiles, may be taken, 1. As a prayer; 
and so it speaks the desire of the Old Testament saints. So far were they from 
wishing to monopolize the privileges of the church, that they desired nothing 



PSALM LXVII. 313 

more than the throwing down of the enclosure, and the laying open of the 
advantages. See then how the spirit of the Jews in the days of Christ and his 
apostles differed from the spirit of their fathers. The Israelites indeed that 
were of old desired that God's name might be known among the Gentiles ; those 
counterfeit Jews were enraged at the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles; 
nothing in Christianity exasperated them so much t as that did. 2. As a pro- 
phecy ; that it shall be as he here prays. Many Scripture prophecies and pro- 
mises are wrapped up in prayers, to intimate that the answer of the church's 
prayer is as sure as the performance of God's promises. Three things are here 
prayed for with reference to the Gentiles : 

1st. That Divine revelation might be sent among them, ver. 2. Two things 
he desires might be known upon earth, even among all nations, and not to the 
nation of the Jews only : First. God's way; that is, the rule of duty. Let them 
all know as well as we do what is good, and what the Lord our God requires 
of them; let them be blessed and honoured with the same righteous statutes 
and judgments which are so much the praise of our nation, and the envy of all 
its neighbours, Deu. iv. 8. Secondly. His saving health, or his salvation. The 
former is wrapped up in his law, this in his Gospel. _ If God makes known his 
way to us, and we walk in it, he will shew us his saving health, Ps. 1. 23. They 
that have themselves experimentally known the pleasantness of God's ways, 
and the comforts of his salvation, cannot but desire and pray that they may be 
known to others, even among all nations. All upon earth are bound to walk 
in God's way, all need his salvation, and there is in it enough for all; and 
therefore we should pray that both the one and the other may be made known 
to all. 

2nd. That Divine worship may be set up among them, as it will be where 
Divine revelation is received and embraced; ver. 3, "Let the people praise 
thee, O God," let them have matter for praise, let them have hearts for praise; 
yea, " let" not only some, but " all the people praise thee," all nations in their 
national capacity, some of all nations. It is a^ain repeated, ver. 5, as that which 
the psalmist's heart was very much upon. They that delight in praising God 
themselves cannot but desire that others also may be brought to praise him ; 
that he may have the honour of it, and they may have the benefit of it. It is 
a prayer, First. That the Gospel might be preached to them, and then they 
would have cause enough to praise God, as for the day-spring after a long and 
dark night. Ortus est sol, — 'The sun has risen,' Acts viii. 8. Secondly. That 
they might be converted and brought into the church, and then they would 
have a disposition to praise God; the living and true God, and not the dumb 
and dunghill deities they had worshipped, Dan. v. 4. Then their hard thoughts 
of God would be silenced, and they should see him in the gospel-glass to be 
love itself, and the proper object of praise. Thirdly. That they might be 
incorporated into solemn assemblies, and might praise God in a body; that they 
might all, altogether, praise him with one mind, and one mouth. Thus a face of 
religion appears upon a land, when God is publicly owned, and the ordinances 
of religious worship duly celebrated in religious assemblies. 

3rd. That the Divine government may be acknowledged and cheerfully sub- 
mitted to ; ver. 4, " O let the nations be glad and sing for joy." Holy joy, joy 
in God, and in his name, is the heart and soul of thankful praise. That all the 
people may praise thee; Let the nations be glad. They that rejoice in the Lord 
always will in every thing give thanks. The joy he wisheth to the nations is 
holy joy, for it is joy in God's dominion ; joy that God has takeu to himself his 
great power and has reigned, which the unconverted nations are angry at, 
Jtev. xi. 17, 18. Let them be glad, First. That the kingdom is the Lord's, 
Ps. xxii. 28. That he, as an absolute sovereign, shall govern the nations upon 
earth. That by the kingdom of his providence he shall overrule the affairs of 
kingdoms according to the counsel of his will, though they neither know him 
nor own him ; and that in due time he shall disciple all nations by the preaching 
of his Gospel, Mat. xxviii. 18, and set up the kingdom of his grace among them 
upon the ruin of the devil's kingdom. That he shall make them a willing 

Eeople in the day of his power, and even the kingdoms of this world shall 
ecome the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. Secondly. That " every 
man's judgment proceedeth from the Lord." Let them be glad that 4< thou shalfe 
judge the people righteously," that is, that thou shalt give a law and gospel 
which shall be a righteous rule of judgment, and pass an unerring sentence 
according to/that rule upon all the children of men, against which there will 
lie no exception. _ Let us all be glad that we are not to be one another's judges, 
but that he that judgeth us is the Lord, whose judgment we are sure is accord- 
ing to truth. 

Thirdly. He concludes with a joyful prospect of all good, when God shall do 
thxs, when the nations shall be converted, and brought to praise God. 

1. The lower world shall smile upon them, and they shall have the fruits of 
that; ver. 6, " Then shall the earth yield her increase." Not but that God gave 



314 



PSALM LXVIIX. 



rain from heaven and fruitful seasons to the nations when they sat in darkness, 
Actsxiv. 17; but when they were converted the earth yielded its increase to 
God; the meat and the drink then became a meat offering and a drink offering 
to the Lord our God, Joel ii. 13, and then it was fruitful to some good purpose. 
Then it yielded its increase more than before to the comfort of men, who 
through Christ acquired a covenant title to the fruits of it, and had a sanctified 
use of it. Note, The success of the Gospel brings outward mercies along with 
it sometimes; righteousness exalts a nation : see Isa. iv. 2 ; lxii. 9. 

2. The upper world shall smile upon them, and they shall have the favours of 
that, which is much better. " God, even our own God, shall bless us," ver. 6 ; and 
again, ver. 7, " God shall bless us." Note, 1st. There are a people in the world 
that can upon good ground call God their God. 2nd. Believers have reason to 
glory in their relation to God, and the interest they have in him. Tt is here spoken 
with an air of triumph, " God, even our own God." 3rd. Those who through 
grace call God their own may with an humble confidence expect a blessing 
from him. If he be our God, he shall bless us with special blessings. 4th. The 
blessing of God, as ours in covenant, is that which sweetens all our creature 
comforts to us, and makes them comforts indeed; then we receive the increase 
of the earth as a mercy indeed, when with it God, even our own God, gives us 
his blessing. 

3. All the world shall hereby be brought to do like them. " The ends of the 
earth shall fear him," that is, worship him, which is to be done with a godly 
fear. The blessings God bestows upon us call upon us not only to love him, 
but to fear him, to keep up high thoughts of him, and to be afraid of offending 
him. When the Gospel begins to spread it shall get ground more and more till 
it reach to the ends of the earth. The leaven hid in the meal shall diffuse itself 
till the whole be leavened ; and the many blessings which they will own them- 
selves to have received that are brought into the church invite others to join 
themselves to them. It is good to cast in our lot with those that are the blessed 
of the Lord. 



This is a most excellent psalm, bur in many places the genuine sense is not easy to come 
at ; for in this, as in some other Scriptures, th.-re are things dark and hard to be under- 
stood. It doth not appear when or upon what occasion David penned this psalm; but 
probably it was when. God having given him rest from all his enemies round about, he 
Drought the ark (which was both the token of God's presence and a type of Christ's 
mediation) from the house of Obed-edom. to the tent he had pitched for it in Zion ; for 
the first words are the prayer which Moses used at the removing of the ark, Num. x. 35. 
From this he is led by the spirit of prophecy to speak glorious things concerning the 
Messiah, his ascension into heaven, and the setting up of his kingdom in the world. 
I. He begins with prayer, both against God's enemies, ver. 1, 2; and for his people, 
ver. 3. II. He proceeds to praise, which takes up the rest of the psalm, calling 
upon all to praise God, ver. 4, 26, 32, and suggesting many things as matter of praise : 
1. The greatness and goodness of God, ver. 4 — 6 ; 2. The wonderful works God had 
wrought for his people formerly, bringing them through the wilderness, ver. 7, 8, 
settling them in Canaan, ver. 9, 10, giving them victory over their enemies, ver. 11, 12, 
and delivering them out of the hands of their oppressors, ver. 13, 14; 3. The special 
presence of God in his church, ver. 5 — 17; 4. The ascension of Christ, ver. IS, and 
the salvation of his people by him, ver. 19, 20 ; 5. The victories which Christ would 
obtain over his enemies, and the favours he would bestow upon his church, ver. 21 — 28 ; 
6. The enlargement of the church by the accession of the Gentiles to it, ver. 29 — 31 ; 
and so lie concludes the psalm with an awful acknowledgment of the glory and grace 
of God, ver. 32 — 35. With all these great things we should endeavour to be duly 
affected in singing this psalm. 



Let them also that hate him flee before him. 

2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away : 
As wax melteth before the fire, 

So let the wicked perish at the presence of God, 

3 But let the righteous be glad; 
Let them rejoice before God : 
Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. 

4 Sing unto God, sing praises to his name : 



PSALM LXVIII. 




To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David. 

i arise, let his enemies be scattered : 



PSALM LXVIII. 



315 



Extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, 

And rejoice before him. 
5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, 

Is God in his holy habitation. 
" 6 God setteth the solitary in families : 

He bringeth out those which are bound with chains: 

But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. 

In these verses. First. David prays to God to appear in his glory, 

1. For the confusion of his enemies, ver. 1, 2. Let God arise as a judge, to 
pass sentence upon them ; as a general, to take the field and do execution upon 
them; and let them be scattered, and flee before him, as unable to keep their 
ground, much less to make head against him. "Let God arise," as the sun when 
he goes forth in his strength, and the children of darkness shall be scattered, 
as the shadows of the evening flee before the rising sun. Let them be driven 
away as smoke by the wind, which ascends as if it would eclipse the sun, but is 
presently dispelled, and there appears no remainder of it; "Let them melt as 
wax before the fire," which is presently dissolved. Thus aoth David comment 
Upon Moses' prayer, and not only repeat it with application to himself and his 
own times, but enlarge upon it, to direct us how to make use of Scripture 
prayers. Nay. it looks farther, to the Redeemer's victories over the enemies of 
nis kingdom, tor he was the angel of the covenant that guided Israel through 
the wilderness. Note, 1st. There are, and have been, and ever will be, such as 
are enemies to God, and hate him ; that join in with the old serpent against the 
kingdom of God among men, and against the seed of the woman. 2nd. They 
are the wicked, and none but they that are enemies to God; the children of the 
wicked one. 3rd. Though we are to pray for our enemies as such, yet we are to 
pray against God's enemies as such, against their enmity to him, and all their 
attempts upon his kingdom. 4th. If God but arise, all his impenitent, impla- 
cable enemies, that will not repent, to give him glory, will certainly and speedily 
be scattered, and driven away, and made to perish at his presence; for none 
ever hardened his heart against God and prospered. The day of judgment will 
be the day of the complete and final perdition of ungodly men, 2 Pet. iii. 7, who 
shall melt like wax before that flaming fire in which the Lord shall then appear, 
2 Thes. i. 8 

2. For the comfort and joy of his own people ; ver. 3, " Let the righteous be 
glad," that are now in sorrow; "let them rejoice before God," in his favourable 
presence. God is the joy of his people, let them rejoice whenever they come 
before God, yea, let them exceedingly rejoice, let them rejoice with gladness. 
Note, Those who rejoice in God have reason to rejoice with exceeding joy; 
and this joy we ought to wish to all the saints, for it belongs to them. " Light 
is sown for the righteous." 

Secondly. He praiseth God for his glorious appearances, and calls upon us to 
praise him, to sing to his name, and extol him. 

1. As a great God, infinitely great : ver. 4, he "rides upon the heavens by his 
name Jah." He is the spring of all the motions of the heavenly bodies, directs 
and manageth them, as he that rides in the chariot sets it agoing ; has a supreme 
command of the influences of heaven. He rides upon the heavens for the help 
of his people, Deu. xxxiii. 26, so swiftly, so strongly, and so much above the 
reach of opposition. These he rules by his name Jah, or Jehovah, a self- 
existent, self-sufficient being, the fountain of all beings, power, motion, and 

Eerfection: this is his name for ever. When we thus extol God we must rejoice 
efore him; holy joy in God will very well consist with that reverence and 
godly fear wherewith we ought to worship him. 

2. As a gracious God, a God of mercy and tender compassion. He is great, 
but he despiseth not any, no not the meanest ; nay, being a God of great power, 
he useth his power for the relief of those that are distressed, ver. 5, 6. The 
fatherless, the widows, the solitary, find him a God all-sufficient to them. 
Observe how much God's goodness is his glory. He " that rides on the heavens by 
his name Jah" one would think should immediately have been adored as King 
of kings, and Lord of lords, and the sovereign director of all the affairs of 
states and nations; he is so, but this he rather glories in, that he is " a Father' 
of the fatherless." " Though God be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly." 
Happy they that have an interest in such a God as this ; he that " rides upon 
the heavens" is a Father worth having: thrice "happy is the people whose 
God is the Lord." 1st. When families are beheaded, God takes care of them, 
and is himself their head, and the widows and fatherless children shall find that 
in him which they have lost in the relation that is removed, and infinitely more 
and better. He is a Father of the fatherless, to pity them, and bless them, and 



316 PSALM LXVIIL 

teach them, to provide for them, and portion them. He will preserve them 
alive, Jer. xlix. 11 ; and with him they shall find mercy, Hos. xiv. 3. They have 
liberty to call him Father, and to plead their relation to him as their guardian, 
Ps. cxlvi. 9; x. 14, 18. He is a judge, or patron, of the widows, to give them 
counsel, and to do them right; to own them and plead their cause, Pr. xxii. 23. 
He has an ear open to all their complaints, and a hand open to all their wants. 
He is so in his holy habitation ; which may be understood either of the habita- 
tion of his glory in heaven, — there he has prepared his throne of judgment, which 
the fatherless and widow have free recourse to, and are taken under the pro- 
tection of, Ps. ix. 4, 7, — or of the habitation of his grace on earth, and so it is a 
direction to the widows and fatherless how to apply themselves to God ; let 
them go to his holy habitation, to his word and ordinances, there they may find 
comfort in him. 2nd. When families are to be built up he is the founder of 
them ; " God setteth the solitary in families," brings them into comfortable 
relations that were lonely, gives them a convenient settlement that were un- 
settled, Ps. cxiii. 9. He makes those dwell at home that were forced to seek 
for relief abroad, (so Dr. Hammond,) putting them that were destitute into a 
way of getting their livelihood, which is a very good way for man's charity, as it 
is of God's bounty. 

3. As a righteous God, 1st. In relieving the oppressed. He"bringeth out 
those that are bound with chains," and sets them at liberty who were unjustly 
imprisoned, and brought into servitude. No chains can detain those whom 
God will make free. 2nd. In reckoning with the oppressors. " The rebellious 
dwell in a dry land," and have no comfort in that which they have got by fraud 
and injury. The best land will be a dry land to those that by their rebellion 
have forfeited the blessing of God, which is the juice and fatness of all our 
enjoyments. Israel was brought out of Egypt into a wilderness, but were 
there better provided for than the Egyptians themselves, whose land, if Nilus 
failed them, as it sometimes did, was a dry land. 

7 0 God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, 
When thou didst march through the wilderness ; Selah : 

8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence 

of God : [God of Israel. 

Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the 

9 Thou, 0 God, didst send a plentiful rain, 

Whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it 
was weary. 

10 Thy congregation hath dwelt therein : 

Thou, 0 God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor, 

1 1 The Lord gave the word . 

Great was the company of those that published it. 

12 Kings of armies did flee apace : 

And she that tarried at home divided the spoil. 

1 3 Though ye have lien among the pots, 

Yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, 
And her feathers with yellow gold. 

14 When the Almighty scattered kings in it, 
It was white as snow in Salmon. 

The psalmist here, having occasion to give God thanks for the great things he 
Had done for him and his people of late, takes occasion from thence to praise 
him for what he had done for their fathers in the days of old. Fresh mercies 
should put us in mind of former mercies, and revive our grateful sense of them. 
Let it never be forgotten, 

First. That God himself was the guide of Israel through the wilderness. 
When he had brought them out of their chains, he did not leave them in the 
dry land, but himself went before them in a march through the wilderness, 
ver. 7. It was not a journey, but a march, for they went as soldiers, as an army 
with banners. The Egyptians promised themselves that the wilderness had 
shut them in, but they were deceived; God's Israel, having him for their leader, 
marched through the wilderness, and were not lost in it. Note, If God bring 



PSALM LXVIII. 317 

his people into a wilderness, he will be sure to go before them in it, and bring 
them out of it. Cant. viii. 5. 

Secondly. That he manifested his glorious presence with them at mount 
Sinai, yer. 8. Never did any people see the glory of God, nor hear his voice, as 
Israel did, Deu. iv. 32, 33. Never had any people such an excellent law given 
them ; so expounded, so enforced. Then the earth shook, and the neighbouring 
countries, it is likely, felt the shock; terrible thunders there were, accompanied, 
no doubt, with thunder showers, in which the heavens seemed to drop ; while 
the Divine doctrine dropped as the rain, Deu. xxxii. 2. Sinai itself, that vast 
mountain, that long ridge of mountains, was moved at the presence of God : see 
Jud. v. 4, 5 ; Deu. xxxiii. 2 ; Hab. iii. 3. This terrible appearance of the Divine 
majesty, as it would possess them with a fear and dread of him, so it would 
encourage their faith in him, and dependence upon him. Whatever mountains 
of difficulty lay in the way of their happy settlement, He that could move Sinai 
itself could remove them, could get over them. 

Thirdly. That he provided very comfortably for them, both in the wilderness 
and in Canaan ; ver. 9, 10, " Thou didst send a plentiful rain, and hast prepared 
of thy goodness for the poor." This may refer, 1. To the victualling of their 
camp with manna in the wilderness, which was rained upon them, as were also 
the quails, Ps. lxxviii. 24, 27 ; and it n*ight be fitly called a rain of liberality, or 
munificence, for it was a memorable instance of tne Divine bounty. This con- 
firmed the camp of Israel, (here called God's inheritance, because he had chosen 
them to be a peculiar treasure to himself,) when it was weary, and ready to 
perish; this confirmed their faith, and was a standing proof of God's power and 
goodness. Even in the wilderness God found a comfortable dwelling for Israel, 
which was his congregation. Or, 2. To the seasonable supplies granted them 
in Canaan, that land flowing with milk and honey, which is said to drink water 
of the rain of heaven, Deu. xi. 11. When sometimes that fruitful land was ready 
to be turned into barrenness for the iniquity of them that dwelt therein, God in 
judgment remembered mercy, and sent them a plentiful rain, which refreshed it 
again, so that the congregation of Israel dwelt therein, and there w r as provision 
enough even to satisfy their poor with bread. This looks farther to the spiritual 
provision made for God's Israel ; the Spirit of grace, and the Gospel of grace are 
the plentiful rain with which God confirms his inheritance, and from which their 
fruit is found, Isa. xlv. 8. Christ himself is this rain; Ps. lxxii. 6, "He shall 
come as showers that water the earth." 

Fourthly. That he often gave them victory oyer their enemies. Armies and 
kings of armies appeared against them, from their first coming into Canaan, and 
all along in the times of the judges, till David's days, but, first or last, they 
gained their point against them, ver. 11, 12, 14. Observe here, 1. That God was 
their commander in chief. " The Lord gave the word," as general of their 
armies ; he raised up judges for them, gave them their commissions and instruc- 
tions, and assured them of success. God spoke in his holiness, and then Gilead 
is mine. 2. That they had prophets as God's messengers to make knowm his 
mind to them. God gave them his word, ('the word of the Lord came' unto 
them,) and then " great was the company of the preachers," prophets and pro- 
phetesses, for the w r ord is feminine. When God has messages to send, he will 

' not want messengers. Or perhaps it may allude to the women's joining in the 
triumph when the victory was obtained, as was usual, Ex. xv. 20, 1 Sam. xviii. 7, 
in wmich they took notice of the word of God, triumphing in that as much as in 
his works. > 3. That their enemies were defeated and put to confusion. " Kings 
of armies did flee, did flee" with the greatest terror and precipitation imagin- 
able ; did not fight and flee, but flee and riee, retired without striking a stroke: 
they fled apace, fled and never rallied again. 4. That they were enriched with 
the plunder of the field : " She that tarried at home divided the spoil." IS'ot 
only the men, the soldiers that abode by the stuff, who were by a statute of dis- 
tribution to share the prey, 1 Sam. xxx. 24, but even the women that tarried at 
home had a share, which intimates the abundance of spoil that should be taken. 
5. That these great things which God did for them were sanctified to them, and 
contributed to their reformation ; ver. 14, " W hen the Almighty scattered kings 
for her," for the church, " she was white as snow in Salmon," purified and refined 
by the mercies of God. When the host went forth against the enemy, they kept 
themselves from every wicked thing, and so the host returned victorious, and 
Israelbythe victory was confirmed in their purity and piety. This account of 
Israel's victories is applicable to the victories obtained by the exalted Redeemer 
for those that are his, over death and hell. By the resurrection of Christ our» 
spiritual enemies were made to flee, their power was broken, and they were for 
ever disabled to hurt any of God's people. This victory was first notified by 

| the women (the she-publishers) to the disciples, Mat. xxviii. 7, and by them it 
was preached to all the world, whilst believers that tarry at home, that did not 
themselves contribute any thing towards it, enjoy the benefit of it, and divide 
the spoil. 

Fifthly. That from a low and despised condition they had been advanced to 
splendour and prosperity. When they were bond-slaves in Egypt, and after- 



318 PS ALM LX VIII. 

wards when they were oppressed, sometimes by one potent neighDour, and some- 
times by another, they did as it were lie among the pots, or rubbish, as despised 
broken vessels, or as vessels in which there was no pleasure ; they were black 
and dirty, and discoloured. But God at length delivered them from the pots, 
Ps. lxxxi. 6, and in David's time they were in a fair way to be one of the most 
prosperous kingdoms in the world ; amiable in the eyes of all about them, " like 
the wings of a dove covered with silver," ver. 13. ' And so,' saith Dr. Hammond, 
* under Christ's kingdom, the heathenish idolaters that were brought to the 
basest and most despicable condition of any creatures, worshipping wood and 
stone, and given up to the vilest lusts, should from that detestable condition be 
advanced to the service of Christ, and the practice of all Christian virtues, the 
greatest inward beauties in the world.' It may be applied also to the deli- 
verance of the church out of a suffering state, and the comforts of particular 
believers after their despondencies. 

15 The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; 
An high hill as the hill of Bashan. 

16 Why leap ye, ye high hills ? 

This is the hill which God* desireth to dwell in; 

Yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever. [of angels : 

17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands 
The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. 

18 Thou hast ascended on high, 
Thou hast led captivity captive : 
Thou hast received gifts for men ; 

Yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might 
dwell among tliem. 

19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benejits, 
Eve?i the God of our salvation. Selah. 

20 He that is our God is the God of salvation; 

And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. 

21 But God shall wound the head of his enemies, 

And the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in 
his trespasses. 

David, having given God praise for what he had done for Israel in general, as 
the God of Israel, ver. 8, here comes to give him praise as Zion's God in a special 
manner; compare Ps. ix. 11, " Sing praises to the Lord which dwelleth in Zion," 
for which reason Zion is called the hill of God. 

First. He compares it with the hill of Bashan, and other high and fruitful 
hills, and prefers it before them, ver. 15, 16. It is true Zion was but little and 
low in comparison with them, and was not covered over with flocks and herds 
as they were; yet upon this account it has the preeminence above them all, that 
it is the hill of God, the hill which he desireth to dwell in, and where he chooseth 
to manifest the tokens of his peculiar presence, Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14. Note, It is 
much more honourable to be holy to God than to be high and great in the w^orld. 
'Why leap ye, ye high hills?'* why do ve insult over poor Zion, and boast of 
your own height ? This is the hill which' God has chosen, and therefore, though 
you exceed it in bulk, and be first-rates, because on this the royal flag is hoisted, 
you must all strike sail to it. Zion was especially honourable because it was a 
type of the gospel church, w^hich is therefore called mount Zion, fleb. xii. 22; 
and this is intimated here when he said, "the Lord will dwell in it for ever," 
which must have its accomplishment in the gospel Zion. There is no kingdom 
in the world comparable to the kingdom of the Redeemer, no city to that which 
is incorporated by the gospel charter, for there God dwells, and will dwell for 
ever. 

Secondly. He compares it with mount Sinai, of which he had spoken, ver. 8, 
and shews that it has the Shechinah, or Divine presence, in it, as really, though 
not as sensibly, as Sinai itself had, ver. 17. Angels are the chariots of God, his 
chariots of war, which he makes use of against his enemies ; his chariots of con- 
veyance, which he sends for his friends, as he did for Elijah, and Lazarus is said 
to be carried by the angels ; and chariots of state, in the midst of which he 



PSALM LXVIII. 319 

Bhews his glory and power. They are vastly numerous ; twenty ihousands, 
even thousands multiplied. There is an innumerable company of angels 
in the heavenly Jerusalem, Heb. xii. 22. The enemies David fought with had 
chariots, 2 Sam. viii. 4; but what were they for number or strength to the 
chariots of God? which while David had on his side he needed not fear those 
that trusted in chariots and horses, Ps. xx. 7. God appeared on mount Sinai 
attended with myriads of angels, by whose disposition the law was given, 
Acts vii. 53 ; " He comes with ten thousands of saints," Deu. xxxiii. 2. And still 
in Zion God manifests his glory, and is really present with a numerous retinue 
of his heavenly hosts, signified by the cherubims between which God is said to 
dw T ell. So that, as some read the last words of the verse, 4 Sinai is in the sanc- 
tuary ;' that is, the sanctuary was to Israel instead of mount Sinai, whence they 
received Divine oracles. Our Lord Jesus has these chariots at command. 
When the First-begotten was brought into the world, it was with this charge, 
"Let all the angels of God worship him," Heb. i. 6; they attended him upon 
all occasions, and he is now among them, " angels, principalities, and powers 
being made subject to him," 1 Pet. iii. 22. And it is intimated in the New Tes- 
tament, that the angels are present in the solemn religious assemblies of 
Christians; I Cor. xi. 10, "Let the woman have a veil on her head, because of 
the angels ;" and see Eph. iii. 10. > 

Thirdly. The glory of mount Zion was the King which God set on that holy 
hill, Ps. li. 6; who came to the daughter of Zion, Mat. xxi. 5. Of his ascension 
the psalmist here speaks, and to it it is expressly applied, Eph. iv. 8, " Thou 
hast ascended on high," ver. ]8; compare Ps. xlvii. 5, 6. Christ's ascending on 
high is here spoken of as a tiling past, so sure was it, and spoken of to his 
honour, so great was it; it may include his whole exalted state, but points 
especially at his ascension into heaven, to the right hand of the Father, which 
was as much our advantage as his advancement. For, I. He then triumphed 
over the gates of hell. He led captivity captive; that is, he led his captives in 
triumph, as great conquerors used to do. making a show of them openly, Col. ii. 15. 
He led those captives who had led us captives, and, if he had not interposed, 
would have held us captives for ever. Nay, he led captivity itself captive, 
having quite broken the power of sin and Satan ; as he was the death of death, so 
he was the captivity of captivity, Bos. xii. 14. This speaks the complete victory 
which Jesus Christ obtained over our spiritual enemies, such as that through him 
we also are more than conquerors, that is, triumphers, Rom. viii. 37. 2. He then 
opened the gates of heaven to all believers ; " Thou hast received gifts for men." 
" He gave gifts to men," so the apostle reads it, Eph. iv. 8 ; for he received that 
he might give ; on his head the anointing of the Spirit was poured, that from 
him it might descend to the skirts of his garments. And he gave what he had 
received; having received power to give eternal life, he doth bestow it upon as 
many as were given him, Jno. xvii. 2. " Thou hast received gifts for men," not 
for angels : fallen angels were not to be made saints, nor standing angels made 
gospel ministers, Heb. ii. 5 ; not for Jews only, but for all men. Whoever will, 
may reap the benefit of these gifts. The apostle tells us what these gifts were, 
Eph. iv. 11 : prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, the institution 
of a gospel ministry, and the qualification of men for it, both which are to be 
valued as the gifts of heaven, and the fruits of Christ's ascension. ' Thou hast 
received gifts in man,' so the margin ; that is, in the human nature which Christ 
was pleased to clothe himself with, "that he might be a merciful and faithful 
high priest in things pertaining to God." In him, as Mediator, all fulness dwells, 
that from his fulness w r e might receive. To magnify the kindness and love of 
Christ to us in receiving these gifts for us, the psalmist observes, 1st. The for- 
feiture we had made of them. He received them for the rebellious also: that is, 
for those that had been rebellious : so ail the children of men had been in their 
fallen state. Perhaps it is especially meant of the Gentiles, that had been 
enemies in their minds by wicked works, Col. i. 21 ; for them these gifts are 
received, to them they are given, that they might lay down their arms, their 
enmity might be slain, and they might return to their allegiance. This magnifies 
the grace of Christ exceedingly, that through him rebels are, upon their sub- 
mission, not only pardoned, but preferred. They have commissions given them 
Under Christ, which some say in our law amounts to the reversion of an attainder. 
Christ came to a rebellious world, not to condemn it, but that through him it 
might be saved. 2nd. The favour designed us in them. " He received gifts for 
the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them;" that he might set 
up a church in a rebellious world, in which he would dwell by his word and 
ordinances as of old in the sanctuary, that he might set up his throne, and Christ 
might dwell in the hearts of particular persons that had been rebellious. The 
gracious intention of Christ's undertaking was to rear up the tabernacle of 
God among men, that he might dwell with them, and they might themselves 
be living temples to his praise, Eze. xxxvii. 27. 

Fourthly. The glory of Zion's King is, that he is a Saviour and benefactor to 
all his willing people, and a consuming fire to all those that persist in rebellion 
against him, ver. 19 — 21. We have here good and evil, life and death, the blessing 



320 PSALM LXVIII. 

and the curse set before us, like that Mar. xvi. 16, *'He that believes shall be 
saved; he that believes not shall be damned." 

1. They that take God for their God, and so give up themselves to him to be 
his people, shall be loaded with his benefits ; and to them he will be the God 
of salvation. He that is our God, if in sincerity we avouch him to be so, and 
seek to him as our God, 1st. He will continually do us good, and furnish us 
with occasion for praise. m Having mentioned the gifts Christ received for us, 
ver. 18, fitly doth he subjoin in the next words, "Blessed be the Lord," for it is 
owing to the mediation of Christ that we live, and live comfortably, and are 
" daily loaded with benefits." So many, so weighty, are the gifts of God's 
bounty to us, that he maybe truly said to load us with them; he pours out 
blessings till there be no room to receive them, Mai. iii. 10. So constant are 
they, and so unwearied is he in doing us good, that he daily loads us with them, 
according as the necessity^ of every day requires. 2nd. He will at length be 
unto us the God of salvation, of everlasting salvation, the salvation of God, 
which he will shew to them that order their conversation aright, Ps, 1. 23, the 
salvation of the soul. He that daily loadsus with benefits will not put us off 
with present things for a portion, but he will be the God of our salvation; and 
what he gives us now he gives as the God of salvation, pursuant to the great 
design of our salvation. He is our God, and therefore he will be the God of 
eternal salvation to us; for that only will answer the vast extent of his cove- 
nant-relation to us as our God. But hath he power to complete this salvation? 
Yes, certainly ; "for unto God the Lord belong the issues from death," that is, 
the keys of hell and death are put into the hand of the Lord Jesus, Rev. i. 18'. 
He having made an escape from death himself in his resurrection, he has both 
authority and power to rescue those that are his from the dominion of death, 
by altering the property of it to them when they die, and giving them a eom- 

Elete victory over it when they shall rise again ; for "the last enemy that shall 
e destroyed is death." And to those that shall thus for ever escape death, and 
shall find such an outlet from it as not to be hurt of the second death, to them 
surely deliverances from temporal death are mercies indeed, and come from 
God as the God of their salvation : see 2 Cor. i. 10. 

2. They that persist in their enmity to him, it will certainly be their ruin ; 
ver. 21, " God snail wound the head of his enemies ;" of Satan, the old serpent, 
of whom it was by the first promise foretold, that the seea of the woman 
should break his head, Gen. iii. 16; of all the powers of the nations, whether 
Jews or Gentiles, that oppose him and his kingdom among men, (Ps. ex. 6, 
"He shall wound the heads over many countries ;") of all those, whoever they 
are, that will not have him to reign over them, for those he accounts his 
enemies, and they shall be brought forth and slain before him, Lu. xix. 27. 
He will "wound the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his tres- 
passes." Note, Those who go on still in their trespasses, and hate to be 
reformed, God looks upon as his enemies, and will treat them accordingly. In 
calling the head the hairy scalp, perhaps there is an allusion to Absalom, whose 
bushy hair was his halter; or, it notes either the most fierce and barbarous 
of his enemies, that let their hair grow to make themselves look the more 
frightful, or the most fine and delicate of his enemies, that are nice about 
their hair. Neither the one nor the other can secure themselves from the 
fatal wounds which Divine justice will give to the heads of those that go on 
in their sins. 

22 The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, 

I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea : 

23 That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine 
And the tongue of thy dogs in the same. [enemies, 

24= They have seen thy goings, 0 God ; 

Even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. 

25 The singers went before, the players on instruments fol- 

lowed after ; 

Among them were the damsels playing with timbrels. 

26 Bless ye God in the congregations, 

Even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel. 

27 There is little Benjamin with their ruler, 
The princes of Judah and their council, 

The princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali. 



PSALM LXYIII. 



321 



28 Thy God hath commanded thy strength : 
Strengthen, 0 God, that which thou hast wrought for us. 

29 Because of thy temple at Jerusalem 
Shall kings bring presents unto thee. 

30 Rebuke the company of spearmen. 

The multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, 
Till every one submit himself with pieces of silver : 
Scatter thou the people that delight in war. 
81 Princes shall come out of Egypt ; 

Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. 

In these verses we have three things : 

First. The gracious promise which God makes of the redemption of his 
people, and their victory over his and their enemies; ver. 22, 23, "The Lord 
said," in his own gracious purpose and promise, 1 will do great things for my 
people, as the God of their salvation, ver. 20. God will not fail the expecta- 
tions of those who by faith take him for their God. It is promised, 1. That 
he will set them in safety from their danger, as he had done formerly ; " I will 
again bring them from the depths of the sea," as he did Israel, when he brought 
them out of the slavery of Egypt into the ease and liberty of the wilderness. 
And " I will a^ain bring them from Bashan/' as he did Israel, when he brought 
them from their wants and wanderings in the wilderness into the fulness and 
settlement of the land of Canaan : for the land of Bashan was on the other side 
Jordan, where they had wars with Sihon and Og, and from whence their next 
remove was into Canaan. Note, The former appearances of God's power and 
goodness for his people should encourage their faith and hope in him for the 
future, that what he has done he will do again. He will set his hand again the 
second time to recover the remnant of his people, Isa. xi. 11; and we may 
perhaps see repeated all the wonders which our fathers told us of. But this 
is not all. 2. That he will make them victorious over their enemies ; ver. 23, 
w That thy feet may be dipped," as thou passest along, " in the blood of thine 
enemies," shed like water in great abundance, "and the tongue of thy dogs" 
may lap "in the same." Dogs licked the blood of Ahab; and in the oestruc- 
tion of the antichristian generation we read of blood up to the horse-bridles, 
Rev. xiv. 20. The victories with which God blessed David's forces over the 
enemies of Israel are here prophesied of, but as types of Christ's victories over 
death and the grave, for himself and for all believers in his resurrection (and 
theirs by virtue of his) out of the earth; and of the destruction of the enemies 
of Christ and his church, who shall have blood given them to drink, for they 
are worthy. 

Secondly. The welcome entertainment which God's own people shall give 
to these glorious discoveries of his graee, t both in his word and in his works. 
Has he spoken in his holiness ? Has he said, he will bring again from Bashan ? 
What then is required of us in return to this '? 

1. That we observe his motions ; ver. 24, "They have seen," thy people have 
Been, " thy goings, O God." While others regard not the work of the Lord, 
nor the operation of his hands, " they have seen the goings of my God, my 
King, in the sanctuary." See here, 1st. How an active faith appropriates God. 
He is God and King ; but that is not all, he is my God and my King ; and those 
who thus take him for theirs may see him in all his outgoings, acting as their 
God. as their King, for their good, and in answer to their prayers. 2nd. Where 
God's most remarkable outgoings are, even in the sanctuary, in and by 
his word and ordinances ; and among his people in the gospel church espe- 
cially, in and by which is made known the manifold wisdom of God. These 
outgoings of his in the sanctuary far outshine the outgoings of the morning 
and the evening, and more loudly proclaim his eternal power and godhead. 
3rd. What is our duty in reference to these outgoings, which is to observe 
them. " This is the finger of God ; " surely " God is with us of a truth." 

2. That we give him glory in the most devout and solemn manner. When we 
see his goings in his sanctuary. 1st. Let those that are immediately employed 
in the service of the temple praise him, ver. 25; the Levites, that were some 
of them singers, and others of them players on instruments, that have the 
nearest views of his outgoings in his sanctuary, and from, whom it is expected 
that they should lead in his praises. And, it being a day of extraordinary 
triumph, "among them were damsels playing with timbrels" to complete the 
concert. * Thus, saith Dr. Hammond, ' when Christ is gone up to heaven, the 
apostles shall celebrate and publish it to all the world; and even the women 
that were witnesses of it shall affectionately join with them in divulging it.* 



322 PSALM LXVIII. 

And, 2nd. Let all the people of Israel, in their solemn religious assembly 
give glory to God. Bless ye God," not only in temples, but in the synagogues' 
or schools of the prophets; or, wherever there is a congregation of those that 
come forth from the fountain of Israel, that are of the seed of Jacob, let them 
concur in blessing God. Public mercies, which we jointly share in, call for 
public thanksgivings, which all should join in. * Thus,' saith Dr. Hammond 
all Christians shall be obliged solemnly to magnify the name of the Messiah' 
and to that end frequently to assemble together in congregations.' And* 
3rd. Let those among them that upon any account are most eminent and 
make a figure, go before the rest in praising God; ver. 27, "There was 'little 
Benjamin/' (that was the royal tribe in Saul's time,) "with their rulers the 
princes of Judah " (that was the royal tribe in David"s time,) "and their coun- 
cil,"— their captains or leaders. In the beginning of David's reign there had 
been long war between Judah and Benjamin, but now they both join in praises 
for success against the common enemy. But why are the tribes of Zebulun 
and Naphtali particularly mentioned? Perhaps because those tribes lyin» 
towards the north, lay most exposed to the incursions of the Syrians "and 
other their neighbours that molested them, and therefore should be in a par- 
ticular manner thankful for these victories over them. Dr. Hammond °ives 
another reason, — that these were the two learned tribes; "Naphtali grveth 
goodly words," Gen. xliv. 21, and Zebulun had those that handle the pen of the 
writer, Jud. v. 14. These shall join in praising God; their princes especially 
It is much for the honour of God when those that are above others in dignity' 
power, and reputation, go before them in the worship of God ; and are forward 
to use their influence and interest for the advancing of any service that is to be 
done to him. Dr. Hammond notes from hence, that the kingdom of the Messiah 
should at length be submitted to by all the potentates and learned men in the 
world. 

3. That we seek unto him, and depend upon him, for the perfecting of what 
he has begun, ver. 28. In the former part of the verses the psalmist speaks to 
Israel; "Thy God hath commanded thy strength," that is, whatever is done 
for thee, or whatever strength thou hast to help thyself, it comes from God, 
his power and grace, and the word which he has commanded. Thou hast no 
reason to fear while thou hast strength of God's commanding, and no reason 
to boast while thou hast no strength but what is of his commanding. In the 
latter part he speaks to God, encouraged by his experiences ; " Strengthen, 
O God, that which thou hast wrought for us." Lord, confirm what thou hast 
commanded, and perform what thou hast promised, and bring to a happy end 
that good work which thou hast so gloriously begun. What God has wrought 
he will strengthen; where he has given true grace he will give more grace. 
Some make this whole verse to be a believer's address to the Messiah, whom 
David calls God, as he had done, Ps. xlv. 6, 8, "Thy God," that is, God the 
Father, has commanded thy strength, that is, has made thee strong for himself, 
as the man of his right hand, Ps. lxxx. 17; has treasured up strength in thee 
for us ; therefore we pray, that thou, O God the Son, wilt strengthen what thou 
hast wrought for us, that is, wilt accomplish thine undertaking for us, by 
finishing thy good work in us. 

Thirdly. The powerful invitation and inducement which would hereby be 
given to those that are without to come in and join themselves to the church, 
ver. 29 — 31. This was in part fulfilled by the accession of many proselytes to 
the Jewish religion in the days of David and Solomon ; but it was to have its 
full accomplishment in the conversion of the Gentile nations to the faith 
of Christ, and the making them fellow-heirs, and of the same body with the 
seed of Israel, Eph. hi. 6. 

1. Some shall submit for fear; ver. 30, "the company of spearmen," that 
stand it out against Christ and his Gospel, that are not willing to be ruled 
by him, that persecute the preachers and professors of his name, that are 
furious and outrageous as a multitude of bulls, fat and wanton as the calves 
of the people, (which is a description of those Jews and Gentiles that opposed 
the Gospel of Christ, and did what they could to prevent the setting up of his 
kingdom in the world,) Lord, rebuke them, abate their pride ? assuage their 
malice, and confound their devices, till conquered by the convictions of their 
consciences, and the many checks of providence, they be every one of them 
brought at length to submit themselves with pieces of silver, as being glad 
to make their peace with the church upon any terms. Even Judas submitted 
himself with pieces of silver, when he returned them with this confession, 
"I have betrayed innocent blood:" and see Rev. iii. 9. Many by being rebuked 
havB been happily saved from being ruined. But as for those that will not 
submit, notwithstanding these rebukes, he prays for their dispersion, which 
amounts to a prophecy of it ; " Scatter thou the people that delight in war," 
who take such a pleasure in opposing Christ, that they w r ill never be recon- 
ciled to him. This may refer to the unbelieving Jews, who delighted in making 
war upon the holy seea, and would not submit themselves and were therefore 



tSALM LXVIII. 323 

scattered over the face of the earth. David had himself been a man of war, 
but could appeal to God that he never delighted in war and bloodshed for its 
own sake ; as for those that did, and therefore would not submit to the fairest 
terms of peace, he doth not doubt but God would scatter them. Those are lost 
to all the sacred principles of humanity, as well as Christianity, that can delight 
in war. and take pleasure in contention ; but let them expect that sooner or 
later they shall have enough of it, Isa. xxxiii. 1 ; Rev. xiii. 10. 

2. Others shall submit willingly ; ver. 29, 31, " Because of thy temple at Jeru- 
salem," (this David speaks of in faith, for the temple of Jerusalem was not built 
in his time, only the materials and model were prepared,) "kings shall bring 
presents unto thee," that is, rich presents shall be brought, such as are fit for 
kings to bring ; and. even kings themselves, that stand much upon the punctilios 
of honour and prerogative, yet shall court the favour of Christ at a great 
expence. There is thatin God's temple, that beauty and benefit in the service 
of God, and in communion with him, and in the Gospel of Christ, which went 
forth from Jerusalem, that is enough to invite kings themselves to bring 
presents to God, to present themselves to him as living sacrifices, and with 
themselves the best performances. He instanceth in Egypt and Etniopia, two 
countries out of which subjects and supplicants were least to be expected ; 
ver. 31, princes shall come out of Egypt, as ambassadors to seek God's favour, 
and submit to him ; and they shall be accepted, for the Lord of hosts shall 
thereupon bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people," Isa. xix. 25. 
And even Ethiopia, that had stretched out her hands against God's Israel, 
2 Chr. xiv. 9, should now stretch out her hands unto God, in prayer, in pre- 
sents, and to take hold on him ; and that soon : " Agree with thine adversary 
quickly." Out of all nations some shall be gathered in to Christ, and be 
owned by him. 

32 Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth ; 
0 sing praises unto the Lord ; Selah : 

33 To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which 

were of old ; 

Lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice. 

34 Ascribe ye strength unto God : 
His excellency is over Israel, 
And his strength is in the clouds. 

35 0 God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places : 

The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and po^er 
Blessed be God. [unto his people. 

The psalmist having prayed for, and prophesied of, the conversion of the 
Gentiles, here invites «hem to come in and join with the devout Israelites in 
praising God, intimating that their accession to the church would be the matter 
of their joy and praise, ver. 32. Let the kingdoms of the eartl^ sing praises to 
the Lord; they all ought to do it, and when they become the kingdoms of the 
Lord and of his Christ they will do it. God is here proposed to them as the 
proper object of praise upon several accounts, 

First. Because of his supreme and sovereign dominion. " He rides upon the 
heavens of heavens which were of old," ver. 33 : compare ver. 4. He has from 
the beginning, nay, from before all time, prepared his throne. He sits on the 
circuit of heaven ; guides all the motions of the heavenly bodies, and from the 
highest heavens, which are the residence of his glory, he dispenseth the influ- 
ences of his power and goodness to this lower world. 

Secondly. Because of his awful and terrible majesty. " He sends out his voice, 
and that a mighty voice;" which may refer either generally to the thunder, 
which is called the voice of the Lord, and is said to be powerful and full of 
majesty, Ps. xxix. 3, 4, or in particular to that thunder in which God spake to 
Israel at mount Sinai. 

Thirdly. Because of his mighty power. "Ascribe ye strength unto God.'" 
ver. 34. Acknowledge him to be a God of such irresistible power, that it is folly 
to contend with him, and wisdom to submit to him ; acknowledge that he has 
power sufficient both to protect his faithful subjects and to destroy his stubborn 
adversaries, and give him the glory of all the instances of his omnipotence. 
"Thine is the kingdom and power," and therefore "thine is the glory." We 
must acknowledge his power, 1. In the kingdom of grace. "His excellency 
is over Israel;" he shews his sovereign care in protecting and governing his 
church. That is the excellency of his power which is employed for the good 



324 PSALM LXIX. 

of his people. 2. In the kingdom of providence. li His strength is in the clouds." 
whence comes the thunder of his power, the small rain, and the great rain of 
his strength. Though God has his strength in the clouds, yet he condescends 
to gather his Israel under the shadow of his wings, Deu. xxxiii. 26. 

Fourthly. Because of the glory of his sanctuary, and the wonders wrought 
there ; ver. 35, " O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places." God is to be 
admired and adored with reverence and godly fear by all those that attend him 
in his holy places, that receive his oracles, that observe his operations according 
to them, and that pay their homage to him. He displays that out of his holy 
places which speaks aloud that he will be sanctified in those that come nigh 
unto him. Out of heaven, his holy place above, he doth and will shew himself 
a terrible God. Nor is any attribute of God more dreadful to sinners than his 
holiness. 

Fifthly. Because of the grace bestowed upon his people. " The God of Israel 
is he that giveth strength and power unto his people,," which the gods of the 
nations, that were vanity and a lie, could not give to their worshippers; how 
should they help them when they could not help themselves? All Israel's 
strength against their enemies came from their God ; they owned they had no 
might of their own, 2 Chr. xx. 12 ; and all our sufficiency for our spiritual work 
and warfare is from the grace of God. It is through Christ strengthening us 
that we can do all things, and, not otherwise; and therefore he must have the 
glory of all we do, Ps. cxv. 1, and our humble thanks for enabling us to do it, 
and accepting the work of his own hands in us. If it be the God of Israel that 
gives strength and power unto his people, they ought to say, "Blessed be God." 
If all be from him, let all be to him. 



PSALM LXIX. 

David penned this psalm when he was in affliction ; and in it, I. He complains of the 
great distress and trouble he was in, and earnestly begs of God to relieve and succour 
him, ver. 1 — 21. II. He imprecates the judgments of God upon his persecutors, 
ver. 22 — 29. III. He concludes with the voice of joy and praise, in an assurance that 
God would help and succour him, and would do well for the church, ver. 30 — 36. Now 
in this David was a type of Christ, and divers passages in this psalm are applied to 
Christ in the New Testament, and are said to have their accomplishment in him, 
ver. 4, 9, 21, and ver. 22, refers to the^enemies of Christ; so that, like the 22nd psalm, 
it begins with the humiliation, and enas with the exaltation of Christ; one branch of 
which was the destruction of the Jewish nation for persecuting him, which the impre- 
cations here are predictions of. And in singing this psalm, we must have an eye to 
the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that followed ; not forgetting the sufferings of 
Christians too, and the glory that shall follow them, for it may lead us to think of the 
ruin reserved for the persecutors, and the rest reserved for the persecuted. 

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. 

SAVE me, 0 God ; 
For the waters are come in unto my soul. 

2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing : 

I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow 

3 I am weary of my crying : my throat is dried : [me. 
Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. 

4 They that hate me without a cause 
Are more than the hairs of mine head : 

They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrong- 
fully, are mighty : 
Then I restored that which I took not away. 

5 0 God, thou knowest my foolishness ; 
And my sins are not hid from thee. 

6 Let not them that wait on thee, 0 Lord God of hosts, 
Be ashamed for my sake : 

Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, 
0 God of Israel. 



PSALM LXIX. 325 

7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach ; 
Shame hath covered my face. 

8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, 
And an alien unto my mother's children. 

9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up ; 

And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are 
fallen upon me. 
10 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, 

That was to my reproach. 
Ill made sackcloth also my garment ; 

And I became a proverb to them. 
12 They that sit in the gate speak against me; 

And I was the song of the drunkards. 

In these verses David complains of his troubles, intermixing with those com- 
plaints some requests for relief. 

First. His complaints are very sad; and he pours them out before the Lord 
as one that hoped thus to ease himself of a burthen that lay very heavy upon 
him. 

1. He complains of the deep impressions that his troubles made upon his 
spirit, ver. 1, 2. The waters of affliction, those bitter waters, are come unto 
rav soul ; not only threaten my life, but disquiet my mind. They fill my head 
with perplexing cares, and my heart with oppressive grief, so that I cannot 
enjoy God and myself as I used to do. We shall do pretty well if we can but 
keep troubles from our hearts; but when they put us out of the possession 
oir our own souls, our case is bad. " The spirit of a man will sustain his 
infirmity ;" but what shall we do when the spirit is wounded? That was David's 
case here; his thoughts sought for something to confide in, and with which 
to support his hope; but he found nothing. He sunk in deep mire, where there 
was no standing, no firm footing ; the considerations that used to support and 
encourage him now failed him, or were out of the way, and he was ready to give 
up himself for gone. He sought for something to comfort himself with, but 
found himself in deep waters that did overflow him, overwhelm him. He was 
like a sinking, drowning man, in such confusion and consternation. This points 
at Christ's sufferings in his soul, and the inward agony he was in when he said, 
"Now is my soul troubled;" and, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful;" for 
it was his soul that he made an offering for sin. And it instructs us, when we 
&re in affliction, to commit the keeping of our souls to God, that they may be 
neither soured with discontent nor sunk into despair. 

2. He complains of the long continuance of his troubles ; ver. 3, " I am weary 
of my crying." Though he could not keep his head above water, yet he cried 
to his God; and the more death was in his view the more life was in his 
prayers: yet he had not presently an answer of peace given in, no, nor so much 
of that support and comfort in praying which God's people used to have; so 
that he was almost weary of crying, grew hoarse, and his throat so dried that 
he could cry no more. Nor had he his wonted satisfaction in believing, hoping, 
and expecting relief; "Mine eyes fail, while 1 wait for my God." He had 
almost looked his eyes out in expectation of deliverance; and yet his pleading 
this with God is an indication that he is resolved not to give off from believing 
and praying. His throat is dried, but his heart is not; his eyes fail, but his 
faith doth not. Thus our Lord Jesus on the cross cried out, "Why hast thou 
forsaken me ? " and yet at the same time kept hold of his relation to him, " My 
God, my God."^ 

3. He complains of the malice and multitude of his enemies, their injustice 
and cruelty, and the hardships they put upon him, ver. 4. They hated him, 
they would destroy him; for hatred aims at the destruction of the person hated. 
But what was his iniquity? what was his sin? what provocation had he given 
them, that they were so spiteful towards him ? None at all ; " They hate me 
without cause;" I never did them an ill turn, that they should bear me such 
an ill-will. Our Saviour applies this to himself, Jno. xv. 25, " They hated me 
without a cause." We are apt to use this in justification of our passion against 
those that hate us, that we never g^ave them cause to hate us. But it is rather 
an argument why we should bear it patiently, because then we suffer as Christ 
did, and may then expect that God will right us. " They are mine enemies 
wrongfully ; " for 1 have been no enemy to them. In a world where unrighte- 



326 PSALM LXIX. 

ousness reigns so much, we must not wonder if we meet with those that are out 
enemies wrongfully. Let us take care that we never do wrong, and then we 
may the better bear it if we receive wrong. These enemies were not to be 
despised, but were very formidable, both for their number, " They are more 
than the hairs of mine head," (Christ's enemies were numerous; they that came 
to seize him were a great multitude : how were they increased that troubled 
him?) and for their strength, They are mighty, in authority and power. We 
are weak, but our enemies are strong; for "we wrestle against principalities 
and powers." " Then I restored that which I took not away." Applying this 
to David, 1st. It was what his enemies compelled him to. They made him 
suffer for that offence which he had never been guilty of. 2nd. It was what he 
consented to, that if possible he might pacify them, and make them to be at 
peace with him. He might have insisted upon the laws of justice and honour, 
the former not requiring, and the latter commonly thought to forbid, the restor- 
ing of that which we took not aw r ay ; for that is to wrong ourselves both in our 
wealth and in our reputation. Yet the case may be such sometimes as that 
it may become our duty. Blessed Paul, though free from all men, yet, for the 
honour of Christ and the edification of the church, made himself a servant to 
all. But, applying it to Christ, it is an observable description of the satisfaction 
which he made to God for our sin by his blood ; " Then he restored that which 
he took not away ; " that is, he underwent the punishment that was due to us, 
paid our debt, suffered for our offences. God s glory, in some instances of it, 
was taken away by the sin of men ; man's honour, and peace, and happiness, 
were taken away. It was not He that took them aw r ay ; and yet, by the merit 
of his death, he restored them. 

4. He complains of the unkindness of his friends and relations; and this is 
a grievance which, with an ingenuous mind, cuts as deep as any other ; ver. 8, 
" 1 am become a stranger to my brethren," tney make themselves strange to me, 
and use me as a stranger j are shy of conversing with me, and ashamed to own 
me. This was fulfilled in Christ, whose brethren did not believe on him, 
Jno. vii. 5; who came to his own, and his own received him not, Jno. i. 11, and 
who was forsaken by his disciples, whom he had been free with as his brethren. 

5. He complains of the contempt that was put upon him, and the reproach 
with which he was continually loaded. And in this, especially, his complaint 
points at Christ, who for our sakes submitted to the greatest disgrace, and 
made himself of no reputation ; we having, by sin, injured God in his honour, 
Christ made him satisfaction, not only by divesting himself of the honours due 
to an incarnate Deity, but by submitting to the greatest dishonours that could 
be done to any man. Two things David here takes notice of as aggravations 
of the indignities done him: 1st. The ground and matter of the reproach, 
ver. 10, 11. They ridiculed him for that by which he both humbled himself and 
honoured God. When men lift up themselves in pride and vainglory, they are 
justly laughed at for it. But David chastened his soul, and clothed himself 
with sackcloth; and from his abasing himself they took occasion to trample 
upon him. When men dishonour God, it is just that it turn to their dishonour ; 
but when David, purely in devotion to God, and to testify his respect to him, 
wept and chastened his soul with fasting, and made sackcloth his garment, as 
humble penitents used to do, instead of commending his devotion, and recom- 
mending it as a great example of piety, they did all they could both to dis- 
courage him in it and to prevent others from following his good example, for 
that was to his reproach. They laughed at him as a fool for mortifying himself 
thus, and even for this he became a proverb to them ; they made him the com- 
mon subject of their banter. We must not think it strange if we be ill-spoken 
of for that which is well done, and in which we have reason to hope that we 
are accepted of God. Our Lord Jesus was stoned for his good works, Jno. x. 32: 
and when he cried, " Eli, Eli, my God, my God ! " was bantered as if he called 
for Elias. 2nd. The persons that reproached him, ver. 12. First. Even the 
gravest, and the most honourable, from whom better was expected; "They that 
sit in the gate speak against me," and their reproaches pass for the dictates of 
senators, and the decrees of judges, and are credited accordingly. Secondly. 
The meanest, and the most despicable; the abjects, Ps. xxxv. 15; the scum 
of the country, the children of fools, yea, the children of base men, Job xxx. 8. 
Such drunkards as they make themselves vile; and he was the song of the 
drunkards, they made themselves and their companions merry with him. See 
the ill consequence of the sin of drunkenness, — it makes men despisers of those 
that are good, 2 Tim. hi. 3. When the king was made sick with bottles of wine, 
he stretched out his hand with scorners, Hos. vii. 5. The bench of the drunkards 
is the seat of the scornful. See what is commonly the lot of the best of men , 
they that are the praise of the wise are the song of fools. But it is easy to 
those that rightly judge of things to despise being thus despised. 

Secondly. His confessions of sin are very serious; ver, 5, "O God, thou 
knowest my foolishness," both what is, and what is not; "my sins" that I am 
guilty of "are not hid from thee," and therefore thou knowest how innocent 



PSALM LXIX. 327 

I am of those crimes which they charge upon me. Note, Even then when as 
to men's unjust accusations we plead ' Not guilty,' yet before God we must 
acknowledge ourselves to have deserved all that is brought upon us, and 
much worse. This is the genuine confession of a penitent, who knows that 
he cannot prosper in covering his sin, and that therefore it is his wisdom to 
acknowledge it, because it is naked and open before God. 1. He knows the 
corruption of our nature. Thou knowest the foolishness that is bound up in 
my heart. All our sins take^ rise from our foolishness. 2. He knows the 
transgressions of our lives. They are not hid from him, no, not our heart 
sins, no, not those that are committed most secretly. They are all done in 
his sight, and are never cast behind his back till they are repented of and 
pardoned. This is apt to be applied to Christ, for he knew no sin, yet he was 
made sin for us ; and God knew it, nor was it hid from him, when "it pleased 
the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief." 

Thirdly. His supplications are very earnest. For himself ; ver. 1, " Save me, 
O God," save me from sinking, from despairing. Thus Christ was heard in that 
he feared, for he was saved from letting fall his undertaking, Heb. v. 7. For his 
friends ; ver. 6, " Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, and that 
seek thee, O God of Israel," (under these two characters we ought to seek 
God, and in seeking him to wait on him as the God of hosts who has all power 
to help, and as the God of Israel in covenant with his people, whom therefore 
he is engaged in honour and truth to help,) let not them be ashamed and con- 
founded for my sake. This intimates his fear that, if God did not appear for 
him, it would be a discouragement to all other good people, and would give 
their enemies occasion to triumph over them; and his earnest desire that, what- 
ever became of him, all that seek God, and wait upon him, might be kept in 
heart, and kept in countenance, and might neither be discouraged in themselves 
nor exposed to contempt from others. If Jesus Christ had not been owned 
and accepted of his Father in his sufferings, all that seek God and wait for 
him had been ashamed and confounded ; but they have confidence towards God, 
and in his name come boldly to the throne of grace. 

Fourthly. His plea is very powerful, ver. 7, 9. Reproach was one of the 
greatest of his burthens. Lord, roll away the reproach, and plead my cause ; 
for, 1. It is for thee that I am reproached, for serving thee and trusting in thee ; 
" For thy sake I have borne reproach." Those that are evil spoken of for well- 
doing may with an humble confidence leave it to God to bring forth their right- 
eousness as the light. 2. It is with thee that I am reproached ; " The zeal of 
thine house hath eaten me up ;" that is, has made me forget myself, and do that 
which they wickedly turn to my reproach. They that hate thee and thy house 
for that reason hate me, because they know how zealously affected I am to it. 
that is it that has made them ready to eat me up, and has eaten up all the love 
and respect I had among them. They that blasphemed God, and spoke ill of 
his word and ways, did therefore reproach David for believing in his word and 
walking in his ways. Or it may be construed as an instance of David's zeal for 
God's house, that he resented all the indignities done to God's name, as if they 
had been done to his name. He laid to heart all the dishonour done to God, and 
the contempt cast upon religion. These he laid nearer to his heart than any out- 
ward troubles of his own ; and therefore he had reason to hope God would 
interest himself in the reproaches cast upon him, because he had always inter- 
ested himself in the reproaches cast upon God. Both the parts of this verse are 
applied to Christ; 1st. It was an instance of his love to his Father, that the 
zeal of his house did even eat him up, when he whipped the buyers and sellers 
out of the temple, which minded his disciples of this text, Jno. ii. 17. 2nd. It 
was an instance of his self-denial, and that he pleased not himself that the 
reproaches of them that reproached God fell upon him, Rom. xv. 3; and therein 
he set us an example. 

13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, 0 Lord, i?i an 

acceptable time : 
0 God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the 
truth of thy salvation. 

14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink : 

Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of 

15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, [the deep waters. 
Neither let the deep swallow me up, 

And let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. 

16 Hear me, 0 Lord ; for thy lovingkinclness is good : 



328 



PSALM LXIX. 



Turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender 

17 And hide not thy face from thy servant; [mercies. 
For I am in trouble : hear me speedily 

18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: 

Deliver me because of mine enemies. [dishonour : 

1 9 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my 
Mine adversaries are all before thee. 

20 Eeproach hath broken my heart ; 
And I am full of heaviness : 

And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; 
And for comforters, but I found none. 

21 They gave me also gall for my meat ; 

And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. 

David had been speaking before of the spiteful reproaches which his enemies 
cast upon him ; " But as for me, my prayer is unto thee." They spoke ill of him 
for his fasting and praying, and for that he was made the song of the drunkards ; 
but, notwithstanding that, he resolves to continue praying. Note, Though we 
may be jeered for well-doing, we must never be jeered out of it. Those can 
bear but little for God, and their confessing of his name before men, that cannot 
bear a scoff and a hard word rather than quit their duty. David's enemies were 
very abusive to him ; but this was his comfort, that he had a God to go to, with 
whom he would lodge his cause. They think to carry their cause by insolence 
and calumny, but I use other methods ; whatever they do, " as for me, my prayer 
is unto thee, O Lord," and it is "in an acceptable time." Not the less acceptable 
for being a time of affliction, — God will not drive us from him, though it is need 
that drives us to him; nay, it is the more acceptable, because the misery and 
distress of God's people makes them so much the more the objects of his pity. 
It is seasonable for him to help them when all other helps fail ; and they are 
undone, and see themselves so, if he do not help them. We find this expression 
used concerning Christ, Isa. xlix. 8, " In an acceptable time have 1 heard thee/* 
Now observe, 

First. AVhat his requests are. 1. That he might have a gracious audience 
given to his complaints, the cry of his affliction, and the desire of his heart. 
** Hear me," ver. 13 ; and again, " Hear me, () Lord," ver. 16 : " hear me speedily," 
ver. 17 ; not only hear what I say, but grant what I ask. Christ knew that the 
Father heard him always, Jno. xi. 42. 2. That he might be rescued out of 
his troubles, might be saved from sinking under the load of grief ; " Deliver me 
out of the mire :" let me not stick in it, so some ; but help me out, and set my 
feet on a rock, Ps. xl. 2 ; — might be saved from his enemies, that they might not 
swallow him up, nor have their will against him ; " Let me be delivered from 
them that hate me," as a lamb from the paw of the lion, ver. 14. Though I am 
come into deep waters, ver. 2, where I am ready to conclude that the floods will 
overflow me, yet let my fears be prevented, and silenced; "let not the water- 
flood," though it flow upon me, "overflow me," ver. 15. Let me not fall into 
the gulf of despair, let not that deep swallow me up, let not that pit shut her 
mouthupon me, for then I am undone. He gave himself up for lost in the 
beginning of the psalm, yet now he has his head above water, and is not so weary 
of crying as he thought himself. 3. That God would turn to him, ver. 16; that 
he would smile upon him, and not hide his face from him,ver 17. The tokens of 
God's favour to us, and the light of his countenance shining upon us, is enough 
to keep our spirits from sinking in the deepest mire of outward troubles, nor 
need we desire any more to make us safe and easy ; ver. 18, "Draw nigh to my 
soul," to manifest thyself to it, and that shall redeem it. 

Secondly. What his pleas are to enforce these petitions. 

1. He pleads God's mercy and truth; ver. 13, In the multitude of thy mercy 
hear me." There is mercy'in God, a multitude of mercies, all kinds ot mercy, 
inexhaustible mercy, mercy enough for all, enough for each ; and hence we 
must take our encouragement in praying. And the truth of his salvation ; that 
is, the truth of all those promises of salvation which he has made to those that 
trust in him, is a farther encouragement. He repeats his argument taken from 
the mercy of God ; ver. 16, " Hear me, for thy lovingkindness is good ;" it is so in 
itself, it is rich, and plentiful, and abundant; it is so in the account of all the 
saints* it is very precious to them, it is their life, their joy, their all. O let 



PSALM LXIX. 329 

me have the benefit of it ! " Turn to me according to the multitude of thy tender 
mercies," ver. 16. See how highly he speaks of the goodness of God; in him 
there are mercies, tender mercies, and a multitude of them. If we think well 
of God, and continue to do so under the greatest hardships, we need not fear 
but God will do well for us ; for he taketh pleasure in those that hope in his 
mercy, Ps. cxlvii. 11. 

2. He pleads his own distress and affliction. " Hide not thy face from me, for 
I am in trouble," ver. 17, and therefore need thy favour; therefore it will come 
seasonably, and. therefore I shall know how to value it. He pleads particularly 
the reproach he was under, and the indignities that were done him; ver. 19, 
"Thou hast known my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour." See what a 
stress is laid upon this ; for, in the sufferings of Christ for us, perhaps nothing 
contributed more to the satisfaction he made for sin, which had been so injurious 
to God in his honour, than the reproach, and shame, and dishonour he under- 
went, which God took notice of, and accepted of as more than an equivalent for 
the everlasting shame and contempt which our sins had deserved, who therefore 
must by repentance take shame to ourselves, and bear the reproach of our youth. 
And if at any time we be called out to suffer reproach, and shame, and dis- 
honour for his sake, this may be our comfort that he knows it ; and, as he is 
beforehand with us, so he will not be behindhand with us. The psalmist speaks 
the language of an ingenuous nature, when he saith, ver. 20, "Reproach hath 
broken my heart ; I am full of heaviness ; " for it bears hard upon one that knows 
the worth of a good name to be put under an ill character : but when we con- 
sider what an honour it is to be dishonoured for God, and a favour if we be 
counted worthy to suffer shame for his name, (as they deemed it, Acts v. 41,) we 
shall see there is no reason at all why it should sit so heavy, or be any heart- 
breaking to us. 

3. He pleads the insolence and cruelty of his enemies; ver. 18, "Deliver me 
because of mine enemies," because they were such as he had before described 
them, ver. 4. "Mine adversaries are all before thee," ver. 19; that is, thou 
knowest what sort of men they are, what danger I am in from them, what 
enemies they are to thee, and how much thou art reflected upon in what they 
do and design against me. One instance of their barbarity is given; ver. 21, 
" They gave me gall for my meat," (the word signifies a bitter herb, and is often 
joined with wormwood,) and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." 
This was literally fulfilled in Christ, and did so directly point to him, that he 
would not say, " It is finished," till this was fulfilled ; and on purpose that his 
enemies might have occasion to fulfil it he said, " 1 thirst," Jno. xix. 28, 29. And 
some think the hyssop which they put to his mouth with the vinegar was the 
bitter herb which they gave him with the vinegar for his meat. See how par- 
ticularly the sufferings of Christ were foretold, which proves the Scripture to 
be the w r ord of God; and how exactly the predictions were fulfilled in Jesus 
Christ, which proves him to be the true Messiah. This is he that should come, 
and we are to look for no other. 

4. He pleads the unkindness of his friends, and his disappointment in them; 
ver. 20, I looked for some to take pity, but there was none." They all failed 
him like the brooks in summer. This was fulfilled in Christ, for in'his suffer- 
ings " all his disciples forsook him and fled." We cannot expect too little from 
men, — miserable comforters are they all, — nor can we expect too much from 
God, for he is " the Father of mercy, and the God of all comfort and consola- 
tion." 

22 Let their table become a snare before them : 

And that which should have been for their welfare, let it 
become a trap. 

23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not ; 
And make their loins continually to shake. 

24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, 

And let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. 

25 Let their habitation be desolate ; 
And let none dwell in their tents. 

26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten ; 

And they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast 

27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity : [wounded. 
And let them not come into thy righteousness. 



330 



PSALM LXIX. 



28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, 
And not be written with the righteous. 

29 But I am poor and sorrowful : 

Let thy salvation, 0 God, set me up on high. 

These imprecations are not David's prayers against his enemies, # but pro- 
phecies of the destruction of Christ's persecutors, especially the Jewish nation, 
which our Lord himself foretold with tears, and which was accomplished about 
forty years after the death of Christ. The first two verses of this paragraph 
are expressly applied to the judgments of God upon the unbelieving Jews by 
the apostle, Rom. xi. 9, 10, and therefore the whole must look that way. The 
rejection of the Jews for rejecting Christ, as it was a signal instance of God's 
justice, and an earnest of the vengeance which God will at last take on all that 
are obstinate in their infidelity, so it was, and continues to be, a convincing proof 
of the truth of the Christian religion. One great objection against it first was, 
that it set aside the ceremonial law; but its doing so was effectually justified, 
and that objection removed, when God set it aside with a witness, by the utter 
destruction of the temple, and the sinking of those with the Mosaic economy 
that obstinately adhered to it in opposition to the Gospel of Christ. Let us 
observe here, 

First. What the judgments are which should come upon the crucifiers of 
Christ. Not upon all of them, for there were those who had a hand in his death, 
and yet repented and found mercy, Acts ii. 23; iii. 14, 15; but upon those of 
them, and their successors, who justified it by an obstinate infidelity, and rejec- 
tion of his Gospel, and by an inveterate enmity to his disciples ana followers: 
see 1 Thes. ii. 15, 16. It is here foretold, 

1. That their sacrifices and offerings should be mischief and prejudice to them; 
ver. 22, "Let their table become a snare." The altar of the Lord, which is 
called his table and theirs, because in feasting upon the sacrifices they were 
partakers of the altar. This should have been for their welfare or peace, for 
they were peace offerings, but it became a snare and a trap_ 4fc them ; for by their 
affection and adherence to the altar they were held fast in their infidelity, and 
hardened in their prejudices against Christ, that altar which they had no' right 
to eat of, who continued to serve the tabernacle, Heb. xni. 10. *Or, it mav be 
understood of their common creature comforts, even their necessary food. They 
had given Christ gall and vinegar, and therefore justly shall their meat and 
drink be made gall and vinegar to them. When the supports of life, and de- 
lights of sense, through the corruption of our nature become an occasion of 
en to us, and are made the food and fuel of our sensuality, then our table is a 
snare, which is a good reason why we should never feed ourselves without 
fear, Jude 12. 

2. That they should never have the comfort either of that knowledge or of 
that peace which believers are blessed with in the Gospel of Christ, ver. 23. 
That they should be given up, 1st. To a judicial blindness. " Let their eyes be 
darkened' that they see not" the glory of God in the_ face of Christ. Then' sin 
was that they would not see, but shut their eyes against the light, loving dark- 
ness rather ; their punishment was, that they should not see, but oe given up to 
their own hearts' lusts which were hardening, and the God of this world should 
be permitted to blind their minds, 2 Cor. iv. 4. This was foretold concerning 
them, Isa. vi. 10, and Christ ratified it, Mat. xiii. 14, 15; Jno. xii. 40. 2nd. To 
a judicial terror. There is a gracious terror which opens the way to comfort, 
such as that of Paul, Acts ix. 6 ; he trembled and was astonished. But this is a 
terror that shall never end in peace, '"'make their loins continually to shake" 
through horror of conscience, as Beishazzar, when the joints of his loins were 
loosed. Let them be driven to despair, and filled with constant confusion. 
This was fulfilled in the desperate counsels of the Jews when the Romans came 
upon them. 

3. That they should fall and lie under God's anger and fiery indignation; 
ver. 24, "Pour out thine indignation upon them." Note ;> Those who reject 
God's great salvation proffered to them may justly fear his indignation to be 
poured out upon them; for they that submit not to the Son of his love will 
certainly be made the generation 'of his wrath. It is the doom passed on those 
who believe not in Christ, that the wrath of God abideth on them, Jno. iii. 36; 
it takes hold of them, and will never let them go. Salvation itself will not 
save those that are not willing to be ruled by it. " Behold the goodness and 
severity cf God !" 

4. That their place and nation should be utterly taken away, the very thing 
they were afraid of, and to prevent which, as they pretended, they persecuted 
Christ, Jno. xi. 48 ; ver. 25, Let their habitation be desolate," which was ful- 
filled when their country was laid waste by the Romans, and"Zion for their 



PSALM LXIX. 331 

eakes was ploughed as a field," Mic. iii. 12. The temple was the house which 
they were in a particular manner proud of, but this was left unto them desolate, 
Mat. xxiii. 38. let that is not all: it ought to be some satisfaction to us, if we be 
cut off from the enjoyment of our possessions, that others will have the benefit of 
them when we are dislodged; but it is here added, "Let none dwell in their 
tents," which was remarkably fulfilled in Judah and Jerusalem; for, after the 
destruction of the Jews, it was long ere the country was inhabited to any pur- 
pose. But this is applied particularly to Judas by St. Peter, Acts i. 20 ; for he 
being felo de se,— a suicide, we may suppose his estate was confiscated, so that 
his habitation was desolate, and no man of his own kindred dwelt therein. 

5. That their way to ruin should be down hill, and nothing should stop them, 
nor interpose to prevent it, ver. 27. Lord, leave them to themselves to add 
iniquity to iniquity; and those that are bad, if they be given up to their own 
heart's lusts, will certainly be worse. They will add sin to sin ; nay, they will 
add rebellion to their sin, Job xxxiv. 37. It is said of the Jews that they filled 
up their sin always, 1 Thes. ii. 16; 'add the punishment of iniquity to their 
iniquity,' so some read it, for the same word signifies both sin and punishment, 
so close is their connection. If men will sin, God will reckon for it ; but those 
that have multiplied to sin may yet find mercy, for God multiplies to pardon, 
through the righteousness of the Mediator ; and therefore, that they might be 
precluded from all hopes of mercy, he adds, "Let them not come into thy right- 
eousness," to receive the benefit of the righteousness of God, which is by faith 
in a Mediator, Phil. iii. 9. Not that God shuts out any from that righteousness, 
for the Gospel excludes none that do not by their unbelief exclude themselves ; 
but let them be left to take their own course, and they will never come into 
this government; for, being ignorant of the demands of God's righteousness, 
and going about to establish the merit of their own, they "have not submitted 
themselves to the righteousness of God," Rom. x. 3 ; and those that are so proud 
and self-willed that they will not come into God's righteousness, so shall their 
doom be, themselves have decided it, they shall not come into his righteousness. 
Let not them expect any benefit by it that are not willing and glad to be 
beholden to it. 

6. That they should be cut off from all hopes of happiness ; ver. 28, "Let 
them be blotted out of the book of the living," that is, let them not be suffered 
to live any longer, who the longer they live the more mischief they do. Mul- 
titudes of the unbelieving Jews fell by sword and famine, and none of those 
who had embraced the Christian faith perished among them. The nation as a 
nation was blotted out, and became not a people. Many understand it of their 
rejection from God's covenant, and all the privileges of it*, that is, the book of 
the living. Let the commonwealth of Israel itself, Israel according to the 
flesh, now become alienated from that covenant of promise, w r hich hitherto it 
has had the monopoly of. Let it appear that they were never written in the 
Lamb's book of life ; but " reprobate silver, let men call them, because the Lord 
nas rejected them." Let them "not be written with the righteous;" that is, 
let them not have a place in the congregation of the saints, when they shall 
all be gathered in the general assembly of those whose names are written in 
heaven, Ps. i. 5. 

Secondly. What the sin is for which these dreadful judgments should be 
brought upon them ; ver. 26, " They persecute him whom thou hast smitten, 
and talk to the grief of thy wounded." 1. Christ was he whom God had smitten, 
for it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and he was esteemed stricken, smitten of 
God and afflicted ; and therefore men hid their faces from him, Isa. liii. 4, 5. 
They persecuted him with a rage reaching up to heaven ; they cried, " Crucify 
him, crucify him." Compare that of St. Peter with this, Acts ii. 23; though 
he was delivered by the counsel and foreknowledge of God, it was with wicked 
hands that they crucified and slew him. They talked to the grief of the Lord 
Jesus when he was upon the cross, saying, " He trusted in God, let him deliver 
him," than which nothing could be said more grieving. 2. The suffering saints 
were God's wounded, wounded in his cause, and for his sake, and them they 
persecuted, and talked to their grief ; and for these things wrath came upon them 
to the uttermost, 1 Thes. ii. 16 ; and see Mat. xxiii. 34, &c. This may be under- 
stood more generally, and it teacheth us, that nothing is more provoking to 
God than to insult over those whom he hath smitten^ and to add affliction to 
the afflicted: upon which it justly follows here, "Add iniquity to iniquity:" see 
Zee. i. 15. Those that are of a wounded spirit, under trouble and fear about 
their spiritual state, ought to be very tenderly dealt with, and care must be 
taken not to talk to their grief, and not to make the heart of the righteous sad. 

Thirdly. What the psalmist thinks of himself in the midst of all ; ver. 29, " But 
I am pour and sorrowful ;*' that is the worst of my case: under outward afflic- 
tions, yet written among the righteous, and not under God's indignation as they 
are. It is better to be poor and sorrowful with the blessing of God, than rich 
and jovial, and under his curse; for they who come into God's righteousness 
shall soon see an end of their poverty and sorrow, and his salvation shall set 



832 PSALM LUX. 

them up on high, which is the thing that David here prays for, Isa. lxi. 10. 
This may be applied to Christ. He was in his humiliation poor and sorrowful, 
a man of sorrows, and that had not where to lay his head ; but God highly 
exalted him: the salvation wrought for him, the salvation wrought by him, set 
him up on high, far above all principalities and powers. 

30 I will praise the name of God with a song, 
And will magnify him with thanksgiving. 

31 This also shall please the Lord better than an ox 
Or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. 

32 The humble shall see this, and be glad : 
And your heart shall live that seek God. 

33 For the Lord heareth the poor, 
And despiseth not his prisoners. 

34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, 

The seas, and every thing that moveth therein. 

35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah : 
That they may dwell there, and have it in possession. 

36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it : 
And they that love his name shall dwell therein. 

The psalmist here, both as a type of Christ, and as an example to Christians, 
concludes a psalm with holy joy and praise, which he began with complaints 
and remonstrances of his griefs. 

First. He resolves to praise God himself, not doubting but that therein he 
should be accepted of him; ver. 30, 31, "I will praise the name of God," not 
only with my heart, but "with my song, and magnify him with thanksgiving," 
for he is pleased to reckon himself magnified by the thankful praises of his peo- 
ple. It is intimated that all Christians ought to glorify God with their praises, 
"in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs;" and, "this shall please the Lord," 
through Christ, the Mediator of our praises as well as of our prayers, " better 
than" the most valuable of the legal sacrifices; ver. 31, "an ox or bullock." 
This is a plain intimation that in the days of the Messiah an end should be put 
not only to the sacrifices of atonement, but to those of praise and acknowledg- 
ment, which were instituted by the ceremonial law; and instead of them spi- 
ritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving are accepted; the calves of our lips, 
not the calves of the stall, Heb. xiii. 15. It is a great comfort to us that 
humble thankful praises are more pleasing to God than the most costly 
pompous sacrifices are or ever were. 

Secondly. He encourageth other good people to rejoice in God, and continue 
seeking him ; ver. 32, 33, " The humble shall see this and be glad." They shall 
observe to tneir comfort, 1. The experiences of the saints. They shall see 
how ready God is to hear the poor, when they cry to him, and to give them 
that which they call upon him for ; now far he is from despising his prisoners, 
though men despise them, but he favours them with his gracious visits, ami 
will find a time to enlarge them. " The humble shall see this and be glad,"' 
not only because when " one member is honoured all the members rejoice with 
it, ' but because it is an encouragement to them in their straits and difficulties 
to trust in God. It shall revive the hearts of those who seek God to see more 
seals and subscriptions to this truth, that Jacob's God never said to Jacob's 
seed, Seek ye me in vain. 2. The exaltation of the Saviour, for of him the 
psalmist had been speaking, and of himself as a type of him. When his sorrows 
are over, and he enters into the joy that was set before him, — when he is heard, 
and discharged from his imprisonment in the grave, — the humble shall look upon 
it and be glad, and they that seek God^ through Christ shall live and be com- 
forted; concluding that, if they suffer with him, they shall also reign with him. 

Thirdly. He calls upon all the creatures to praise God. The heaven and 
earth, and sea, and the inhabitants of each, ver. 34. Heaven and earth, and the 
hosts of both, were made by him; and therefore "let the heaven and earth 
praise him." Angels in heaven and saints on earth ; they may each of them 
in their respective habitations furnish themselves with matter enough for 
constant praise. Let the fishes of the sea, though mute to a proverb, praise 
the Lord, for "the sea is his, and he made it." The praises of the world must 
be offered for God's favours to his church, ver. 3.% 36. For God will save 



PSALM LXX. 



833 



Zion, the holy mountain, where his service was kept up. He will save all that 
are sanctified, and set apart to him all that employ themselves in his worship, 
and all those over whom Christ reigns, for he was King upon the holy hill of 
Zion. He has mercy in store for the cities of Judah, of which tribe Christ was, 
God will do great things for the gospel church, in which let all that wish well 
to it rejoice. For, 1. It shall be peopled and inhabited. There shall be added to 
it such as shall be&aved. The cities of Judah shall be built, particular churches 
shall be formed, and incorporated according to the Gospel model, that there 
maybe a remnant to dwell there, and to have it in possession; to enjoy the 
privileges conferred upon it, and to pay the tributes and services required from 
it. They that love his name, that have a kindness for religion in general, shall 
embrace the Christian religion, and take their place in the Christian church; 
they shall dwell therein as citizens, and of the household of God. 2. It shall 
be perpetuated and inherited. Christianity was not to be res unius cetatis, — 'a 
transitory thing ; ' no, " The seed of his servants shall inherit it." God will 
secure and raise up for himself a seed to serve him ; and they shall inherit 
the privileges of their fathers; for the promise is to you and your children, as 
it was of old, " I will be a God to thee, and thy seed after thee." The land of 
promise shall never be lost for want of heirs, for God can out of stones raise 
up children unto Abraham, and will do it rather than the entail shall be cut off. 
David shall never want a man to stand before him. The Redeemer shall see 
his seed, and prolong his days in them, till the mystery of God shall be finished, 
and the mystical body completed ; and since the holy seed is the substance of 
the world, and if that were all gathered in it would be at an end quickly, it is 
just that for this assurance of the preservation of it heaven and earth should 
praise him. 



This psalm is adapted to a state of affliction. It is copied almost word for word from 
another psalm, and some think, for that reason, is entitled a psalm to bring to remem- 
brance; for it may he of use sometimes to pray over the prayers we have formeily 
made to God upon the like occasions, which may he done with new affections. David 
here prays that God would send, I. Help to himself, ver. 1 — 5. II. Shame to his 
enemies, ver. 2, 3. III. Joy to his friends, ver. 4. These five verses were the five 
last verses of Ps. xl. He seems to have intended this short prayer to he both for him- 
self and us, a salve for every sore, and therefore to be always in mind, and in singing 
we may apply it to our particular troubles, whatever they are. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. 



TlrfTAKE haste, 0 God, to deliver me ; 
Make haste to help me, 0 Lord. 

2 Let them be ashamed and confounded 
That seek after my soul : 

Let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, 
That desire my hurt. 

3 Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame 
That say, Aha, aha. 

4 Let all those that seek thee 
Rejoice and be glad in thee : 
And let such as love thy salvation 

Say continually, Let God be magnified. 

5 But I am poor and needy : 
Make haste unto me, O God: 
Thou art my help and my deliverer; 
0 Lord, make no tarrying. 

The title tells us that this psalm was designed "to bring to remembrance to 
put God in remembrance of his mercy and promise ; for so we are said to do 
when we pray to him, and plead with him, Isa. xliii. 26, " Put me in remem- 
brance." Not that the Eternal Mind needs a remembrancer, but this honour 
he is pleased to put upon the prayer of faith. It was rather to put himself and 



PSALM LXX. 




334 PSALM LXXI. 

others in remembrance of former afflictions, that we may never be secure, but 
always in expectation of troubles; and of former devotions, that when the 
clouds return after the rain we may have recourse to the same means which 
we have formerly found effectual for fetching in comfort and relief. We may 
in prayer use the same words we have often used before. Our Saviour in his 
agony prayed thrice, saying the same words; so David here useth the same 
words he had used before, yet not without some alterations, to shew that he 
did not design to tie himself or others to them as a form. God looks at the 
heart, not at the words. 

First. David here prays that God would make haste to relieve and succour 
him; ver. 1, 5, " I am poor and needy," in want and distress, and much at a loss 
within myself. Poverty and necessity is a very good plea in prayer to a God 
of infinite mercy, who despiseth not the sighing of a contrite heart, and hath 
pronounced a blessing upon the poor in spirit ; who " filleth the hungry with 
good things." He prays, 1. That God would appear for him to deliver him 
out of his troubles in due time. 2. That in the meantime he would come in to 
him to help him under his troubles, that he might not sink and faint. 3. That 
he would do this quickly ; "Make haste," ver. 1 ; and again, ver. 5 ; " Make haste, 
make no tarrying." Sometimes God seems to delay helping his own people, 
that he may excite such earnest desires as these. # " He that believeth doth not 
make haste," so as to anticipate or outrun the Divine counsels, so as to force a 
way of escape, or take any unlawful methods of relief ; but he may make haste 
by going forth to meet God in humble prayer, that he would hasten the desired 
succour. " Make haste unto me," for the longing desire of my soul is towards 
thee ; I shall perish if I be not speedily helped ; I have no other to expect relief 
from : " Thou art my help and my deliverer." Thou hast engaged to be so to all 
that seek thee, I depend upon thee to be so to me ; I have often found thee so, 
and thou art sufficient, all-sufficient to be so. Therefore make haste to me. 

Secondly. He prays that God would fill the faces of his enemies with shame, 
ver. 2,3. Observe, 1. How he describes them. They sought after his soul, 
his life, to destroy that ; his mind, to disturb that, to draw him from God to 
sin and to despair. They desired his hurt, his ruin. When any calamity befell 
him, or threatened him, they said, " Aha, aha ;" so would we have it, we shall 
gain our point now, and see him ruined. Thus spiteful, thus insolent were 
they. 2. What his prayer is against them : " Let them be ashamed," that is, 
let them be brought to repentance ; so filled with shame as that they may seek 
thy name, Ps. lxxxiii. 16. Let them see their fault and folly, in fighting against 
those whom thou dost protect, and be ashamed of their envy, Isa. xxvi. 11. 
However, let their designs against me be frustrated, and their measures broken; 
let them be turned back from their malicious pursuits, and then they will be 
ashamed and confounded, and, like the enemies of the Jews, much cast down 
in their own eyes, Neh. vi. 16. 

Thirdly. He prays that God would fill the hearts of his friends with joy, 
ver. 4; that all those that seek God, and love his salvation, — that desire it, 
delight in it, and depend upon it, — may have continual matter for joy and praise, 
and hearts for both ; and then he doubts not but himself to put in for a share of 
the blessing he prays for; and so may we, if we answer the character. 1. Let 
us make the service of God our great business, and the favour of God our great 
delight and pleasure, for that is seeking him, and loving his salvation. Let the 
pursuit of a happiness in God be our great care, and the enjoyment of it our 
great satisfaction. A heart to love the salvation of the Lord, and to prefer it 
before any secular advantages whatsoever, so as cheerfully to quit all rather 
than hazard our salvation, is a good evidence of our interest in it, and title to it. 
2. Let us, then, be assured that, if it be not our own fault, the joy of the Lord 
shall fill our minds, and the high praises of the Lord shall fill our mouths. 
Those that seek God, if they seek him early and seek him diligently, shall 
rejoice and be glad in him; for their seeking him is an evidence of his good-will 
to them, and an earnest of their finding him, Ps. cv. 3. There is pleasure and 
joy even in seeking God, for it is one of the fundamental principles of religion 
that God is the rewarder of all those that diligently seek him. Those that love 
God's salvation shall say with pleasure, with_ constant pleasure, (for praising 
God, if we make it our continual work, it will be our continual feast,) " Let 
God be magnified," as he will be to eternity in the salvation of his people. All 
that wish well to the comfort of the saints, and to the glory of God, cannot but 
say a hearty Amen to this prayer, that those who " love God's salvation may 
say continually, Let God be magnified." 



PSALM LXXI. 

David penned this psalm in his old age, as appears by several passages in it, which 
makes many think that it was penned at the time of Absalom's rebellion, for that was 
the great trouble of his latter days. It might be occasioned by Sheba's insurrection, 



PSALM LXXI. 



335 



or some trouble that happened to him in that part of his life, of which it was foretold, 
that the sword should not depart from his house. But he is not over particular in 
representing his case, because he intended it for the general use of God's people in 
their affliction, especially those they meet with in their declining years ; for this psalm, 
above any other, is fitted for the use of the old disciples of Jesus Christ. I. He begins 
the psalm with believing prayers, with prayers that God would deliver him and save 
him, ver. 2, 4 ; and not cast him off, ver. 9 ; or be far from him, ver. 12 ; and that his 
enemies might be put to shame, ver. 13. He pleads his confidence in God, ver. 1, 3, 5, 7 ; 
the experience he had had of help from God, ver. 6 ; and the malice of his enemies 
against him, ver. 10, 11. II. He concludes the psalm with believing praises, ver. 14, &c. ; 
never was his hope more established, ver. 16, 18, 20, 21 ; never were his joys and thanks- 
givings more enlarged, ver. 15, 19, 22—24. He is in an extacy of joyful praise, and in 
the singing of it we should have our faith in God encouraged, and our hearts raised in 
blessing his holy name. 

IN thee, 0 Lord, do I put my trust : 
Let me never be put to confusion. 

2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape : 
Incline thine ear unto me, and save me. 

3 Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may con- 

tinually resort : 
Thou hast given commandment to save me ; 
For thou art my rock and my fortress. 

4 Deliver me, 0 my God, out of the hand of the wicked, 
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. 

5 For thou art my hope, 0 Lord God : 
Thou art my trust from my youth. 

6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb : 
Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels : 
My praise shall be continually of thee. 

7 I am as a wonder unto many ; 
But thou art my strong refuge. 

8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise 
And with thy honour all the day. 

9 Cast me not off in the time of old age ; 
Forsake me not when my strength faileth 

10 For mine enemies speak against me; 

And they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, 

1 1 Saying, God hath forsaken him : 

Persecute and take him ; for there is none to deliver him. 

12 0 God, be not far from me : 

O my God, make haste for my help. 

13 Let them be confounded and consumed 
That are adversaries to my soul; 

Let them be covered with reproach and dishonour 
That seek my hurt. 

Two things in general David here prays for—that he might not be con- 
founded, and that his enemies and persecutors might be confounded. 

First. He prays that he might never be made ashamed of his dependence 
upon God, nor disappointed in his believing expectations from him. And with 
this petition every true believer may come boldly to the throne of grace \ 
for God will never dash the hope that is of his bvvn raising. Now observe 
here, 



336 PSALM LXXL 

1. How David professeth his confidence in God ; and with what pleasure and 
grateful variety of expression he repeats his profession of that confidence, still 
presenting the profession of it to God, and pleading it with him. We praise 
God, and so please him by telling him, if it be indeed true, what an entire con- 
fidence we have in him ; ver. 1, "In thee, O Lord," and in thee only, " do I put 
my trust." Whatever others do, I choose the God of Jacob for my help. They 
that are entirely satisfied in God's all-sufficiency, and the truth of his promise, 
and in dependence upon that as sufficient to make them amends,— are freely 
willing to do and suffer, to lose and venture for him,— may truly say, " In thee, 

0 Lord ; do I put my trust." Those that will deal with God, must deal upon 
trust; if we are shy of dealing with him, it is a sign we do not trust him. 
u Thou art my rock and my fortress," ver. 3 ; and again, " Thou art my refuge, 
my strong refuge," ver. 7 ; that is, I fly to thee, and am sure to be safe in thee, 
and under thy protection. If thou secure me, none can hurt me ; " Thou art 
my hope and my trust," ver. 5 ; that is, thou hast proposed thyself to me in thy 
Word as the proper object of my hope and trust; I have hoped in thee, and 
never found it in vain to do so. 

2. How his confidence in God is supported and encouraged by his expe- 
riences; ver. 5, 6, "Thou hast been my trust from my youth;" that is, ever 
since I was capable of discerning between my right hand and my left I stayed 
myself upon thee ; and saw a great deal of reason to do so, for " by thee have 

1 been holden up from the womb." Ever since he had the use of his reason 
he had been a dependent upon God's goodness, because ever since he had a 
being he had been a monument of it. Note, The consideration of the gracious 
care which the Divine providence took of us in our birth and infancy should 
engage us to an early piety, and constant devotedness to his honour. He that 
was our help from our birth ought to be our hope from our youth. If we 
received so much mercy from God before we were capable of doing him any 
service, we should lose no time when we are capable. This comes in here as a 
support to the psalmist in his present distress ; not only that God had given 
him his life and being, bringing him out of his mother's bowels into the world, 
and providing that he should not die from the womb, nor give up the ghost 
when he came out of the belly, but that he had betimes made him one of his 
family ; "Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels" into the arms of 
thy grace, under the shadow of thy wings, into the bond of thy covenant : thou 
uookest me into thy church, as a son of thine handmaid, and born in thine 
nouse, Ps. cxvi. 16. And, therefore, 1st. I have reason to hope that thou wilt 
protect me; thou that hast held me up hitherto wilt not let me fall now. Thou 
that madest me wilt not forsake the work of thine own hands ; that helpedst 
me when I could not help myself wilt not abandon me now I am upon the 
matter as helpless as I was then. 2nd. Therefore I have reason to resolve, 
that 1 will devote myself unto thee; " My praise shall therefore be continually 
of thee," that is, I will make it my business every day to praise thee, and will 
take all occasions to do it. 

3. What his requests to God are in this confidence. 

1st. That he might never be put to confusion, ver. 1 ; that is, that he might 
not be disappointed of the mercy he expected, and so made ashamed of his 
expectation. Thus we may all pray in faith, that our confidence in God may 
not be our confusion. Hope of the glory of God is hope that maketh not 
ashamed. . 

2nd. That he might be delivered out of the hand of his enemies ; ver. 2, 
" Deliver me in thy righteousness," that is, as thou art the righteous judge of 
the world, pleading the cause of the injured, and punishing the injurious ; 
cause me some way or other to escape. God uses with the temptation to make 
a way to escape, 1 Cor. x. 13 ; " Incline thine ear unto my prayers," and in 
answer to them save me out of my troubles, ver. 4. m " Deliver me, O my God, 
out of the hands " of those that are ready to pull me in pieces. Three things he 
pleads for deliverance : First. The encouragement God had given him to 
expect it. " Thou hast given commandment to save me," ver. 3 * ? that is, thou 
hast promised to do it, and such efficacy is there in God's promises, that they 
are often spoken of as commands ; like that, " Let there be light, and there was 
light." He speaks, and it is done. Secondly. t The character of his enemies. 
They are wicked, unrighteous, cruel men, and it will be for the honour of God 
to appear against them, ver. 4; for he is a holy, just, and good God. Hiiidly. 
The many eyes that were upon him ; ver. 7, " I am as a wonder unto many." 
Every one waits to see what will be the issue of such extraordinary troubles 
as I am fallen into, and such extraordinary confidence as I profess to have in 
God. Or, I am looked upon as a monster, am one whom everybody shuns ; 
and therefore am undone if the Lord be not my refuge. Men abandon me, but 
God will not. 

3rd. That he might always find rest and safety in God ; ver. 3, " Be thou my 
strong habitation." Be thou to me a rock of repose, " whereto I may con- 



PSALM LXXL 

tinually resort." They are at home in God that live a life of communion with 
him and confidence in him; that continually resort unto him by faith and 
prayer having their eyes ever towards him, may promise themselves a strong- 
habitation in him, such as will never fall of itself, nor can ever be broken 
through by any invading power. And they shall be welcome to resort to him 
continually upon all occasions, and not be upbraided as coming too often. 

<ith. That he might have continual matter for thanksgiving to God, and might 
be continually employed in that pleasant work; ver. 8, "Let my mouth be tilled 
with thy praise," as now it is with complaints, and then I shall not be ashamed 
of my hope, but my enemies will be ashamed of their insolence. They that 
love God love to be praising him, and desire to be doing it all the day ; not 
only in their morning and evening devotions, not only seven times a day, 
Ps. cxix. 164, but all the day; to intermix with all they say something or 
other that may redound to the honour and praise of God. They resolve to do 
it while they live ; they hope to be doing it eternally in a better world. 

5th That' he might not be neglected now in his declining years; ver. 9, " Cast 
me not off now in the time of my old age, forsake me not when my strength 
fails." Observe here, First. The natural sense he had of the infirmities of age ; 
" my strength fails." Where there was strength of body, and vigour of mind, 
strong sight, strong voice, strong limbs, alas S in old age they fail ; the life is 
continued, but the strength is gone, or that which is is labour and sorrow, 
Ps. xc. 10. Secondly. The gracious desire he had of the continuance of Gods 
presence with him under these infirmities. Lord, cast me not off, do not then 
forsake me. This intimates that he should look upon himself as undone if 
God should abandon him. To be cast off and forsaken of God is a thing to be 
dreaded at any time, especially in the time of old age, and when our strength 
fails us ; for it is God that is the strength of our heart. But it intimates that 
he had reason to hope God would not desert him. The faithful servants of 
God may be comfortably assured that he will not cast them off in old age, nor 
forsake them when their strength fails them. He is a master that doth not use 
to cast off old servants. In this confidence David here prays again, ver. 12, " O 
God, be not far from me ;" let me not be under the apprehension of thy with- 
drawings, for then I am miserable ; " O my God," a God in covenant with me, 
" make haste for my help " lest I perish before help come. 

Secondly. He prays that his enemies might be made ashamed of their designs 
against him. Observe, 1. What it was which they unjustly said against him, 
ver. 10, 11. Their plot was deep and desperate, it was against his life; " They 
lay wait for my soul," ver. 10} and are adversaries to that, ver. 13. Their 
powers and policies were combined ; " They take counsel together." And very 
insolent they were in their carriage ; " They say, God has forsaken him ; persecute 
and take him." Here their premises are utterly false ; that because a good 
man was in great trouble, and had continued long in it, and was not so soon 
delivered as perhaps he expected, that therefore God had forsaken him, and 
would have no more to do with him. All are not forsaken of God who think 
so themselves, or whom others think to be so. And as their premises were false, 
so their inference was barbarous. If God has forsaken him, then persecute 
and take him ; and doubt not but to make a prey of him. This is talking to the 
grief of one whom God hath smitten, Ps. ixix. 26. But thus they endeavour 
to discourage David, as Sennacherib endeavoured to intimidate Hezekiah, by 
suggesting that God was his enemy, and fought against him ; " Am I now come 
up without the Lord against this city to destroy it? " Isa. xxxvi. 10. It is true, 
if God has forsaken a man, there is none to deliver him; but therefore to 
insult over him ill becomes those who are conscious to themselves that they 
deserve to be for ever forsaken of God. But "rejoice not against me, O mine 
enemy, though I fall I shall rise." He that seems to forsake for a small moment 
will gather with everlasting kindness. 2. What it was which he justly prayed 
for, from a spirit of prophecy, not a spirit of passion; ver. 13, "Let them 
be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul." If they will 
not be confounded by repentance and so saved, let them be confounded, with 
everlasting dishonour, and so ruined. They that turn the glory of God and his 
people into shame, God will turn their glory into shame. 

14 But I will hope continually, 

And will yet praise thee more and more. 

15 My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness 
And thy salvation all the day ; 

For I know not the numbers thereof. 

16 1 will go in the strength of the Lord God : [only. 
I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine 

Y 



333 PSALM LXXI. 

17 0 God, thou hast taught me from my youth: 
And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. 

18 Now also when I am old and greyheaded, 
0 God, forsake me not; 

Until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, 
And thy power to every one that is to come. 

19 Thy righteousness also, 0 God, is very high, [thee ! 
Who hast done great things : 0 God, who is like unto 

20 Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, 
Shalt quicken me again, 

And shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. 

21 Thou shalt increase my greatness, 
And comfort me on every side. 

22 I will also praise thee with the psaltery, 
Even thy truth, 0 my God : 

Unto thee will I sing with the harp, 
0 thou Holy One of Israel. 

23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; 
And my soul, which thou hast redeemed. [long > 

2-i My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day 
For they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, 
that seek my hurt. 

David is here in a holy transport of joy and praise, arising from his faith and 
hope in God. We have both together, ver. 14, where there is a sudden and 
remarkable change of his voice ; his fears are all silenced, his hopes raised, 
and his prayers turned into thanksgivings. Let mine enemies say what they 
will to drive me to despair, 44 1 will hope continually ;' ? hope in all conditions, 
in the most cloudy and dark day ; I will live upon hope, and will hope to the 
end. Since w r e hope in one that will never fail us, let not our hope in him 
fail us: and then we shall " praise him yet more and more." The more they 
reproach me the more closely will I cleave to thee ; I will praise thee more 
and better than ever I have done yet. The longer we live the more expert we 
should grow in praising God, and the more we should abound in it. 4 1 will 
add over and above all thy praise ; ' that is, all the praise I have hitherto 
offered, for it is all too little. W hen we have said all we can to the glory of 
God's grace, there is still more to be said; it is a subject that can never be 
exhausted, and therefore we should never grow weary of it. £sow observe 
in these verses, 

First. How his heart is established in faith and hope, and it is a good thing 
that the heart be so established. Observe, 

1. What he hopes in, ver. 16. 1st. In the power of God; "I will go in the 
strength of the Lord God ; ; ' not sit down in despair, but stir up myself to, and 
exert myself in, my work and warfare; will go forth and go on, not in any 
strength of my own, but in God*s strength ; disclaiming my own sufficiency, 
and depending on him only as all-sufficient, in the strength of his providence, 
and in the strength of his grace. We must always go about God's work in hia 
strength, having our eyes up unto him to work in us both to will and to do. 
2nd. In the promise of God ; " I will make mention of thy righteousness," 
that is, thy faithfulness to every word which thou hast spoken, the equity of 
thy disposals, and thy kindness to thy people that trust in thee. This I will 
make mention of as my plea in prayer for thy mercy. We may very ntljr apply 
it to the righteousness of Christ, which is called the righteousness of God by 
faith, and wmich is witnessed by the law and the prophets ; we must depend 
upon God's strength for assistance, and upon Christ's righteousness for accept- 
ance. " In the Lord have I righteousness and strength," Isa. xlv. 24. 

2. What he hopes for. 

1st. He hopes that God will not leave him in his old age, but will be the same 



PSALM LXXI. 333 

to him to the end that he had been all along, ver. 17, 18. Observe here, First 
What God had done for him when he was young. "Thou hast taught me from 
my youth." The good education and good instructions which his parents gave him 
when he was young, he owns himself obliged to give God thanks for as a grea* 
favour. It is a blessed thing to be taught of God from our youth, from our 
childhood to know the holy Scriptures ; and it is what we have reason to bless 
God for. Secondly. What he had done for God when he was middle-aged. He 
had declared all God's wondrous works. Those that have got good when they 
are young must be doing good when they are grown up ; and must continue to 
communicate what they have received. We must own all the works of God's 
goodness to us are wondrous works ; admiring he should do so much for us 
that are so undeserving; and we must make it our business to declare them to 
the glory of God, and the good of others. Thirdly. What he desired of God 
now he was old. " Now I am old and greyheaded," dying to this world, and 
hastening to another, " O God, forsake me not." This is what he earnestly 
desires, and confidently hopes for. Those that have been taught of God from 
their youth, and have made it the business of their lives to honour him, may be 
sure he will not leave them when they are old and greyheaded, will not leave 
them helpless and comfortless ; but will make the evil days of old age their 
best days, and such as they shall have occasion to say they have pleasure in. 
Fourthly. What he designed to do for God in his old age. " I will shew thy 
strength," by my own experience of it, not only " to this generation," but I will 
leave my observations upon record for the benefit of posterity, and so shew 
it " to every one that is to come." As long as we live we should be endea- 
vouring to glorify God, and edify one another; and those that have had the 
largest and longest experience of the goodness of God to them should improve 
their experiences for the good of their friends. It is a debt which the old 
disciples of Christ owe to the succeeding generations, to leave behind them 
a solemn testimony to the power, and pleasure, and advantage of religion, and 
the truth of God's promises. 

2nd. He hopes that God would revive him, raise him up out of his present 
low and disconsolate condition ; ver. 20, " Thou which hast made me to see and 
feel great and sore troubles," above most men, " shalt quicken me again." Note, 
First. The best of God's saints and servants are sometimes exercised with 
great and sore troubles in this world. < Secondly. God's hand is to be eyed in all 
the troubles of the saints; and that will help to extenuate them, and make them 
seem light. He doth not say, Thou hast burthened me with those troubles, but 
shewed them me, as the tender father shews the child the rod to keep him in 
awe. Thirdly. Though God's people be brought never so low, he can revive 
them, and raise them up. Are they dead ? he can quicken them again : see 
2 Cor. i. 9. Are they buried, as dead men out of mind ? he can bring them 
up again from the depths of the earth; can cheer the most drooping spirit, 
and raise the most sinking interest. Fourthly. If we have a due regard to 
the hand of God in our troubles, we may promise ourselves in due time a 
deliverance out of them. Our present troubles, though great and sore, shall 
be no hindrance to our joyful resurrection from the depths of the earth ; 
witness our great Master, to whom this may have some reference : his Father 
shewed him great and sore troubles, but quickened him and brought him up 
from the grave. 

3rd. He hopes that God would not only deliver him out of his troubles, but 
would advance his honour and joy more than ever ; ver. 21, Thou shalt not only 
restore me to my greatness again, but shalt increase it, and give me a better 
interest after this shock than before. Thou shalt not only comfort me, but 
J* comfort me on every side," so that I shall see nothing black or threatening 
on any side. Note, Sometimes God makes his people's troubles contribute to 
the increase of their greatness; and their sun shines the brighter for having 
been under a cloud. If he makes them contribute to the increase of their good- 
ness, that will prove in the end their greatness, their glory ; and if he comfort 
them on every side, according to the time and degree wherein he has afflicted 
them on every side, they will have no reason to complain. When our Lord 
Jesus was quickened again, and brought back from the depths of the earth, his 
greatness was increased, and he entered on the joy set before him. 

4th. He hopes that all his enemies would be put to confusion, ver. 24. He 
speaks of it with the greatest assurance as a thing done, and triumphs in it 
accordingly ; " They are confounded, they are brought to shame, that seek my 
hurt." His honour would be their disgrace, and his comfort their vexation. 

Secondly. Let us now see how his heart is enlarged in joy and praises ; how 
he rejoiceth in hope, and sings in hope, for we are saved by hope. 

1. He will speak of God's righteousness and his salvation as great things; 
things which he was well acquainted with, and much affected with, which he 
desired God might have the glory of, and others might have the comfortable 
knowledge of; ver. 15, "My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness, and thy 



340 



PSALM LXXIL 



salvation." And again, ver. 24, "My tongue shall talk of thy righteousness," and 
this " all the day." God's righteousness, which David seems here to be in a par- 
ticular manner affected with, includes a great deal : the rectitude of his nature, 
the equity of his providential disposals, the righteous laws which he hath given 
us to be ruled by, the righteous promises he has given us to depend upon, and 
the everlasting righteousness which his Son hath brought in for our justifica- 
tion. God's righteousness and his salvation are here joined together, let no 
man think to put them asunder, nor expect salvation without righteousness, 
Ps. 1. 23. If these two are made the objects of our desire, let them be made 
the subjects of our discourse all the day; for they are subjects that can never 
be drawm dry. 

2. He will speak of them with w r onder and admiration; as one astonished at 
the dimensions of Divine love and grace, the height and depth, the length and 
breadth of it. "I know not the numbers thereof," ver. 15. Though I cannot 
give a particular account of thy favours to me, they are so many, so great, if 
" I would count them they are more in number than the sand," Ps. xl. 5, 
vet knowing them to be numberless I will be still speaking of them ; for in them 
I shall find new matter, ver. 19. The righteousness that is in God is very high, 
that which is done by him for his people is very great ; put both together, and 
w r e shall say, " O God, who is like unto thee?" This is praising God, acknow- 
ledging his perfections and peformances to be, 1st. Above our conception. 
They are very high and great; so high that we cannot apprehend them; so 
great that we cannot comprehend them. 2nd. "Without any parallel. No being 
like him, no works like his ; " O God, who is like unto thee?" None in heaven, 
none on earth; no angel, no king. God is a nonsuch ; we do not rightly praise 
him, if we do not own him to be so. 

3. He will speak of them with all the expressions of joy and exultation, 
ver. 22, 23. Observe, 1st. How he would eye God in praising him. First. As 
a faithful God; "I will praise thee, even thy truth." God is made known bv 
his AVord; if we praise that, and the truth of that, we praise him. By faitn 
w T e set to our seal that God is true ; and so w r e praise his truth. Secondly. As 
a God in covenant with him; O my God, whom I have consented to, and 
avouched for mine. As in our prayers, so in our praises, we must look up to 
God as our God, and give him the glory of our interest in him, and relation 
to him. Thirdly. As the Holy One of Israel ; Israel's God in a peculiar 
manner, glorious in his holiness among that people, and faithful to his covenant 
with them. It is God's honour that he is a Holy One ; it is his people's honour 
that he is the Holy One of Israel. 2nd. Observe how he will express his joy and 
exultation. First. With his hand; in sacred music, with the psaltery, with 
the harp. > At these David was an artist, and the best of his skill shall be 
employed in setting forth God's praises to such advantage as might affect 
others. Secondly. With his lips in sacred songs. " Unto thee will I sing," to 
thine honour, and with a desire to be accepted of thee ; " My lips shall greatly 
rejoice w r hen I sing unto thee," knowing they cannot be better employed. 
Thirdly. In both, with his heart ; " My soul shall rejoice, wmich thou hast 
redeemed." Note, \st. Holy joy is the very heart and life of thankful praise. 
2nd. We do not make melody to the Lord in singing his praises, if we do not 
do it with our hearts. "My lips shall rejoice," but that is nothing. Lip-labour, 
though never so well laboured, if that be all, is but lost labour in serving God. 
The soul must be at work, and with all that is within us we must bless his 
holy name; else all about us is w r orth little. 3rd. Redeemed souls ought 
to be joyful, thankful souls. The work of redemption ought above all God's 
works to be celebrated by us in our praises. The Lamb that was slain, and 
has redeemed us to God, must therefore be counted worthy of all blessing 
and praise. 

PSALM LXXII. 

The foregoing psalm was penned by David when he was old, and it should seem so was 
this too, for Solomon was now standing fair for the crown ; that was his prayer for 
himself, this for his son and successor; and with these two, " the prayers of David the 
son of Jesse are ended," as we find in the close of this psalm. If we have but God*s 
presence with us while we live, and good hopes concerning those that shall come after 
us, that they shall be praising God on earth when we are praising him in heaven, it is 
enough. This is entitled, " a psalm for Solomon." It is probable David dictated it, cr 
rather it was by the blessed Spirit dictated to him, when, a little before he died, by 

. Divine direction he settled the succession, and gave orders to proclaim Solomon king, 
1 Kin. i. 30. But, though Solomon's name is here made use of, Christ's kingdom is 
here prophesied of under the type and figure of Solomon's. David knew what the Divine 
oracle was, "that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up 
Christ to sit on his throne," Acts ii. 30 ; and to him he here bare witness, and with the 
prospect of the glories of his kingdom he comforted himself in his dying moments, 
vhen he foresaw that his house would not be so with God, not so great, not so good, hi 



PSALM LXXI. 



341 



he wished. David, in spirit, I. Begins with a short prayer for his successor, ver. 1. 
II. He passeth immediately into a long prediction of the glories of his reign, ver. 2 — 17. 
And, III. He concludes with praise to the God of Israel, ver. 18 — 20. In singing this 
psalm we must have an eye to Christ, praising him as a king, and pleasing ourselves 
with our happiness as his subjects. 

A Psalm for Solomon. 

GIVE the king thy judgments, 0 God, 
And thy righteousness unto the king's son. 

This verse is a prayer for the king, even the king's son. 

First. We may apply it to Solomon ; " Give him thy judgments, O God, and 
thy righteousness," make him a man, a king ; make him a good man, a good 
king. 1. It is the prayer of a father for his child ; a dying blessing, such as the 
patriarchs bequeathed to their children. The best thing we can ask of God for 
our children is that God will give them wisdom and grace to know and do their 
duty. That is better than gold. Solomon learned to pray for himself, as his 
father had prayed for him, not that God would give-him riches and honour, 
but a wise and understanding heart. It was a comfort to David that his own 
son was to be his successor ; but more so that he was likely to be both judicious 
and righteous. David had given him a good education, Pr. iv. 3; had taught 
him good judgment and righteousness, yet that would not do unless God gave 
him his judgments. Parents cannot give grace to their children, but may by 
prayer bring them to the God of grace, and shall not seek him in vain ; for their 
prayer shall either be answered or it shall return with comfort into their own 
bosom. 2. It is the prayer of a king for his successor. David had executed 
judgment and justice during his reign, and now he prays that his son might 
do so too. Such a concern as this we should have for posterity, desiring and 
endeavouring that those who come after us may do God more and better ser- 
vice in their day than we have done in ours. Those have little love either to 
God or man, and are of a very narrow selfish spirit, who care not what becomes 
of the world and the church when they are gone. 3. It is the prayer of subjects 
for their king. It should seem David penned this psalm for the use of the 
people, that they in singing might pray for Solomon. Those who would live 
quiet and peaceable lives must pray for kings and all in authority, that God 
would give them his judgments and righteousness. 

Secondly. We may apply it to Christ; not that he who intercedes for us 
needs us to intercede for him, but. 1. It is a prayer of the Old Testament 
church for sending the Messiah, as the church's King, King on the holy hill of 
Zion, of whom the King of kings had said, " Thou art my son," Ps. ii. 6, 7. 
Hasten his coming to whom all judgment is committed; and we must thu3 
hasten the second coming of Christ, when he shall judge the world in right- 
eousness. 2. It is an expression of the satisfaction which all true believers take 
in the authority which the Lord Jesus has received from the Father. Let him 
have all power both in heaven and earth, and be the Lord our righteousness ; 
let him be the great trustee of Divine grace for all that are his : give it him, 
that he may give it us. 

2 He shall judge thy people with righteousness, 
And thy poor with judgment. 

3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, 
And the little hills, by righteousness. 

4 He shall judge the poor of the people, 
He shall save the children of the needy, 
And shall break in pieces the oppressor. 

5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, 
Throughout all generations. 

6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass : 
As showers that water the earth. 

7 In his days shall the righteous flourish ; 

And abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth, 

8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, 
And from the river unto the ends of the earth. 



342 



PSALM LXXIL 



They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him ; 
And his enemies shall lick the dust. [sents : 

1 0 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring pre- 
The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. 

11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him : 
All nations shall serve him. 

1 2 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth ; 
The poor also, and him that hath no helper. 

13 He shall spare the poor and needy, 
And shall save the souls of the needy. 

14 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence : 
And precious shall their blood be in his sight. 

1 5 And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold 

of Sheba : 

Prayer also shall be made for him continually ; 
And daily shall he be praised. 

16 There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the 

top of the mountains ; 
The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon : 
And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth, 

1 7 His name shall endure for ever : 

His name shall be continued as long as the sun : 
And men shall be blessed in him : 
All nations shall call him blessed. 

This is a prophecy of the prosperity and perpetuity of the kingdom of Christ 
under the shadow of the reign of Solomon. It comes in, 1. As a plea to enforce 
the prayer; Lord, give him thy judgments and thy righteousness, and then he 
shall judge thy people with righteousness, and so shall answer the end of his 
elevation, ver. 2. Give him thy grace, and then thy people committed to his 
charge will have the benefit of it. Because God loved Israel, he made him king 
over them to do judgment and justice, 2 Chr. ix. 8. We may in faith wrestle 
with God for that grace which we have reason to think will he of common 
advantage to his church. 2. As an answer of peace to the prayer. As by the 
prayer of faith we return answers to God's promises of mercy, so by the pro- 
mises of mercy God returns answers to our prayers of faith. That this pro- 
phecy must refer to the kingdom of the Messiah is plain, because there are 
many passages in it which cannot be applied to the reign of Solomon. There 
was indeed a great deal of righteousness and peace at first in the administration 
of his government : but before the end of his reign there was both trouble and 
unrighteousness. The kingdom here spoken of is to last as long as the sun, but 
Solomon's was soon extinct. Therefore even the Jewish expositors understand 
it of the kingdom of the Messiah. Let us observe the many great and precious 
promises here made, which were to have their full accomplishment only in the 
kingdom of Christ ; and yet some of them were in part fulfilled in Solomon's 
reign. 

First. That it should be a righteous government ; ver. 2. " He shall judge thy 
people with righteousness:" compare lsa. xi. 4. All the laws of Christ's king- 
dom are consonant to the eternal rules of equity ; the chancery it erects to 
relieve against the rigours of the broken law is indeed a court of equity, and 
against the sentence of his last judgment there will lie no exception. The peace 
of his kingdom shall be supported by righteousness, ver. 3; for then only is the 
peace like a river, when the righteousness is as the waves of the sea. The 
world will be judged in righteousness, Acts xvii. 31. 

Secondly. That it should be a peaceable government. " The mountains shall 
bring peace, and the little hills,"ver. 3 that is, (saith Dr. Hammond,) both the 



PSALM LXXII. 343 

superior and the inferior courts of judicature in Solomon's kingdom. There 
shall be abundance of peace, ver. 7. Solomon's name signifies peaceable, and 
such was his reign ; for in it Israel enjoyed the victories of the foregoing reign, 
and preserved the tranquillity and repose of that reign. But peace is in a 
special manner the glory of Christ's kingdom, for as far as it prevails it recon- 
ciles men to God, to themselves, and to one another, and slays all enmities ; 
" for he is our peace." 

Thirdly. That the poor and needy should be in a particular manner taken 
under the protection of this government; "He shall judge thy poor," ver. 2. 
Those are God's poor that are impoverished by keeping a good conscience, and 
those shall be provided for with a distinguishing care, shall be judged for with 
judgment, with a particular cognizance taken of their case, and a particular 
vengeance taken for their wrongs. The poor of the people, and the children of 
the needy, he will be sure so to judge as to save, ver. 4. This is insisted upon 
again, ver. 12, 13, intimating that Christ will be sure to carry his cause on 
behalf of his injured poor. He will deliver the needy that lie at the mercy of 
their oppressors, the poor also; both because they have no helper and it is for 
his honour to help them, and because they cry unto him and he has promised 
in answer to their prayers to help them; they by prayer commit themselves 
unto him, Ps. x. 14. He will spare the needy that throw themselves on his 
mercy, and will not be rigorous and severe with them ; he will save their souls, 
and that is all they desire. " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven." Christ is the poor man's king. 

Fourthly. That proud oppressors shall be reckoned with. He shall break 
them in pieces, ver. 4, shall take away their power to hurt, and punish them for 
all the mischief they have done. This is the office of a good king, Parcere sub- 
jectis, et dehellare superbos, — ' To spare the vanquished, and debase the proud.' 
The devil is the great oppressor whom Christ will break in pieces, and of 
whose kingdom he will be the destruction ; with the breath of his mouth shall 
he slay that wicked one, Isa. xi. 4, and shall deliver the souls of his people from 
deceit and violence, ver. 14. He shall save them from the power of Satan, both 
as an old serpent, working by deceit to ensnare them, and as a roaring lion, 
working by violence to terrify and devour them. Thus precious shall their 
blood be unto him, that not a drop of it shall be shed by the deceit or violence 
of Satan or his instruments, but it shall be reckoned for. Christ is a King who, 
though he calls his subjects sometimes to resist unto blood for him, yet is not 
prodigal of their blood, nor will ever have it parted with, but upon a valuable 
consideration, to his glory and theirs, and the filling up of the measure of their 
iniquity. 

fifthly. That religion shall flourish under Christ's government ; ver. 5, " They 
shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure." Solomon indeed built the 
temple, and the fear and worship of God was well kept up for some time under 
his government, but it did not last long. This therefore must point at Christ's 
kingdom, all the subjects of which are brought to and kept in the fear of God; 
for the Christian religion has a direct tendency to, and a powerful influence 
upon, the support and advancement of natural religion. Faith in Christ will 
set up, and keep up, the fear of God ; and therefore this is the everlasting 
Gospel that is preached, "Fear God, and give honour to him," Rev. xiv. 7. 
And as Christ's government promotes devotion towards God, so it promotes 
both justice and charity among men, ver. 7, "In his days shall the righteous 
flourish;" righteousness shall be practised, and those that practise righteous- 
ness shall be preferred. Righteousness shall abound and be in reputation; 
shall command and be in power. The law of Christ written in the heart dis- 
poseth men to be honest and just, and to render to all their due; it likewise 
disposeth men to live in love, and so it produceth abundance of peace, and 
beats swords into ploughshares. Both holiness and love shall be perpetual in 
Christ's kingdom, and shall never go to decay, for the subjects of it shall " fear 
God as long as the sun and moon endure;" that is, Christianity, in the pro- 
fession of it having got footing in the world, shall keep its ground till the end 
of time, and having in the power of it got footing in the heart, it will continue 
there till by death the sun and the moon and the stars, that is, the bodily 
senses, are darkened. Through all the changes of the world, and all the changes 
of life, Christ's kingdom will support itself ; and, if the fear of God continues 
as long as the sun and moon, abundance of peace will. The peace of the 
church, the peace of the soul, shall run parallel with its purity and piety, and 
last as long as these last. 

Sixthly. That Christ's government shall be very comfortable to all his faith- 
ful loving subjects; ver. 6, "He shall," by the graces and comforts of his Spirit, 
44 come down like rain upon the mown grass ;" not on that which is cut down, 
but that which is left growing, that it may spring again though it was beheaded. 
The Gospel of Christ distils as the rain, which softens the ground that was 
hard, moistens that which was dry, and so makes it green and fruitful, lsa. iv. 10. 
Let our hearts drink in the rain, Heb. vi. 7. 



3-14 



PSALM LXXIL 



Seventhly. That Christ's kingdom shall be extended very far, and greatly 
enlarged. Considering, 

1. The extent of his territories; ver. 8, " He shall have dominion from sea to 
sea," from the south sea to the north, or from the Bed sea to the Mediter- 
ranean ; and from the river Euphrates, or Nile, to the ends of the earth. 
Solomon's dominion was very large, 1 Kin. iv. 21, according to the promise, 
Gen. xv. 18. But no sea, no river, is named, that it might by these proverbial 
expressions speak the universal monarchy of the Lord Jesus. His Gospel has 
been, or shall be, preached to all nations, Mat. xxiv. 14 ; and the kingdoms of 
the world shall become his kingdoms, Rev. xi. 15, when the fulness of the Gen- 
tiles shall be brought in. His territories shall be extended to those countries, 
1st. That were strangers to him. " They that dwell in the wilderness," out of 
all high roads, that seldom hear news, yet shall hear the glad tidings of the 
Redeemer, and redemption by him, shall bow before him, that is, shall believe 
in him, accept of him, worship him, and take his yoke upon them. Before the 
Lord Jesus we must all either bow or break ; if we break we are ruined, if we 
bow we are certainly made for ever. 2nd. That were enemies to him, and had 
fought against him. They shall lick the dust; that is, they shall be brought 
down and laid in the dust, shall bite the ground for vexation, and be so hunger- 
bitten that they shall be glad of dust, the serpent's meat, Gen. iii. 15; for of his 
seed they are. And over whom shall not he rule, when his enemies themselves 
are thus humbled and brought low ? 

2. The dignity of his tributaries. He shall not only reign over them that 
dwell in the wilderness, the peasants and cottagers, but over them that dwell 
in the palaces ; ver. 10, the kings of Tarshish, and of the isles that lie most 
remote from Israel, and are the isles of the Gentiles, Gen. ix. 5. These shall 
bring presents to him as their sovereign Lord, by and under whom they hold 
their crowns, and all their crown lands. They shall court his favour, and make 
an interest in him, that they may hear his wisdom. This was literally fulfilled 
in Solomon ; for " all the kings of the earth sought the wisdom of Solomon, and 
brought every man his present," 2 Chr. ix. 23, 24; and in Christ too, when the 
wise men of the East, who probably were men of the first rank in their own 
country, came to worship him, and brought him presents, Mat. ii. 11. They 
shall present themselves to him; that is the best present we can bring to Christ, 
and without that no other present is acceptable, Rom. xii. 1. They shall offer 
gifts, that is, spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise; offer them to_ Christ as 
their God, on Christ as their altar, which sanctifies every gift. Their conver- 
sion to God is called the offering up, or sacrificing of the Gentiles, Rom. xv. 16; 
and so is their devotion to God, Heb. xiii. 15, 16. Yea, " all kings shall" sooner 
or later "fall down before him," either to do their duty to him, or to receive 
their doom from him, ver. 11. They shall fall before him either as his willing 
subjects or as his conquered captives ; as supplicants for his mercy or expect- 
ants of his judgment. And when the kings submit the people come in of course. 
"All nations shall serve him ;" all shall be invited into his service; some of all 
nations shall come into it, and in every nation incense shall be offered to him, 
and a pure offering, Mai. i. 11 ; Rev. vii. 9. 

Eighthly. That he shall be honoured and beloved by all his subjects; ver. 15, 
" He shall live;" his subjects shall desire his life, " O King, live for ever," and 
with good reason ; for he hath said, " Because I live, you shall live also," and 
"of him it is witnessed, that he liveth, ever liveth making intercession," 
Heb. vii. 8, 25. "He shall live," and live prosperously: and, 1. Presents shall 
be made to him. Though he shall be able to live without them, for he needs 
neither the gifts nor the services of any, yet "to him shall be given of the gold 
of Sheba;" gold, the best of metals, gold of Sheba, which probably was the 
finest gold ; for he that is best must be served with the best. They that have 
abundance of the wealth of this world, that have gold at command, must give 
it to Christ, that is, must serve him with it, do good w r ith it ; " Honour the 
Lord with thy substance." 2. "Prayer shall be made for him," and that "con- 
tinually." The people prayed for Solomon, and that helped to make him and 
his reign so great a blessing to them. It is the duty of subjects to make 
"prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks for kings, and all in authority;" 
not in compliment to them, as it is too often done, but in concern for the public 
welfare. But how is this applied to Christ? He needs not" our prayers, nor 
can have any benefit by them. But the Old Testament saints prayed for his 
coming, prayed continually for it; for they called him, "He that should come." 
And now he is come we must pray for the success of his Gospel, and the 
advancement of his kingdom, which he calls praying for him, "Hosanna to the 
Son of David," prosperity to his reign ; and we pray for his second coming. It 
may be read, 4 Prayer shall be made through him,' or for his sake; that is, 
whatsoever we ask of the Father shall be in his name, and in dependence upon 
his intercession. 3. Praises shall be made of him, and high encomiums given of 
his wisdom, justice, and goodness ; " daily shall he be praised." By praying daily 
in his name we give him honour. Subjects ought to speak well of the govern- 



PSALM LXXII. 



345 



merit that is a blessing to them; and much more ought all Christians to praise 
Jesus Christ, daily to praise him ; for they owe their all to him, and to him they 
lie under the highest obligations. 

Ninthly. That under his government there shall be a wonderful increase both 
of meat and mouths, both of the fruits of the earth in the country and of the 
people inhabiting the cities, ver. 16. 1. The country shall grow rich; sow but 

a handful of corn on the top of the mountains," whence one would expect but 
little, and yet " the fruit of it shall shake like Lebanon," it shall come up like a 
wood, so thick, and tall, and strong, like the cedars of Lebanon. Even upon 
the tops of the mountains the earth shall bring forth by handfuls ; that is an 
expression of great plenty, Gen. xli. 47, as the grass upon the housetop is said 
to be that wherewith the mower filleth not his hand. This is applicable to the 
wonderful products of the seed of the Gospel in the days of the Messiah : a 
handful of that seed, sown in the mountainous and barren soil of the Gentile 
world, produced a wonderful harvest, gathered in to Christ, fruit that shook 
like Lebanon; the fields were white to the harvest, Jno. iv. 35; Mat. ix. 37. 
The grain of mustardseed grew up to a great tree. 2. The towns shall grow 
populous; " they of the city shall flourish like grass," for number, for verdure. 
The Gospel church, the city of God among men, shall have all the marks of 
prosperity, many shall be added to it, and those that are, shall be happy in it. 

Tenthly. That his government shall be perpetual, both to his honour and to 
the happiness of his subjects. The Lord Jesus shall reign for ever, and of him 
only this must be understood, and not at all of Solomon. It is Christ only that 
" shall be feared throughout all generations," ver. 5; "and as long as the sun 
and moon endure," ver. 7. 1. The honour of the prince is immortal, and shall 
never be sullied ; ver. 17, "His name shall endure for ever," in despite of the 
malicious attempts and endeavours of the powers of darkness to eclipse the 
lustre of it, and to cut off the line of it ; it shall be preserved, it shall be 
perpetuated, and in a manner propagated. As the names of earthly princes are 
continued in their posterity, so Christ's in himself, jiliabitur nomen ejus, — 'his 
name shall descend to posterity.' All nations while the world stands shall call 
him blessed; shall bless God for him, and continually speak well of him, and 
think themselves Tiappy in him. To the end of time, and to eternity, his name 
shall be celebrated, shall be made use of ; every tongue shall confess it, and 
every knee shall bow before it. 2. The happiness of the people is universal 
too, it is complete and everlasting; "men shall be blessed," truly and for ever 
blessed, "in him." This plainly refers to the promise made unto the fathers 
that in the Messiah all the nations of the earth should be blessed, Gen. xii. 3. 

18 Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, 
Who only doeth wondrous things. 

1 9 And blessed be his glorious name for ever : 

And let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, 
and Amen. 

20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. 

Such an illustrious prophecy as is in the foregoing verses of the Messiah 
and his kingdom may fitly be concluded, as it is here, with hearty prayers and 
praises. 

First. The psalmist is here enlarged in thanksgivings for the prophecy and 
promise, ver. \8, 19. So sure is every word of God, and with so much satis- 
faction may we rely upon it, that we have reason enough to give thanks for 
what he hath said, though it be not yet done. We must own that for all the 
great things he has done for the world, for the church, for the children of men, 
for his own children, in the kingdom of providence, in the kingdom of grace, for 
all the pow er and trust lodged in the hands of the Kedeemer, God is worthy to 
be praised ; we must stir up ourselves and all that is within us to praise him 
after the best manner, and desire that all others may do it. " Blessed be the 
Lord," that is, " blessed be his glorious name ; " for it is only in his name that we 
can contribute any thing to his glory and blessedness, and yet that is also " ex- 
alted above all blessing and praise." Let it be blessed for ever ; it shall be blessed 
for ever, it deserves to be blessed for ever, and we hope to be for ever blessing 
it. W, ^re here taught to bless the name of Christ, and to bless God in Christ 
for all that which he has done for us by him. "We must bless him, 1. As the Lord 
God, as a self-existent, self-sufficient being, and our sovereign Lord. 2. As the 
Gcd of Israel, in covenant with that people, and worshipped by them, and who 
*ioth this in performance of the truth unto Jacob and the mercy to Abraham. 
3. As the God " who only doth wondrous things," in creation and providence, 



346 



PSALM LXXIII. 



and especially this work of redemption, which excelleth them all. Men's works 
are little, common, trifling things, and which without him they could not do. 
But God doth all by his own power, and they are wondrous things which he 
doth, and such as will be the eternal admiration of saints and angels. 

Secondly. He is earnest in prayer for the accomplishment of this prophecy 
and promise ; " Let the whole earth be filled with his glory ;" as it will be when 
" the kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents to him." It is sad to 
think how empty the earth is of the glory of God, how little service and honouf 
he has from a world to which he is such a bountiful benefactor. And therefore 
all that wish well to the honour of God, and the welfare of mankind, cannot 
but desire that the earth may be filled with the discoveries of his glory, suitably 
returned in thankful acknowledgments of his glory. Let every heart, and every 
mouth, and every assembly, be filled with the high praises of God. "We shall 
see how earnest David is in this prayer, and how much his heart is in it, if we 
observe, 1. How he shuts up the prayer with a double seal; "Amen, and 
Amen," again and again I say, I say it, and let all others say the same, so be it. 
Amen to my prayer; Amen to the prayers of all the saints to this purpose; 
" Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come." 2. How he even shuts up his life 
with this prayer, ver. 20. This was the last psalm that ever he penned, though 
not placed last in this collection ; he penned it when he lay on his death-bed, 
and with this he breathes his last: Let God be glorified ; let the kingdom of the 
Messiah be set up, and kept up in the world, and I have enough, I desire no, 
more. With this let the prayers of David the son of Jesse be ended; even so, 
come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. 



PSALM LXXIII. 

This psalm, and the ten that next follow it, carry the name of Asaph in the titles of 
them. If he was the penman of them, as many think, we rightly call them psalms of 
Asaph ; if he was only the chief musician, to whom they were delivered, our marginal 
reading is right, which calls them psalms for Asaph. It is probable he penned them, 
for we read of the words of David and of Asaph the seer, which were used in Heze- 
kiah's time, 2 Chr. xxix. 30. Though the spirit of prophecy by sacred songs descended 
chiefly on David, who is therefore styled the sweet psalmist of Israel, yet God put some 
of that spirit upon those about him. This is a psalm of great use ; it gives us an 
account of the conflict which the psalmist had with a strong temptation to envy the 
prosperity of wicked people. He begins his account with a sacred principle, which he 
held fast, and by the help of which he kept his ground and carried his point, ver. ] ; 
and then tells us, I. How he got into the temptation, ver. 2 — 14. II. How he got out 
of the temptation, and gained a victory over it, ver. 15 — 20. III. How he got by the 
temptation, and was the better for it, ver. 21 — 28. And if in singing this psalm we 
fortify ourselves against the like temptation, we do not use it in vain. The experiences 
of others should be our instructions. 

A Psalm of Asaph. 

rpKULY God is good to Israel, 

X Even to such as are of a clean heart. 

2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone ; 
My steps had well nigh slipped. 

3 For I was envious at the foolish, 

When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 

4 For there are no bands in their death : 
But their strength is firm. 

5 They are not in trouble as other men ; 
Neither are they plagued like other men. 

6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain ; 
Violence covereth them as a garment. 

7 Their eyes stand out with fatness : 
They have more than heart could wish. 

8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppres- 
They speak loftily. [sion : 



PSALM LXXIII. 347 
9 They set their mouth against the heavens, 
And their tongue walketh through the earth . 

1 0 Therefore his people return hither : 

And waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. 

1 1 And they say, How doth God know ? 
And is there knowledge in the most High ? 

12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world ; 
They increase in riches. 

13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, 
And washed my hands in innocency. 

1 4 For all the day long have I been plagued, 
And chastened every morning. 

The psalm begins somewhat abruptly ; ' Yet God is good to Israel,' so the 
margin reads it. He had been thinking of the prosperity of the wicked; and 
while he was thus musing the fire burned, and at last he spake by way of check 
to himself for what he had been thinking of, 'However it be, yet God is good/ 
Though wicked people receive many of the gifts of his providential bounty, yet 
we must own that he is in a peculiar manner good to Israel; they have favours 
from him which others have not. The psalmist designs an account of a temp- 
tation he was strongly assaulted with to envy the prosperity of the wicked; 
a common temptation, which has tried the graces of many of the saints. Kow 
in this account, 

First. He lays down, in the first place, that great principle which he is re- 
solved to abide by, and not to quit while he was parleying with this temptation, 
ver. 1. Job, when he was entering into such a temptation, fixed for his prin- 
ciple, the omniscience of God; "Times are not hidden from the Almighty," 
Job xxiv. 1. Jeremiah's principle is the justice of God; "Righteous art thou, 

0 God, when I plead with thee," Jer. xii. 1. Habakkuk's principle is the holi- 
ness of God ; " Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," Hub. i. 13. The 
psalmist's here is the goodness of God. These are truths that cannot be shaken, 
and w r hich we must resolve to live and die by. Though we may not be able to 
reconcile all the disposals of Providence with them, we must believe they are 
reconcilable. Note, Good thoughts of God will fortify us against many of 
Satan's temptations. " Truly God is good." He had had many thoughts in his 
mind concerning the providences of God, but this word at last settled him: 
For all this, God is good, " good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart." 
Note, 1. Those are the Israel of God that are of a clean heart, purified by 
the blood of Christ, cleansed from the pollutions of sin, and entirely devoted 
to the glory of God. An upright heart is a clean heart; cleanliness is truth in 
the inward part. 2. God, who is good to all, is, in a special manner, good to 
his church and people, as he was to Israel of old. God was good to Israel 
in redeeming them out of Egypt, taking them into covenant with himself, giving 
them his laws and ordinances, and in the various providences that were con- 
cerning them ; and he is in like manner good to all them that are of a clean 
heart ; and, w r hatever happens, we must not think otherwise. 

Secondly. He comes now to relate the shock that was given to his faith in 
God's distinguishing goodness to Israel, by a strong temptation to envy the 
prosperity of the wicked, and therefore to think that the Israel of God are 
no happier than other people, and that God is no kinder to them than to others. 
He speaks of it as a very fair escape that he had not been quite foiled and over- 
thrown by this temptation ; ver. 2, " But as for me," though I was so well 
satisfied in the goodness of God to Israel, yet "my feet were almost gone," the 
tempter had almost tripped up my heels, "my steps had well nigh slipped;" 

1 had like to have quitted my religion, and given up all my expectations of 
benefit by it, "for I was envious at the foolish." Note, 1. The faith even of 
strong believers may sometimes be sorely shaken, and ready to fail them. 
There are storms that will try the firmest anchors. 2. Those that shall never 
be quite undone are sometimes very near it, and in their own apprehension 
as good as ^one. Many a precious soul that shall live for ever had once a 
very narrow turn for its life ; almost and well nigh ruined, but a step between 
it and a fatal apostacy, and yet snatched as a brand out of the burning, which 
will for ever magnify the riches of Divine grace in the nations of them that are 
saved. Now let us take notice of the process of the psalmist's temptation: what 
he was tempted with, and tempted to. 



348 PSALM LXXIIL 

1. He observed that foolish, wicked people have oftentimes a very great share 
of outward prosperity. He saw, with grief, the prosperity of the wicked, 
ver. 3. Wicked people are really foolish people, and act against reason and 
their true interest, and yet every stander-by sees their prosperity. 

m 1st. They seem to have the least share of the troubles and calamities of this 
life ; ver. 5, " They are not in trouble as other men," even of wise and good men, 
"neither are they plagued with other men," but seem as if, by some special 
privilege, they were exempted from the common lot of sorrows. If they meet 
with some little trouble, it is nothing to what others endure, that are less 
sinners^and yet greater sufferers. 

m 2nd. They seem to have the greatest share of the comforts of this life. They 
live at ease, and bathe themselves in pleasures, so that " their eyes stand out 
with fatness," ver. 7. See what the excess of pleasure is; the moderate use 
ot it enlightens the eyes, but they that indulge themselves inordinately in the 
delights of sense have their eyes ready to start out of their heads. Epicures 
are really their own tormentors, by putting a force upon nature, while they 
pretend to gratify it. And well may they feed themselves to the full who ''have 
more than heart could wish," more than they themselves ever thought of, or 
expected to be masters of. They have at least more than an humble, quiet, 
contented heart could wish, yet not so much as they themselves wish for. 
There are many who have a great deal of this life in their hands, but nothing 
of the other life in their hearts. They are ungodly, live without the fear and 
worship of God, and yet they prosper and come on in the world, and not only 
are rich, but increase in riches, ver. 12. They are looked upon as thriving men, 
and while others have much ado to keep what they have they are still adding 
more, more honour, power and pleasure, by increasing in riches. They are the 
prosperous of the age ; so some read it. 

3rd. Which is most strange of all, and therefore is first mentioned, their end 
seems to be peace. This was ever thought to be the peculiar privilege of the 
godly, Ps. xxxvii. 37 ; and yet, to outward appearance, it is oftentimes the lot 
of the ungodly ; ver. 4, " There are no bands in their death." They are not 
taken off by a violent death ; they are foolish, and yet die not as fools die ; for 
" their hands are not bound, nor their feet put into fetters," 2 Sain. iii. 33, 34. 
They are not taken off by an untimely death, like the fruit forced from the tree 
before it is ripe, but are left to hang on till, through old age, they gently drop 
of themselves. They do not die of sore and painful diseases, there are no pangs, 
no agonies in their death ; but "their strength is firm" to the last, so that they 
scarce feel themselves die. They are of those who "die in their full strength, 
being wholly at ease and quiet;" not of those that "die in the bitterness of their 
souls, and never eat with pleasure," Job xxi. 23, 25. Nay, they are not bound 
by the terrors of conscience in their dying moments, they are not frightened 
either with the remembrance of their sins or the prospect of their misery, but 
die securely. We cannot judge of men's state on the other side death, either 
by the manner of their death or the frame of their spirits in dying. Men may 
die like lambs, and yet have their place with the goats. 

2. He observed that they made a very ill use of their outward prosperity, and 
were hardened by it in their wickedness, which very much strengthened the 
temptation he was in to grudge at it. If it had done them any good, if it had 
made them less provoking to God, or less oppressive to man, it would never 
have vexed him ; but it had a quite contrary effect upon them. 

1st. It made them very proud and haughty, because they live at ease; "Pride 
compasseth them as a chain," ver. 6. They shew themselves to all that see them 
to be puffed up with their prosperity, as men shew then* ornaments. "The 
pride of Israel testifies to his face," Hos. v. 5; Isa.iii. 9. 'Pride ties on their 
chain,' or necklace, so Dr. Hammond reads it % It is no harm to wear a chain 
or necklace ; but when pride ties it on, when it is worn to gratify a vain mind, 
it ceaseth to be an ornament. It is not so much what the dress "or apparel is, 
(though we have rules for that, 1 Tim. ii. 9,) as what principle ties it on, and 
with what spirit it is worn. And as the pride of sinners appears in their dress, 
so it doth in their talk; " they speak loftily," ver. 8. They affect great swelling 
words of vanity, 2 Pet. ii. 18, bragging of themselves, and disdaining all about 
them. Out of the abundance of the pride that is in their heart they speak big. 

2nd. It made them oppressive to their poor neighbours ; ver. 6, " Violence 
covereth them as a garment." What they have got by fraud and oppression 
they keep and increase by the same wicked methods, and care not what injury 
they do to others, nor what violence they use, so they may but enrich and. 
aggrandize themselves. " They are corrupt," like the giants, the sinners of 
the old world, when "the earth was filled with violence through them," 
Gen. vi. 11, 13. They care not what mischief they do, either for mischief sake 
or for their own advantage sake; "they speak wickedly concerning oppres.- 
sion;" they oppress, and justify themselves in it. They that speak well of sin 
speak wickedly of it. " They are corrupt;" that is, dissolved in pleasures, and 



PSALM LXXII1. 349 

every thing that is luxurious, so some ; and then they deride and speak malici- 
ously ; they care not whom they wound with the poisoned darts of calumny ; 
' from on high they speak oppression.' 

3rd. It made them very insolent in their carriage, both towards God and man; 
ver. 9, "They set their mouth against the heavens;" putting contempt upon 
God himself and his honour, bidding defiance to him and his power and justice; 
they cannot reach the heavens with their hands to shake God's throne, else they 
would; but they shew their ill-will by setting their mouth against the heavens. 
" Their tongue also walks through the earth," and they take a liberty to abuse 
all that come in tiieir way. No man's greatness or goodness can secure him 
from the scourge of the virulent tongue ; they take a pride and pleasure in ban- 
tering all mankind ; they are pests of the country, for they neither fear God nor 
regard man. 

4th. In all this they were very atheistical and profane. They could not have 
been thus wicked if they had not learned to say, ver. 11, "How doth God know? 
and is there knowledge in the most High?" So far were they from desiring 
the knowledge of God, who gave them all the good things they had, and would 
have taught them to use them well, that they were not willing to believe God 
had any knowledge of them, that he took any notice of their wickedness, or 
would ever call them to an account. As if, because he is most high, he could 
not, or would not, see them, Job xxii. 11. Whereas, because he is most high, 
therefore he can and will take cognizance of all the children of men, and of 
all they do, or say, or think. What an affront is it to the God of infinite know- 
ledge, from whom all knowledge is, to ask, Is there knowledge in him ? Well 
may he say, ver. 12, " Behold these are the ungodly." 

3. He observed that while wicked men thus prospered in their impiety, and 
were made more impious by their prosperity, good people were in great afflic- 
tion, and he himself in particular ; which very much strengthened the tempta- 
tion he was in to quarrel with Providence. 

1st. He looked abroad, and saw many of God's people greatly at a loss, ver. 10. 
Because the wicked are so very daring, "therefore his people return hither;" 
that is, they are at the same pause, the same plunge that 1 am at; they know 
not what to say to it no»more than I do, and the rather, because " waters of a 
full cup are wrung out to them ; " they are not only made to drink, and to drink 
deep, of the bitter cup of affliction, but to drink all. Care is taken that they lose 
not a drop of that unpleasant potion; the waters are wrung out unto them, that 
they may have the dregs of the cup. They pour out abundance of tears when 
they hear wicked people blaspheme God, and speak profanely, as David did, 
Ps. cxix. 136. These are the waters wrung out to them. 

2nd. He looked at home, and felt himself under the continual frowns of pro- 
vidence, while the wicked were sunning themselves in its smiles, ver. 14. For 
my part, saith he, "all the day long have I been plagued" with one affliction 
or other, "and chastened every morning," as duly as the morning comes. His 
afflictions were great, he was chastened and plagued; the returns of them 
were constant, every morning with the morning ; and they continued without 
intermission, " all the day long." This he thought was very hard, that, when 
those who blasphemed God were in prosperity, he that worshipped God was 
under such great affliction. He spoke feelingly when he spoke of his own 
troubles ; no disputing against sense, except by faith. 

4. From all this arose a very strong temptation to cast off his religion. 1st. 
Some that observed the prosperity of the wicked, especially comparing it with 
the afflictions of the righteous, were tempted to deny a prov.'.dence, and to think 
that God had forsaken the earth. In this sense some take ver. 11. There are 
those even among God's professing people that say, "How doth God know?" 
Sure all things are left to blind fortune, and not disposed of by an all-seeing 
God. Some of the heathen, upon such a remark as this, have asked, Quis 
putet essedeos? — *W r ho will believe that there are gods?' 2nd. Though the 
psalmist's feet were not thus far gone, as to question God's omniscience, yet 
he was tempted to question the benefit of religion, and to say, ver. 13, " Verily 
I have cleansed my heart in vain, and" have to no purpose, " washed my hands 
in innocency." See here what it is to be religious; it is to cleanse our hearts 
in the first place, by repentance and regeneration, and then to wash our hands 
in innocency, by an universal reformation of our lives. It is not in vain to do 
this, not in vain to serve God and keep his ordinances ; but good men have been 
sometimes tempted to say, It is in vain; and that religion is a thing that there 
is nothing to be got by, because they see wicked people in prosperity, But, 
however the thing may appear now, when the pure in heart, those blessed 
ones, shall see God, Mat. v. 8, they will not say that they cleansed their hearts 
in vain. 

1 5 If I say, I will speak thus ; [children. 
Behold, I should offend against the generation of thy 



350 PSALM LXXIII. 

1 6 When I thought to know this, 
It was too painful for me ; 

1 7 Until I went into the sanctuary of God ; 
Then understood I their end. 

18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; 
Thou castedst them down into destruction. 

1 9 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment ! 
They are utterly consumed with terrors. 

20 As a dream when one awake th ; [image. 
So, 0 Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their 

We have seen what a strong temptation the psalmist was in to envy prosper- 
ing profaneness ; now here we are told how he kept footing, and got the victory. 

First. He kept up a respect for God's people, and with that he restrained 
himself from speaking what he had thought amiss, ver. 15. He got the victory 
by degrees ; and this was the first point he gained. He was ready to say, "Verily 
I have cleansed my heart in vain," and thought he had reason to say it; but he 
Sept his mouth with this consideration, "If I say I will speak thus, behold 
I should" myself revolt and apostatize from, and so give the greatest offence 
imaginable, "to the generation of thy children." Observe here, 1. Though he 
thought amiss, he took care not to utter that evil thought which he had con- 
ceived. Note, It is bad to thiak ill, but it is worse to speak it, for that is giving 
the evil thought an imprimatur ; it is allowing it, giving consent to it, and pub- 
lishing it for the infection of others. But it is a good sign we repent of the evil 
imagination of the heart, if we suppress it, and the error remain eth with our- 
selves. If, therefore, thou hast been so foolish as to think evil, be so wise as 
to lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and let it go no farther, Pr. xxx. 32. " If I say 
I will speak thus." Observe, though his corrupt heart made this inference 
from the prosperity of the wicked, yet he did not mention it to those about him 
till he had debated within himself whether it were fit to be mentioned or no. 
Note, We must think twice before we speak once ; both because some things 
may be thought which yet may not be spoken, and because the second thoughts 
may correct the mistakes of the first. 2. The reason why he would not speak 
it was, for fear of giving offence to thoce whom God owned for his children. 
Note, 1st. There is a people in the world that are the generation of God's 
children, a set of men that fear and love God as their Father. 2nd. We must 
be very careful not to say or do any thing which may justly offend any of these 
little ones, Mat. xviii. 6, especially that may offend the generation of them, may 
sadden their hearts, or weaken their hands, or shake their interest. 3rd. There 
is nothing that can give more general offence to the generation of God's chil- 
dren than to say that we have cleansed our heart in vain, or that it is vain 
to serve God ; for there is nothing more contrary to their universal sentiment 
and experience, nor any thing that grieves them more than to hear God thus 
reflected on. 4th. Those that wish themselves in the condition of the w r icked 
do in effect quit the tents of God's children. 

Secondly. He foresaw the ruin of wicked people ; and by this he baffled the 
temptation, as by the former he gave some check to it. Because he durst not 
speak what he had thought, for fear of giving offence, he began to consider 
whether he had any good reason for that thought, ver. 16. I endeavoured to 
understand the meaning of this unaccountable dispensation of Providence ; but 
"it was too painful for me," I could not conquer it by the strength of my own 
reasoning. It is a problem not to be solved by the mere light of nature ; for if 
there were not another life after this we could not fully reconcile the pros- 
perity of the wicked with the justice of God; but, ver. 17, he "w r ent into the 
sanctuary of God," he applied himself to his devotions, meditated upon the 
attributes of God, and "the things revealed w r hich belong to us and to our 
children;" he consulted the Scriptures, and the priests' lips who attend the 
sanctuary : he prayed to God to make this matter plain to him, and to help him 
over this difficulty ; and at length he understood the w T retched end of wicked 
people, which he plainly foresaw to be such, that even in the height of their 
prosperity they were rather to be pitied than envied, for they w r ere but ripen- 
ing for ruin. Note, 1st. There are many great things, and needful to be 
known, which will not be known otherwise than by going into the sanctuary 
of God, by the word and prayer. That therefore must be the resort of a 
tempted soul. 2nd. We must judge of persons and things as they appear by 
the light of Divine revelation, and then we shall judge righteous judgment; 
particularly we must judge by the end. All is well that ends well, everlast- 



PSALM LXXIII. 351 

ingly well; but nothing well that ends ill, everlastingly ill. The righteous 
man s afflictions end in peace, and therefore he is happy ; the wicked man's 
enjoyments end in destruction, and therefore he is miserable. 

1. The prosperity of the wicked is short and uncertain. The high places in 
which Providence sets them are slippery places, ver. 18, where they cannot 
long keep footing ; but when they offer to climb higher that very attempt will 
be the occasion of their sliding and falling. Their prosperity has no firm 
ground, it is not built upon God's favour or his promise ; and they have not 
the satisfaction of feeling any firm ground it has. 

2. Their destruction is sure and sudden, and very great. This cannot be 
meant of any temporal destruction, for they were supposed to spend all their 
days in wealth, and their death itself had no bands in it, "in a moment they 
go down to the grave ;" so that even that could scarce be called their destruc- 
tion. It must therefore be meant of eternal destruction on the other side 
death; hell and destruction. They flourish for a time, but are undone for 
ever. 1st. Their ruin is sure and inevitable. He speaks of it as a thing done; 
they are cast down, for their destruction is as certain as if it were already 
accomplished. He speaks of it as God's doing, and therefore it cannot be 
resisted : " Thou castest them down." It is destruction from the Almighty, 
Joel i. 15; from the glory of his power, 2 Thes. i. 9. Who can support those 
whom God will cast down, whom God will lay load upon? 2nd. It is swift 
and sudden. Their damnation slumbereth not ; for " how are they brought 
into desolation as in a moment?" ver. 19. It is easily effected, and will be 
a mighty surprise to themselves and all about them. 3rd. It is severe and 
very dreadful. It is a total, final ruin; "they are utterly consumed with 
terrors." It is the misery of the damned, that the terrors of the Almighty, 
whom they have made their enemy, fasten upon their guilty consciences, which 
can neither shelter themselves from them nor strengthen themselves undei 
them; and therefore, not their being, but their bliss, must needs be utterly 
consumed by them. Not the least degree of comfort or hope remains to them ; 
the higher they were lifted up in their prosperity, the sorer will their fall be 
when they are' cast down into destructions, (for the word is plural,) and sud- 
denly brought into desolation. 

3. Their prosperity is therefore not to be envied at all, but despised rather; 
quod erat demonstrandum, — 'which was the point to be established;' ver. 20, 
" As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest," or ' when 
they awake' (so some read it) "thou shalt despise their image," their shadow, 
and make it to vanish. ' In the day of the great judgment,' (so the Chaldee 
paraphrase reads it,) when they are awaked out of their graves, thou shalt in 
wrath despise their image; for "they shall rise to shame and everlasting con- 
tempt." See here, 1st. What their prosperity now is. It is # but an image, 
a vain show, a fashion of the world that passeth away ; it is not real, but 
imaginary, and it is only a corrupt imagination that makes it a happiness ; it 
is not substance, but a mere shadow, not what it seems to be, nor will it 
prove what we promise ourselves from it; it is a dream, which may please us 
a little while we are asleep, yet even then disturbs our repose; but, how 
pleasing soever it is, it is all but a cheat, all false, when we awake we find, 
it so. A hungry man dreams that he eats, but he wakes and his soul is empty, 
Jsa. xxix. 8. A man is never the more rich or honourable for dreaming he is so. 
Who, therefore, will envy a man the pleasure of a dream ? 2nd. What will be 
the issue of it. God will awake to judgment, to plead his own and his people's 
injured cause. They shall be made to awake out of the sleep of their carnal 
security, and then God shall despise their image ; that is, he shall make it to 
appear to all the world how despicable it is ; so that the righteous shall laugh 
at them, Ps. lii. 6, 7. How did God despise that rich man's image, when he 
said, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee," Lu. xii. 19, 20. 
We ought to be of God's mind, for his judgment, is according to truth ; and not 
to admire and envy that which he despiseth, and will despise ; for sooner or 
later he will bring all the world to be of his mind. 

21 Thus my heart was grieved, 
And I was pricked in my reins. 

22 So foolish ivas I, and ignorant : 
I was as a beast before thee. 

23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee : 
Thou hast holden me by my right hand. 

24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, 
And afterward receive me to glory. 



352 PSALM L XXIII. 

25 Whom have I in heaven but thee ? 

And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. 

26 My flesh and my heart faileth : [for ever. 
But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion 

27 For, lo a they that are far from thee shall perish : 

Thou hast destroyed all them that go a Tvhoring from 

28 But it is good for me to draw near to God : [thee. 
I have put my trust in the Lord God, 

That I may declare all thy works. 

Behold Samson's riddle again unriddled, "Out of the eater came forth meat, 
and out of the strong sweetness ; " for we have here an account of the good 
improvement which the psalmist made of that sore temptation with which he 
had been assaulted, and by which he was almost overcome. He that stumbles 
and doth not fall, by recovering himself takes so much the longer steps for- 
wards. It was so with the psalmist here ; divers good lessons he learned from 
his temptation, his struggles with it, and his victories over it. Nor would God 
surfer his people to be tempted, if his grace was not sufficient for them, not only 
to save them harmless, but to make them gainers by it ; even this shall work for 
good. 

First. He learned to think very humbly of himself, and to abase and accuse 
himself before God, ver. 21, 22. _ He reflects with shame upon the disorder and 
danger he was in, and the vexation he gave himself by entertaining the tempta- 
tion, and parleying with it; "My heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my 
reins," as one afflicted with the acute pain of the stone in the region of the 
kidneys. If ill thoughts at any time enter into the mind of a good man, he doth 
not roll them under his tongue as a sweet morsel, but they are grievous and 
painful to him. Temptation was to Paul as a thorn in the' flesh, 2 Cor. xii. 7. 
This particular temptation, the working of envy and discontent, is as painful 
as any other; where it constantly rests, it is the rottenness of the bones, 
Pr. xiv. 30 ; where it doth but occasionally come, it is the pricking of the reins. 
Fretfulness is a corruption that is its own correction. 

Now, in the reflection upon it, 1. He owns it was his folly thus to vex him- 
self : "So foolish was I" to be my own tormentor. Let peevish people thus 
reproach themselves for, and shame themselves out of, their discontents. "What 
a fool am I thus to make myself uneasy without a cause. 2. He owns it was his 
ignorance to vex himself at this. So ignorant of that which 1 might have known, 
and which, if I had known it aright, would have been sufficient to have silenced 
the fret. " I was as a beast," behemoth, * a great beast, 5 "before thee." Beasts 
mind present things only, and never look before at what is to come ; and so 
did I. If I had not been a great fool, I should never have suffered such a 
senseless temptation to have prevailed over me so far. What! to envy wicked 
men upon account of their prosperity ! to be ready to wish myself one of them, 
and to think of changing conditions with them ! " so foolish was I." Note ; If 
good men do at any time, through the surprise and strength of temptation, 
think, or speak, or act amiss, when they see their error they will reflect upon 
it with sorrow^, and shame, and self-abhorrence ; will call themselves fools for 
it ; " Surely I am more brutish than any man," Pr. xxx. 2 ; Job xlii. 5, 6. Thus 
David, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10. 

_ Secondly. He took occasion from hence to own his dependence and obliga- 
tions to the grace of God ; ver. 23, " Nevertheless," as foolish as I am, " I am 
continually with thee," and in thy favour, "thou hast holden me by my right 
hand." This may refer either, 1. To the care God had taken of him, and the 
kindness he had shewed him all along from his beginning hitherto. He had 
said in the hour of temptation, ver. 14, "All the day long have I been plagued;" 
but here he corrects himself for that passionate complaint. Though God has 
chastened me, he has not cast me off; notwithstanding all the crosses of my life, 
"I have been continually with thee;" I have had thy presence with me, and 
thou hast been nigh unto me in all that w r hich I have called upon thee for ; and 
therefore, " though perplexed, yet not in despair." Though God has sometimes 
written bitter things against me, yet he has still " holden me by my right hand," 
both to keep me that I should not desert him, or fly off from him, and to pre- 
vent my sinking and fainting under my burthens, or losing my w T ay in the 
wildernesses through which I have walked. If we have been kept in the way 
with God, kept close to our duty, and upheld in our integrity, we must own 
ourselves indebted to the free grace of God *or our preservation ; " Having 



PSALM LXXIIL 



3-53 



obtained help of God, I continue hitherto." And if he has thus maintained the 
spiritual life, the earnest of eternal life, we ou^ht not to complain, whatever 
calamities of this present time we have met with. Or, 2. To the late experi- 
ence he had had of the power of Divine grace in carrying him through this 
strong temptation, and bringing him off a conqueror. I \vas foolish and igno- 
rant, and yet thou hast had compassion on me and taught me, Heb. v. 2, and 
kept me under thy protection ; for the unworthiness of man is no bar to the 
free grace of God. We must ascribe our safety in temptation, and our victory 
over it, not to our own wisdom, for we are foolish and ignorant, but to the 
gracious presence of God with us, and the prevalency of Christ's intercession 
for us, that our faith may not fail. " My feet were almost gone,'* and they had 
quite gone past recovery but that thou hast holden me by my right hand, and 
so kept me from falling. 

Thirdly. He encouraged himself to hope that the same God who had delivered 
him from this evil work w^ould preserve him to his heavenly kingdom, as St. 
Paul doth, 2 Tim. iv. 18. I am now upheld by thee, therefore "thou shalt guide 
me with thy counsel," leading me as thou hast done hitherto by many a dimcuit 
step; and being now continually with thee, thou shalt " afterwards receive me 
to glory," ver. 24. This completes the happiness of the saints, so that they have 
no reason to envy the worldly prosperity of sinners. _ Note, I. All those who 
commit themselves to God's conduct he will guide with his counsel, with the 
counsel both of his Word and of his Spirit, the best counsellors. The psalmist 
had like to have paid dear for following his own counsels in this temptation, 
and therefore resolves for the future to take God's advice, which shall never be 
w anting to those that duly seek it with a resolution to follow it. 2. All those 
that are guided and led by the counsel of God in this world shall be received 
to his glory in another w r orld. If we make God's glory in us the end we aim at, 
he will make our glory with him the end we shall for ever be happy in. Upon 
this consideration let us never envy sinners, but rather bless ourselves in our 
own blessedness. If God direct us in the way of our duty, and prevent our 
turning aside out of it, he will afterwards, when our state of trial and prepara- 
tion is over, receive us to his kingdom and glory, the believing hopes a:jd 
prospects of which will reconcile us to all the dark providences that now puzzle 
and perplex us, and ease us of the pain we have been put into by some threaten - 
ing temptations. 

Fourthly. He was hereby quickened to cleave the closer to God, and very 
much confirmed and comforted in the choice he had made of him, ver. 25, 26 r . 
His thoughts here dw T ell with delight upon his own happiness in God, as much 
greater than the happiness of the ungodly that prospered in the world. He saw 
little reason to envy them what they had in the creature, when he found how- 
much more and better, surer and sw r eeter, comforts he had in the Creator, and 
what cause he had to please himself with that. He had complained of his afflic- 
tions, ver. 14, but this makes them very light and easy. ' All is well, if God be 
mine.' We have here the breathings of a sanctified soul towards God, and its 
repose in him, as that to a godly man really which the prosperity of a worldly 
man is to him in conceit and imagination. " Whom have I in heaven but thee ? " 
There is scarce a verse in all the psalms more expressive than this of the pious 
and devout affections of a soul to God ; here it soars up towards him, follows 
hard after him, and yet at the same time has an entire satisfaction and compla- 
cency in him. 

1. It is here supposed that God alone is the felicity and chief good of man. 
He, and none but he. that made the soul can make it happy. There is none in 
heaven, none in earth, that can pretend to do it but he. 

2. Here are expressed the workings and breathings of a soul towards God 
accordingly. If God be our felicity, 

1st, Then we must have him, ("Whom have I but thee?") we must choose 
him, and make sure to ourselves an interest in him. What will it avail us that 
he is the felicity of souls, if he be not the felicity of our souls, and if we do 
not by a lively faith make him ours, by joining ourselves to him in an everlast- 
ing covenant? 

2nd. Then our desire must be towards him, and our delight in him. The 
word signifies both we must delight in what we have of God and desire what 
we yet farther hope for. Our desires must not only be offered up to God, but 
they must all terminate in him, desiring nothing more than God, but still 
more and more of him. This includes all our prayers, Lord give us thvself, 
as that includes all the promises, " I will be to them a God." " The desire of 
our souls is to thy name." 

3rd. We must prefer him in our choice and desire before any other. First. 
* There is none in heaven but thee," none to seek to, or trust in, none to court 
or ?ovet acquaintance with, but thee. God is in himself more glorious than any 
celestial being, Ps. lxxxix. 6, and must be in our eyes infinitely more desirable'. 
Excellent beings there are in heaven, but God only can make us happy. His 
favonj is infinitely more to us than the refreshments of the dews of heaven, or 



354 



PSALM LXXIII. 



the benign influence of the stars of heaven ; more than the friendship of the 
saints in heaven, or the good offices of the angels there. Secondly. " I desire 
none on earth beside thee." Not only none in heaven, a place at a distance, 
which we have hut little acquaintance with, but none on earth neither, where 
we have many friends, and where much of our present interest and concern lies. 
Earth carries away the desires of the most of men, and yet none on earth, no 
persons, no things, no possessions, no delights that I desire besides thee, or with 
thee, in comparison or competition with thee. We must desire nothing besides 
God but what we desire for him, (nil prcster te, nisi propter te, — 'nothing 
besides thee except for thy sake,) nothing but what we desire from him, and 
can be content without, so that it be made up in him. We must desire nothing 
besides God as needful to be a partner with him in making us happy. 

4th. Then we must repose ourselves in God with an entire satisfaction, ver. 26. 
Observe here, First. Great distress and trouble supposed ; " My flesh and my 
heart fails."' Note, Others have experienced, and we must expect, the failing 
both of flesh and heart. The body will fail by sickness, age, and death; and 
that which touches the bone and the flesh touches us in a tender part, that 
part of ourselves which we have been but too fond of. When the flesh fails, 
the heart is ready to fail too ; the conduct, and courage, and comfort fails. 
Secondly. Sovereign relief provided in this distress ; But " God is the strength 
of my heart, and my portion for ever/' Note, Gracious souls in their greatest 
distresses rest upon God as their spiritual strength, and their eternal portion. 
\st. "He is the strength of my heart." _ The rock of my heart, a Arm foundation 
which will bear my weight, and not sink under it. " God the strength of my 
heart." I have found him so, I do so still, and hope ever to find him so. In the 
distress supposed, he had put the case of a double failure, both flesh and heart 
fail, but in the relief he fastens on a single support ; he leaves out the flesh and 
the consideration of that, it is enough that God is the strength of his heart. He 
speaks as one careless of the body, — let that fail, there is no remedy : but con- 
cerned about the soul, — to be strengthened in the inner man. 2nd. He is "my 
portion for ever." He' will not only support me while I am here, but make me 
happy when I go hence. The saints choose God for their portion, they have 
him for their portion, and it is their happiness that he will be their portion, a 
portion that will last as long as the immortal soul lasts. 

Fifthly. He was fully convinced of the miserable estate of all wicked people. 
This he learned in the sanctuary upon this occasion, and he would never forget 
it ; ver. 27, " Lo, they that are far from thee," in a state of distance and estrange- 
ment, that desire the Almighty to depart from them, they shall certainly perish ; 
so shall their doom be ; they choose to be far from God, and they shall be far 
from him for ever. " Thou shalt " justly "destroy all them that go a whoring 
from thee," that is, all apostates that in profession have been betrothed to God, 
but forsake hiin, their duty to him, and their communion with him, to embrace 
the bosom of a stranger. The doom is severe, no less than perishing and being 
destroyed. It is universal, they shall all be destroyed, without exception ; it is 
certain, " thou hast destroyed;" it is as sure to be done as if done already; and 
the destruction of some is an earnest of the perdition of ail ungodly men. God 
himself undertakes to do it, into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fail ; 
"Thou," though infinite in goodness, yet wilt reckon for thine injured honour 
and abused patience, and " wilt destroy them that go a whoring from thee." 

Sixthly. He was mightily encouraged to cleave to God, and to confide in him ; 
ver. 28, if "they that are far from God shall perish," then 1. Let this oblige 
us to communion with God. If it fare so ill with those that live at a distance 
from him, then it is good, very good, the chief good, — that good for a man in 
this life which he should most carefully pursue and secure, — it is best for me 
to draw near to God. and to have God draw near to me. ' The original may 
take in both; 'But for my part,' fso I would read it,) 'the approach of God 
is good for me.' Our drawing near to God takes rise from his drawing near 
to us ; and it is the happy meeting that makes the biiss. Here is a great truth 
laid down, that it is good to draw near to God ; but the life of it lies in the 
application: "it is good for me." Those are wise who know what is good for 
themselves. Why, saith he, (and every good man agrees with him in it,) "it is 
good for me to draw near to God;" it is my duty, it is my interest. 2. Let us 
therefore live in a continual dependence upon him ; " I have put my trust in the 
Lord God," and will never go a whoring from him after any creature con- 
fidences. If wicked men, notwithstanding all their prosperity, shall perish 
and be destroyed, then let us trust in the Lord God; in him, not in them : see 
Ps. cxlvi. 3 — 5 ; in him, and not in our worldly prosperity. Let us trust in God, 
and neither fret at them nor be afraid of them ; let us trust in him for a better 
portion than theirs is. 3. While we do so, let us not doubt but that we shall 
have occasion to praise his name." Let us trust in the Lord, that we may declare 
ail his works. Note, Those that with an upright heart put their trust in God 
shall never want matter for thanksgiving to him. 



PSALM LXXIV. 



355 



This psalm doth so particularly describe the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by 
"Nebuchadnezzar, and the army of the Chaldeans, and can so hardly be applied to any 
other event we meet with in the Jewish history, that interpreters incline to think either 
it was penned by David, or Asaph in David's time, with a prophetical reference to that 
sad event, which yet is not so probable; or that it was penned by another Asaph that 
lived at the time of the captivity, or by Jeremiah, (for it is of a piece with his Lamenta- 
tions,) or some other prophet, and after the return out of captivity was delivered to the 
sons of Asaph, who were called by his name, for the public service of the church ; and 
that was the most eminent family of the singers in Ezra's time : see Ezr. ii. 41 ; iii. 10 ; 
Neh. xi. 17, 22; xii. 35, 46. The deplorable case of the people of God at that time is 
here* spread before the Lord, and left with him. The prophet, in the name of the 
church, I. Puts in complaining pleas of the miseries they suffered, for the quickening 
of their desire in prayer, ver. 1 — 11. II. He puts in comfortable pleas for the encou- 
raging of their faith in prayer, ver. 12 — 17. III. He concludes with divers petitions 
to God for deliverances, ver. 18 — 23. In singing it we must be affected with the former 
desolations of the church, for we are members of the same body, and may apply it to 
any present distresses or desolations of any part of the Christian church. 

Maschil of Asaph. 

0GOD, why hast thou cast us off for ever ? 
Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy 
pasture ? [of old ; 

2 Eemember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased 
The rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed , 
This mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. 

3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations ; 

Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the 
sanctuary. 

A Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations ; 
They set up then: ensigns for signs. 

5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up 
Axes upon the thick trees. 

6 But now they break down the carved work thereof at once 
With axes and hammers. 

7 They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, 

They have denied by casting down the dwelling place of 
thy name to the ground. 

8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together : 
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the 

9 We see not our signs : [land. 
There is no more any prophet : 

Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. 

10 0 God, how long shall the adversary reproach ? 
Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever ? 

11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand ? 
Pluck it out of thy bosom. 

This psalm is entitled, Maschil, a psalm to give instruction; for it was penned 
in a day of affliction, which is intended for instruction ; and this instruction 
in general it gives us, that when we are upon any account in distress it is our 
wisdom and duty toapply ourselves to God by faithful and fervent prayer, and 
we shall not find it in vain to do so. Three tilings they here complain of : 

First. The displeasure of God against them, as that which was the cause and 
bitterness of all their calamities. They look above the instruments of their 
trouble, who they knew could have no power against them, unless it were 
given them from above, and keep their eye upon God, by whose determined 



356 PSALM LXXIVe 

counsel they were delivered up into the hands of wicked and unreasonable men. 
Observe, The liberty they take to expostulate with God, ver. 1 ; and, we hope, 
not too great a liberty ; for Christ himself upon the cross, cried out, " My God, 
mv God, why hast thou forsaken me?" so the church here, " O God, why hast 
thou forsaken us for ever?" Here they speak according to their present dark 
and melancholy apprehensions ; for otherwise. " Hath God cast away his peo- 
ple? God forbid, ' Rom. xi. 1. The people of God must not think that, because 
they are cast down, they are therefore cast off; that because men cast them 
off therefore God doth; and that because he seems to cast them off for a 
time, therefore they are really cast off for ever: yet this expostulation intimates 
that they dreaded God's casting them off more than any thing, — that they 
desired to be owned of him, whatever they suffered from men ; and were 
desirous to know wherefore he thus contended with them; "Why doth thine 
anger smoke?" that is, why doth it rise up to such a degree that all about us 
take notice of it, and ask, "What meaneth the heat of this great anger?" 
Deu. xxix. 24. Compare ver . 20, where the anger of the Lord and his jealousy 
are said to smoke against sinners. Observe what they plead with God, now 
they lay under the tokens and apprehensions of his wrath. 

1. " They plead their relation to him ; " "We are the sheep of thy pasture," the 
sheep wherewith thou hast been pleased to stock thy pasture; thy peculiar 
people whom thou art pleased to set apart for thyself, and design for thine 
own glory. That the wolves worry the sheep is not strange, but was ever any 
shepherd thus displeased at his own sheep? "Remember, we are thy congrega- 
tion," ver. 2 ; incorporated by thee, and for thee, and devoted to thy praise ; we 
are "the rod," or tribe "of thine inheritance," whom thou hast been pleased 
to claim a special property in, above other people, Deu. xxxii. 9, and from whom 
thou hast received the rents and issues of praise and worship more than from 
the neighbour nations. Nay, a man's inheritance may lie at a great distance, 
but we are pleading for mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt, which has been 
the place of thy peculiar delight and residence, thy demesne and mansion. 

2. Thev plead the great things God had done for them, and the vast expence 
he had been at upon them. It is thy congregation, which thou hast not only 
made with a word's speaking, but purchased of old, by many miracles of mercy, 
when they were first formed into a people. It is "thine inheritance which thou 
hast redeemed." When they were sold into servitude, God gave Egypt to ruin 
for their ransom, gave men for them, and people for their life, Jsa. xliii. 3, 4. 
.Now, Lord, wilt thou now abandon a people that cost thee so dear, and nas 
been so dear to thee? And if the redemption of Israel out of Egypt was an 
encouragement to hope that he would not cast them off, much more reason 
have we to hope that God will not cast off any whom Christ has redeemed with 
his own blood ; but the people of his purchase shall be for ever the people of 
his praise. 

3. They plead the calamitous state that they w T ere in ; ver. 3, " Lift up thy 
feet," that is, come with speed to repair the desolations that are made in thy 
sanctuary, which otherwise will be perpetual and irreparable. It has been 
sometimes said that the Divine vengeance strikes with iron hands, yet it comes 
with leaden feet ; and then those who wait for the day of the Lord cry, "Lord, 
lift up thy feet," exalt thy steps ; that is, magnify thyself in the outgoing of thy 
providence. When the desolations of the sanctuary have continued long, we 
are tempted to think they will be perpetual. But it is a temptation ; for God 
will avenge his own elect, will avenge them speedily, though he bear long with 
their oppressors and persecutors. 

Secondly. They complain of the outrage and cruelty of theii enemies. Not 
so much, no, not at all, of what they had done to the prejudice of their secular 
interests, — here are no complaints of the burning of their cities, and ravaging 
of their country, — but only what they had done against the sanctuary, and the 
synagogue. The concerns of religion should lie nearer our hearts, and affect 
us more, than any w r orldly concern whatsoever. The desolation of God's house 
should grieve us more than the desolation of our own houses; for the matter 
is not great what comes of us and our families in this world, provided God's 
name may be sanctified, his kingdom may come, and his will be done. 

1. He complains of the desolations of the sanctuary, as Daniel, ch. ix. 17. 
The temple at Jerusalem was the dwelling-place of God's name, and therefore 
the sanctuary or holy place, ver. 7. In this the enemies did wickedly, ver. 3; 
for they destroyed it in downright contempt of God, and affront to him. 
1st. They roared in the midst of God's congregations. There, where God's 
faithful people attended on him with an humble, reverent silence, or softly 
speaking, they roared in a riotous, revelling manner ; being very jovial that 
they had made themselves masters of that sanctuary wdiich they had sometimes 
heard formidable things of. 2nd.- " They set up their ensigns for signs." The 
banners of their army they set up in the temple (Israel's strongest castle, as 
long as they kept close to God,) as trophies of their victory. There, where 



PSALM LXXIV. 357 

the signs of God s presence used to be, now the enemy had set up their ensigns. 
This daring defiance of God and his power touched his people in a tender 
part. 3rd. They took a pride in destroying the carved work of the temple. 
As much as formerly men thought it an honour to lend a hand to the building 
of the temple, and he was thought famous that helped to fell timber for that 
work, so much now they valued themselves upon their agency in destroying 
it, ver. 5, 6. Thus, as when time was those were celebrated for wise men that 
did service to religion, so now they are cried up for wits that help to run it 
down. Some read it thus, 4 They shew themselves, as one that lifts up axes 
on high in a thicket of trees;' for so do they break down the carved work of 
the temple. They make no more scruple of breaking down the rich wainscot 
of the temple than wood-cutters do of hewing trees m the forest ; such indig- 
nation have they at the sanctuary, that the most curious carving that ever was 
seen is beaten down by the common^ soldiers, without any regard had to it 
either as a dedicated thing or as a piece of exquisite art. 4th. They set fire 
to it, and so violated or destroyed it to the ground, ver. 7. The Chaldeans 
burnt the house of God, that stately, costly fabric, 2 Chr. xxxvi. 19; and the 
Romans left not there one stone upon another, Mat. xxiv. 2; razing it, razing 
it even to the foundations, till Zion, the holy mountain, was by Titus Vespasian 
ploughed as a field. 

2. He complains of the desolations of the synagogues, or schools of the pro- 
phets, which before the captivity were in use, though much more after. There 
God's Word was read and expounded, and his name praised and called upon, 
without altars or sacrifices. These also they had a spite to ; ver. 8, " Let us 
destroy them together," not only the temple, but all the places of religious 
worship, and the worshippers with them ; " Let us destroy them together," let 
them be consumed in the same flame. Pursuant to this impious resolve, "they 
burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land," and laid them all waste. So 
great was their rage against religion, that the religious houses, because reli- 
gious, were all levelled with the ground, that God's worshippers might not 
glorify God, and edify one another, by meeting in solemn assemblies. 

Thirdly. The great aggravation of all these calamities was, that they had no 
prospect at all of relief, nor could they foresee an end of them, ver. 9. We see 
our enemy's sign set up in the sanctuary, but # " we see not our signs," none 
of the tokens of God's presence, no hopeful indications of approaching deliver- 
ance ; there is no more any prophet to tell us how long the trouble will last, 
and when things concerning us shall have an end, that the hopes of an issue 
at last may support us under our troubles. In the captivity in Babylon they 
had prophets, and had been told how long the captivity should continue, but 
the day was cloudy and dark, Eze. xxxiv. 12, and they had not as yet the com- 
fort of these gracious discoveries. God spoke once, yea twice, good words, 
and comfortable words, but they perceived them not. Observe, They do not 
complain, We see not our armies; there are no men of war to command our 
forces, nor any to go forth with our hosts ; but, no prophets,— none to tell us 
how long. . . . 

This puts them upon expostulating with God, as delaying, 1. To assert his 
honour; ver. 10, " How long shall the adversary reproach and blaspheme thy 
name?" In the desolations of the sanctuary, our chief concern should be for . 
the glory of God, that that may not be injured by the blasphemies of those 
who persecute his people for his sake, because they are his ; and therefore our 
inquiry should be, not how long^ shall we be troubled, but how long shall God 
be blasphemed? 2. To exert his power; ver. 11, "Why withdrawest thou thy 
hand," and dost not stretch it out to deliver thy people, and destroy thine 
enemies? "Pluck it out of thy bosom," and be not "as a man astonied, as 
a mighty man that cannot save," or will not, Jer. xiv. 9. When the power of 
enemies'is most threatening, it is comfortable to fly to the power of God. 

12 For God is my King of old, 

Working salvation in the midst of the earth. 

13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength : 

Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. 

14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, 

And gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the 
wilderness. 

15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: 
Thou driedst up mighty rivers. 



358 



PSALM LXXIY. 



16 The day is thine, the night also is thine : 
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. 

1 7 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth : 
Thou hast made summer and winter. 

The lamenting church fastens upon something here which she calls to mind, 
and therefore hath she hope, as Lam. iii. 21, and with which she encourageth 
herself, and silenceth her own complaints. Two things quiet the minds of 
those that are here sorrowing for the solemn assembly : 

First. That God is the God of Israel, a God in covenant with his people; 
ver. 12. " God is my king of old." _ This comes in both as a plea in prayer to 
God, Fs. xliv. 4, " Thou art my King, O God," and as a prop to their own faith 
and hope, to encourage themselves to expect deliverance, considering the days 
of old, Ps. lxxvii. 5. The chin ch speaks as a complex body, the same in every 
age, and therefore calls God, my King, my King of old, or from antiquity; that 
is, he has of old put himself into that relation to them, and has appeared and 
acted for them in that relation. As Israel's King he has wrought salvation in 
the midst of the nations of the earth ; for what he has done in the government 
of the world has tended towards the salvation of his church. Several things 
are here mentioned which God had done for his people as their King of old, 
which encouraged them to commit themselves to him, and depend upon him. 

1. He had divided the sea before them when they came out of Egypt, not by 
the strength of Moses or his rod, but by his own strength ; and he that could do 
that could do any thing. 

2. He had destroyed Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Pharaoh was the leviathan, 
the Egyptians were the dragons, fierce and cruel. Observe, 1st. The victory 
obtained over these enemies. God broke their heads, baffled their politics, 
when Israel, the more they were afflicted by them, the more they multiplied ; 
crushed their powers, though complicated ; ruined their country by ten plagues; 
and at last drowned them all in the Red sea; "This is Pharaoh and all his 
multitude," Eze. xxi. 18. It was the Lord's doing, none but he could do it, and 
he did it with a strong hand and outstretched arm. This was typical of Christ's 
victory over Satan and his kingdom, pursuant to the first promise, that the seed 
of the woman should break the serpent's head. 2nd. The improvement of this 
victory for the encouragement of the church. " Thou gavest him to be meat to 
the people of Israel " now going to inhabit the wilderness. The spoil of the 
Egyptians enriched them ; they stripped their slain, and so got the Egyptians* 
arms and weapons, as before they had got their jewels. Or rather, this pro- 
vidence was meat to their faith and hope, to support and encourage them in 
reference to the other difficulties they were likely to meet with in the wilder- 
ness. It was part of the spiritual meat which they were all made to eat of. 
Note, The breaking of the heads of the church's enemies is the joy and 
strength of the hearts of the church's friends. Thus the companions make 
a banquet even of leviathan, Job xli. 6. 

3. God had both ways altered the course of nature, both in fetching streams 
out of the rock and turning streams into rock, ver. 15. 1st. He had dissolved 
the rock into waters, 'Thou didst bring out the fountain and the flood,' so 
some read it, and every one knows whence it was brought: out of the rock, out 
of the flinty rock. Let this never be forgotten, but let it especially be remem- 
bered, that that rock was Christ, and the waters out of it spiritual drink. 
2nd. He had congealed the waters into rock. " Thou driedst up mighty" rapid 
"rivers." Jordan particularly, at the time when it overflowed all its banks. He 
that dicl these things could now deliver his oppressed people, and break the 
yoke of the oppressors, as he had done formerly; nay, he would do it, for his 
justice and goodness, his wisdom and truth, are still the same, as well as his 
'power. 

Secondly. That the God of Israel is the God of nature, ver. 16, 17. It is he 
that orders the regular successions and revolutions, i. Of day and night. He 
is the Lord of all time ; the evening and the morning are of his ordaining ; it is 
he that opens the eyelids of the morning light, and draws the curtains of the 
evening shadow. 'He hath prepared the moon and the sun,' so some read it: 
fie two great lights, to rule by day and by night alternately. The preparing ot 
/hem notes their constant readiness and exact observance of their time, which 
they never miss a moment. 2. Of summer and winter, Thou hast appointed all 
the bounds of the earth, and the different climates of its several regions, for 
"thou hast made summer and winter," both frigid and torrid zone ; or, rather, 
the constant revolutions of the year, and its several seasons. Herein we are to 
acknowledge God, from whom all the laws and powers of nature are derived; 
but how doth this come in here? 1st. He that had power at first to settle, and 
still to preserve, this course of nature by the diurnal and annual motions of the 



PSALM LXXIV. 3o9 

heavenly bodies, has certainly all power both to save and to destroy, and with 
him nothing is impossible, nor any difficulties or oppositions insuperable. 
2nd. He that is faithful to his covenant with the day and with the night, and 
preserves the ordinances of heaven inviolable, will certainly make good his pro- 
mise to his people, and never cast off those whom he has chosen, Jet. xxxi. 35,36; 
xxxiii. 20, 21. His covenant with Abraham and his seed is as firm as that with 
Noah and his sons, Gen. viii. 21. 3rd. Day and night, summer and winter, being 
counterchanged in the course of nature throughout all the borders of the earth, 
we can expect no other, but that trouble and peace, prosperity and adversity' 
should be in like manner counterchanged in ail the oorders of the church. \\ e 
have as much reason to expect afflictions as to expect night and winter. But 
we have then no more reason to despair of the return of comfort than we have 
to despair of day and summer. 

18 Eemember this, that the enemy hath reproached, 0 Lord, 
And that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. 

19 0 deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multi- 

tude of the ic i eked : 
Forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. 

20 Have respect unto the covenant : [of cruelty. 
For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations 

21 0 let not the oppressed return ashamed : 
Let the poor and needy praise thy name. 

22 Arise, 0 God, plead thine own cause : 

Eemember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. 

23 Forget not the voice of thine enemies : 

The tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth 
continually. 

The psalmist here, in the name of the church, most earnestly begs that God 
would appear for them against their enemies, and put an end to their present 
troubles; and to encourage his own faith he interests God in this matter; 
ver. 22, " Arise, O God, plead thine own cause." This we may be sure he will 
do, for he is jealous for his own honour; whatever is his own cause he will 
plead it with a strong hand, will appear against those that oppose it, and with 
and for those that cordially espouse it. _ He will arise and plead it. Though for 
a time he seems to neglect it, he will stir up himself, will manifest himself, will 
do his own work in his own time. Note ; The cause of religion is God's own 
cause, and he will certainly plead it. Now, to make it out that the cause is 
God's, he pleads, 

First. That the persecutors are God's sworn enemies. Lord, they have not 
only abused us, but they have been and are abusive to thee; what is done 
against us for thy sake doth by consequence reflect upon thee. But that is 
not all; they have directly and immediately reproached thee, and blasphemed 
thy name, ver. 18. This was that which they roared in the sanctuary; they 
triumphed as if they had now got the mastery of the God of Israel, of whom 
they had heard such great things. As nothing grieves the saints more than to 
hear God's name blasphemed, so nothing encourageth them more to hope that 
God will appear against their enemies than when they are arrived to such a 
pitch of wickedness as to reproach God himself; this fills the measure of their 
sins apace, and hastens their ruin. The psalmist insists much upon this: We 
dare not answer their reproaches; Lord, do thou answ r er them. ''Remember 
that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name," ver. 18, and that still "the 
foolish man reproacheth thee daily." Observe the character of those that 
reproach God ; they are foolish. As atheism is folly, Ps. xiv. 1, so is profane- 
ness and blasphemy no less so. Perhaps they are cried up for the wits of the 
age that ridicule religion and sacred things; but really they are the greatest 
fools, and will shortly be made to appear so before all the world. And yet see 
their malice— They reproach God daily, as constantly as his faithful worshippers 
pray to him, and praise him — Their Impudence ; they do not hide their blas- 
phemous thoughts in their own bosoms, but proclaim them with a loud voice; 
"Forget not the voice of thine enemies," ver. 23; and this with a daring 
defiance of Divine justice — They rise up against thee; and by their blasphemies 
even wage war with heaven, and take up arms against the Almighty. 'Their 
noise and tumult ascendeth continually/ (so some,) as the cry of Sodom came 



360 PSALM LXXY. 

up before cjrod calling for vengeance, Gen. xviii. 21. It "increaseth con- 
tinually," (so we read it,) they grow worse and worse, and are hardened in 
their impieties by their successes. Now, Lord, remember this, do not forget it ; 
God needs not to be put in remembrance by us of what he has to do, but thus 
we must shew our concern for his honour, and believe that he will vindicate us. 
Secondly. That the persecuted are his covenant people. 

. 1. See what distress they are in. They are fallen into the hands of "the mul- 
titude of the wicked," ver. 19. How are they increased that trouble them? 
There is no standing before an enraged multitude, especially as these, armed 
with power; and as they are numerous so are they barbarous, "the dark 
places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." The land of the 
Chaldeans, where there was none of the light of the knowledge of the true 
God, though otherwise it was famed for learning and arts, was indeed a dark 
place; the inhabitants of it were alienated from the life of God, through the 
ignorance that was in them, and therefore they were cruel. Where there was 
no true divinity, there was scarce to be found common humanity; they were 
especially cruel to the people of God: certainly they have no knowledge who 
eat them up, Ps. xiv. 4. They are oppressed, ver. 21, because they are poor, 
and unable to right themselves; they are oppressed, and so impoverished and 
made poor. 

2. See what reason they had to hope that God would appear for their relief, 
and not suffer them to be always thus trampled upon. Observe how the 
psalmist pleads with God for them. 1st. It is thy turtle-dove that is ready to 
be swallowed up by the multitude of the wicked, ver. \9. The church is a 
dove for harmlessness and mildness, innocency and inoffensiveness, purity and 
fruitf'ulness; a dove for mournfulness in a day of distress; a turtle-dove for 
fidelity, and the constancy of love. Turtle-doves and pigeons were the only 
fowl that were offered in sacrifice to God : shall thy turtle-dove, that is true to 
thee, and devoted to thine honour, be delivered, its life and soul and all, into 
the hand of the multitude of the wicked, to whom it will soon become an easy 
and acceptable prey ? Lord, it will be thine honour to help the weak, especially 
to help thine own. 2nd. It is the congregation of thy poor; and they are not 
the less thine for their being poor, for God hath chosen the poor of the world, 
Jas. ii. 5. But they have the more reason to expect thou wilt appear for them 
because they are many: it is the congregation of thy poor; let them not be 
abandoned and forgotten for ever. 3rd. They are in covenant with thee; and 
wilt thou not have respect unto the covenant ? ver. 20. Wilt thou not perform 
the promises thou hast in thy covenant made to them ? wilt thou not own them 
whom thou hast brought into the bond of thy covenant? When God delivers 
his people, it is in remembrance of his covenant, Lev. xxvi. 42. Lord, though we 
are unworthy to he respected, yet have respect to the covenant. 4th. They 
trust in thee, and boast of their relation to thee, and expectations from thee; 
O let not them return ashamed of their hope, ver. 21, as they will be if they be 
disappointed. 5th. If thou deliver them, they will praise thy name, and give 
thee the glory of their deliverance. Appear, Lord, for those that will praise 
thy name, against those that blaspheme it. 



PSALM LXXY. 

Though this psalm is attributed to Asaph in the title, yet it doth so exactly agree with 
David's circumstances at his coming to the crown after the death of Saul, that most 
interpreters apply it to that juncture, and suppose that either Asaph penned it in the 
person of David, as his poet-laureate, (probably the substance of the psalm was some 
speech which David made to a convention of the states at his accession to the govern- 
ment, and Asaph turned it into verse, and published it in a poem, for the better 
spreading of it among the people,) or that David penned it, and delivered it to Asaph 
as precentor of the temple. In this psalm, I. David returns God thanks for bringing 
him to the throne, ver. 1, 9. II. He promiseth to lay out himself for the public good, 
in the use of the power God had given him, ver. 2, 3, 10. III. He checks the insolence 
of those that opposed his coming to the throne, ver. 4, 5. IV. He fetcheth a reason for 
all this from God's sovereign dominion in the affairs of the children of* men, ver. 6 — 8. 
In singing this psalm, we must give to God the glory of all the revolutions of states 
and kingdoms, believing that they are all according to his counsel, and that he will 
make them all to work for the good of his church. 

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, A Psalm or Song of Asaph, 

UNTO thee, 0 God, do we give thanks, 
Unto thee do we give thanks : 
For that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare. 



PSALM LXXV. 



361 



2 When I shall receive the congregation 

I will judge uprightly. 
8 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved : 

I bear up the pillars of it. Selah. 

4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly : 
And to the wicked, Lift not up the horn : 

5 Lift not up your horn on high : 
Speak not with a stiff neck. 

In these verses, 

First. The psalmist gives to God the praise of his advancement to honour and 
power, and other the great things he had done for him and for his people Israel ; 
ver. 1, "Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks," for all the favours thou hast 
bestowed upon us ; and again, " Unto thee do we give thanks," for our thanks- 
givings must be often repeated. Did we not often pray for a mercy when we 
were in pursuit of it, and shall we think it will suffice once or twice to give 
thanks when we have obtained it? Not only I do give thanks, but we do; I 
and all my friends. If we share with others in their mercies, we must join with 
them in their praises unto thee, O God, the author of our mercies ; and we will 
not give that glory to the instruments which is due to thee only. "For that thy 
name is near," — that is, that the complete accomplishment of thy promise made 
to David is not far off, — "thy wondrous works" which thou hast already done 
for him do " declare." Note, 1. There are many works which God doth for his 
people that may truly be called wondrous works, out of the common course of 
providence, and quite beyond our expectation. 2. These wondrous works declare 
the nearness of his name. They shew that he himself is at hand, nigh to us in 
what we call upon him for ; and that he is about to do some great things for his 
people, in pursuance of his purpose and promise. 3. When God's wondrous 
works declare the nearness of his name, it is our duty to give him thanks ; 
again and again to give him thanks. 

Secondly. He lays himself under an obligation to use his power well, pur- 
suant to the great trust reposed in him ; ver. 2, " When I shall receive the 
congregation, I will judge uprightly." Here he takes it for granted that God 
would in due time perfect that which concerned him ; that though the congre- 
gation was very slow in gathering to him. and great opposition was made to it, 
yet at length he should receive it; for what God hath spoken in his holiness he 
will perform by his wisdom and power. Being thus in expectation of the 
mercy, he promiseth to make conscience of his duty ; When I am a judge, I will 
judge, and judge uprightly; not as those that went before me, who either 
neglected judgment, or, which was worse, perverted it; either did no good with 
their power or did hurt. Note, 1. Those that are advanced to posts of honour 
must remember they are posts of service, and must set themselves with dili- 
gence and application of mind to do the work to which they are called. He 
doth not say, When 1 shall receive the congregation, I will take my ease, and 
take state upon me, and leave the public business to others; but, 1 v\ill mind it 
myself. 2. Public trusts are to be managed with great integrity. They that 
judge must judge uprightly, according to the rules of justice, without respect 
of persons. 

Thirdly. He promiseth himself that his government would be a public 
blessing to Israel, ver. 3. The present state of the kingdom was very baa; 
" The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved," and no marvel, when 
the former reign was so dissolute; all went to wreck and ruin. There was 
a general corruption of manners for want of putting the laws in execution 
against vice and profaneness. They were divided one from another for want 
of centring, as they ought to do, in the government God had appointed. They 
were all to pieces, two against three, and three against two, crumbled into 
factions and parties, which was likely to issue in their ruin ; but " 1 bear up the 
pillars of it." Even in Saul's time David did what he could towards the public 
welfare, but he hoped when he had himself received the congregation he should 
do much more, and should not only prevent the public ruin, but recover the 
public strength and beauty. Now, 1. See the mischief of parties. They melt 
and dissolve a land, and the inhabitants of it. 2. See how much one head" many 
times holds up. The fabric had sunk if David had not held up the pillars of it. 
This may well be applied to Christ and his government. The world and all 
the inhabitants of it were dissolved by sin; man's apostacy threatened the 
destruction of the whole creation; but Christ bore up the pillars of it: he 
saved the whole world from utter ruin, by saving his people from their sins, 



302 



PSALM LXXV. 



and into his hand the administration of the kingdom of providence is com- 
mitted, for " he upholdeth all things by the word of his power," Heb. i. 3. 

Fourthly. He checks those that opposed his government, that were against 
his accession to it, and obstructed the administration of it; striving to keep up 
that vice and profaneness which he made it his business to suppress; ver. 4, 5, 
"I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly.'' He had said so to them in SauTs 
time. When he had not power to restrain them, yet lie had wisdom and grace to 
reprove them, and to give them good counsel; though they bore themselves 
high upon the favour of that unhappy prince, he cautioned them not to be too 
presumptuous. Or, rather, he doth now say so to them. As soon as he came 
to the crown, he issued out a proclamation against vice and profaneness, and 
here we have the contents of it. 1. To the simple sneaking sinners, the fools in 
Israel, that corrupted themselves, to them he said, Deal not foolishly;" do 
not act so directly contrary both to your reason and to your interest as you do 
while you walk contrary to the laws God has given Israel, and the promises he 
has made to David. _ Christ, the son of David, gives us this counsel, issues out 
this edict, Deal not foolishly. He who is made of God to us wisdom bids us be 
wise for ourselves, and not make fools of ourselves. 2. To the proud daring 
sinners, the wicked, that set God himself at defiance, he saith, "Lift not up the 
horn ; " brag not of your power and prerogatives, persist not in your contumacy 
and contempt of the government set over you; "Lift not up your horn on 
high," as though you could have what you will, and do what you will ; " speak 
not with a stiff neck," in which is an iron sinew, that will never bend to the 
will of God in the government; for they^ that will not bend shall break; they 
whose necks are stiffened are so to their own destruction. This is Christ's 
word of command in his Gospel, that every mountain will be brought low 
before him, Isa. xl. 4. Let not the anti-christian power, with its heads and 
horns, lift up itself against him, for it shall certainly be broken to pieces ; what 
is said with a stiff neck must be unsaid again with a broken heart, or we are 
undone. Pharaoh said with a stiff neck, " Who is the Lord?" but God made 
him know to his cost. 

6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, 
Nor from the west, nor from the south. 

7 But Gocl is the judge : 

He putteth down one, and setteth up another. 

8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, 
And the wine is red ; it is full of mixture ; 
And he poureth out of the same : 

But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall 
wring them ou*fe, and drink them. 

9 But I will declare for ever ; 

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 
10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; 
But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. 

In these verses we have two great doctrines laid down, and two good infer- 
ences drawn from them, for the confirmation of what he had before said: 

First. Here are two things laid down concerning God's government of the 
world, which we ou^ht to mix faith with, both pertinent to the occasion. 

1. That from God alone kings receive their power, ver. 6, 7 ; and therefore to 
God alone David would give the praise of his advancement ; therefore, having 
his power from God, he would use it for him; and therefore they were fools 
that lifted up the horn against him. We see strange revolutions in states and 
kingdoms, and are surprised at the sudden disgrace of some, and elevation of 
others; we are all full of such changes when they happen; but here we are 
directed to look at the author of them, and are here taught where the original 
of power is, and whence promotion comes. W r hence comes preferment to 
kingdoms, to the sovereignty of them? and whence come preferments in king- 
doms to places of power and trust in them? The former depends not upon the 
will of the people, nor the latter on the will of the prince, but both on the will 
of God, who has all hearts in his hands; to him therefore those must look that 
are in pursuit of preferment, and then tney begin right. W r e are here told, 

1st. Negatively, which way we are not to look for the fountain of power. 
"Promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west, nor from the 



PSALM LXXY. 3fi3 

desert," that is, neither from the desert on the north of Jerusalem, nor from 
that on the south ; so that the fair gale of preferment is not to be expected to 
blow from any point of the compass, but only from above, directly from thence. 
Men cannot gain promotion either by the wisdom or wealth of the children of 
the East, or by the numerous forces of the isles of the Gentiles that lay west- 
ward, or those of Egypt or Arabia that lay south. No concurring smiles of 
secoi; d causes will raise men to preferment without the First Cause. The learned 
Bishop Lloyd (Serm. in loc.) gives this gloss upon it. All men took the original 
Of power to be from heaven, but from whom there they knew not. The Eastern 
nations, who were generally given to astrology, took it to come from their stars, 
especially the sun, their god ; No, saith David, it comes neither from the east 
nor from the west, neither from the rising or setting of such a planet, or such 
a constellation, nor from the south, not from the exaltation of the sun, or any 
star in the mid heaven. He mentions not the north, because none supposed it 
to come from thence, or because the same word that signifies the north signifies 
the secret place, and from the secret of God's counsel it doth come ; or from 
the oracle in Zion, which lay on the north side of Jerusalem. Note, No wind 
so good as to blow promotion, but as he directs who hath the winds in his fists. 

2nd. Positively ; " God is the judge," the governor or umpire. When parties 
contend for the prize, " he puts down one, and sets up another," as he sees fit, 
so as to serve his own purposes, and bring to pass his own counsels. Herein he 
acts by prerogative, and is not accountable to us for any of these matters ; nor 
is it any damage, danger, or disgrace that He, who is infinitely wise, holy, and 
good, has an arbitrary and despotic power to set up and put down whom and 
when and how he pleaseth. This is a good reason why magistrates should 
rule for God, as those that must give account to him, because it is by him that 
kings reign. 

2. That from God alone all must receive their doom; ver. 8, " In the hand of 
the Lord there is a cup,'" which he puts into the hands of the children of men ; 
a cup of providence, mixed up (as he thinks fit) of many ingredients; a cup of 
affliction. The sufferings of Christ are called a cup, Mat. xx. 22; Jno. xviii. 1] • 
the judgments of God upon sinners are "the cup of the Lord's right hand," 
Hob. ii. 16. "The wine is red," noting the wrath of God which is infused into 
the judgments executed on sinners, and is the wormwood and the gall in the 
affliction and the misery. It is red as fire, red as blood, for it burns, it kills. 
"It is full of mixture " prepared in wisdom, so as to answer the end. There are 
mixtures of mercy and grace in the cup of affliction, when it is put into the 
hands of God's own people; mixtures of the curse when it is put into the hands 
of the wicked; it is wine mingled with gall. These vials, 1st. Are poured out 
upon all: see Rev. xv. 7, xvi. 1, where we read of the angels pouring out the 
vials of God's wrath upon the earth. Some drops of this wrath may light on 
good people ; when God's judgments are abroad, they have their share in common 
calamities. But, 2nd. The dregs of the cup are reserved for the wicked. The 
calamity itself is but the vehicle into which the wrath and curse is infused, the 
top of which has little of the infusion; but the sediment is pure wrath, and that 
shall fall to the share of sinners. They have the dregs of the cup now in the 
terrors of conscience; and hereafter in the torments of hell. They shall wring 
them out, that not a drop of the wrath may be left behind, and they shall drink 
them, for the curse shall "enter into their bowels like water, and like oil into 
their bones." The cup of the Lord's indignation will be to them a cup of 
trembling, everlasting trembling, Rev. xiv. 10. The wicked man's cup while he 
prospers in the world is full of mixture, but the worst is at the bottom. The 
wicked are reserved unto the day of judgment. 

Secondly. Here are two good practical inferences drawn from these great 
truths, and they are the same purposes of duty that he began the psalm w ith. 
1. This being so, he will praise God and give him glory for the power to which 
he had advanced him; ver. 9, "I will declare for ever" that v\ hich "thy won- 
drous works declare," ver. 1. He will praise God for his elevation, not only 
at first while the mercy was fresh, but for ever, so long as he lives; the exalta- 
tion of the Son of David will be the subject of the saints' everlasting praises. 
He will give glory to God, not only as his God, but as the God of Jacob, know- 
ing it was for Jacob his servants sake, and because he loved his people Israel, 
that he made him king over them. 2. He will use the power with which he is 
intrusted for the great ends for which it was put into his hands, ver. 10; as 
before, ver. 2, 4. According to the duty of the higher powers, 1st. He resolves 
to be a terror to evil-doers, to humble their pride, and break their power. 
Though not all the heads, yet "all the horns of the wicked will I cut oft]," with 
which they push their poor neighbours; I will disable them to do mischief.. 
Thus God promises to raise up carpenters which should "fray the horns of 
the Gentiles that had scattered Judah and Israel," Zee. i. 18 — 21. 2nd. He 
resolves to be a protection and praise to them that do well ; " The horns of the 
righteous shall be exalted, that is. they shall be preferred, and put into places 
cf power; and they that are good, and have hearts to do good, shall not want 



364 



PSALM LXXVI. 



ability and opportunity for it. This agrees with David's resolutions, Ps. ci. 3, 
&c. ; and herein David was a type of Christ, who with the breath of his mouth 
shall slay the wicked, but shall exalt with honour the horn of the righteous, 
Ps. cxii. 9. 



This psalm seems to have been penned upon occasion of some great victory obtained by 
the cburch over some threatening enemy or other, and designed to grace the triumph. 
The Septuagint call it, a song upon the Assyrians, from whence many good interpreters 
conjecture that it was penned when Sennacherib's army, then besieging Jerusalem, 
was entirely cut off by a destroying angel in Hezekiab's time ; and several passages in 
the psalm are very applicable to that work of wonder. But there was a religious 
triumph upon occasion of another victory in Jehoshaphat's time, which might as well 
be the subject of this psalm, 2 Chr. xx. 28 ; and it might be called a song of Asaph, 
because always sung by the sons of Asaph. Or it might be penned by Asaph that lived 
in David's time, upon occasion of the many triumphs with which God delighted to 
honour that reign. Upon occasion of this glorious victory, whatever it was, I. The 
psalmist congratulates the happiness of the church in having God so nigh, ver. 1 — 3. 
II. He celebrates the glory of God's power, which this was an illustrious instance of, 
ver. 4 — 6. III. He infers from hence what reason all have to fear before him, ver. 7 — 9. 
And, IV. What reason his people have to trust in him, and to pay their vows to him, 
ver. 10 — 12. It is a psalm proper for a thanksgiving day upon the account of public 
successes, and not improper at other times, because it is never out of season to glorify 
God for the great things he has done for his church formerly, especially for the vic- 
tories of the Redeemer over the powers of darkness, which all those Old Testament 
victories were types of, at least those that are celebrated in the Psalms. 



To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song of Asaph. 

"N Judaii is God known : 



2 In Salem also is his tabernacle, 
And his dwelling place in Zion. 

3 There brake he the arrows of the bow, 

The shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah. 

4 Thou art more glorious and excellent 
Than the mountains of prey. 

5 The stouthearted are spoiled, 
They have slept their sleep : 

And none of the men of might have found their hands. 

6 At thy rebuke, 0 God of Jacob, 

Both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep. 

The church is here triumphant, even in the midst of its militant state. The 
psalmist, in the church's name, triumphs here in God, the centre of all our 
triumphs. 

First. In the revelation God had made of himself to them, ver. 2. It is the 
honour and privilege of Judah and Israel, that among them God is known, and 
where he is known his name will be great. God is known as he is pleased to 
make himself known; and they are happy to whom he discovers himself: 
happy people, that have their land filled with the knowledge of God: happy 
persons, that have their hearts filled with that knowledge ! In Judah God was 
known so as he was not known in other nations, which made the favour tiie 
more obliging, that it was distinguishing, Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20. 

Secondly. In the tokens of God's special presence with them in his ordi- 
nances, ver. 2. In the whole land of Judah and Israel God was known, and his 
name w r as great; but in Salem, in Zion, was his tabernacle and his dwelling- 
place. There he kept court, there received the homage of his people by their 
sacrifices, and entertained them by the feasts upon the sacrifices^ thither they 
came to address themselves to him, and thence by his oracles he issued out his 
orders. There he recorded his name, and of that place he said, " Here will I 
dwell, for I have desired it." It is the glory and happiness of a people to have 
God among them by his ordinances; but his dwelling-place is a tabernacle, a 
moveable dwelling : yet a little while is that light with us. 

Thirdly. In the victories they had obtained over their enemies ; ver. 3, There 



PSALM LXXVI. 




PSALM LXXYI. 365 

brake he the arrows of the bow." Observe how threatening the danger was; 
though Judah and Israel, Salem and Zion, were thus privileged, yet war is 
raised against them, and the weapons of war are furbished. Here is bow and 
arrows, shield and sword, and all for battle; but all broken and rendered use- 
less. And it was done there, 1. In Judah and Israel; in favour of that people 
near to God. While the weapons of war were used against other nations, they 
answered their end, but when turned against that holy nation they were broken 

Eresently. The Chaldee paraphraseth it thus : ' When the house of Israel did 
is will, he placed his majesty among them, and there he broke the arrows of 
the bow;' while they kept close to his service, they were great and safe, and 
every thing went well with them. Or, 2. In the tabernacle and dwelling-place 
in Zion; there he brake the arrows of the bow. It was done in the held of 
battle, and yet it is said to be done in the sanctuary, because done in answer to 
the prayers which there God's people made to him, and in performance of 
the promises which he there made to them; of both which see that instance, 
2 Chr. xx. 5, 14. Public successes are owing as much to w hat is done in the 
church as to what is clone in the camp. Now this victory redounded very much, 

1. To the immortal honour of Israel's God; ver. 4, "Thou art," and hast 
manifested thyself to be, " more glorious and excellent than the mountains of 
prey." 1st. Than the great and mighty ones of the earth in general, who are 
high, and think themselves firmly fixed like mountains, but are really mountains 
of prey, oppressive to all about them. It is their glory to destroy; it is thine 
to deliver. 2nd. Than our invaders in particular. When they besieged the cities 
of Judah, they cast up mounts against them, and raised batteries ; but thou art 
more able to protect us, than they are to annoy us. Wherein the enemies of 
the church deal proudly, it will appear that God is above them. 

2. To the perpetual disgrace of the enemies of Israel, ver. 5, 6. They were 
stout-hearted, men of great courage and resolution, flushed with their former 
victories, enraged against Israel, confident of success; they were men of might, 
robust, and fit for service ; they had chariots and horses, which were then 
greatly valued and trusted to in war, Ps. xx. 7. But all this force was of no 
force when it was levelled against Jerusalem. 1st. The stout-hearted have 
despoiled and disarmed themselves, (so some read it,) and w T hen God pleaseth 
he can make his enemies to weaken and destroy themselves. " They have slept," 
not the sleep of the righteous, who sleep in Jesus, but " their sleep," the sleep 
of sinners, that shall wake to everlasting shame and contempt. 2nd. The men 
of might are as far to seek for their hands as the stout-hearted are for their 
spirit. As the bold men are cowed, so the strong men are lamed, and cannot so 
much as find their hands to save their own heads, much less to hurt their 
enemies. 3rd. The chariots and horses may be truly said to be cast into a dead 
sleep, when their drivers and their riders were so. God did but speak the 
word, as the God of Jacob that commands deliverances for Jacob, and at his 
rebuke " the chariot and horse" were both " cast into a dead sleep;" when the 
men were laid dead upon the spot by the destroying angel, the chariot and 
horse were not at all formidable. See the pow r er and efficacy of God's rebukes. 
With what pleasure may we Christians apply all this to the advantages we 
enjoy by the Redeemer ! It is through him that God is known ; it is in him that 
God's name is great ; to him it is owing that God has a tabernacle and a dwell- 
ing-place in his church. He it was that vanquished the strong man armed, 
" spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly." 

7 Thou, even thou, art to be feared: [angry ? 
And who may stand in thy sight when once thou art 

8 Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven ; 
The earth feared, and was still, 

9 When God arose to judgment, 

To save all the meek of the earth. Selah. 

10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee : 
The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. 

1 1 Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God : 

Let all that be round about him bring presents unto him 
that ought to be feared. 

12 He shall cut off the spirit of princes : 
He is terrible to the kings of the earth. 



366 



PSALM LXXYL 



This glorious victory with which God had graced and blessed his church is 
here made to speak three things : 

First. Terror to God's enemies ; ver. 7 — 9, " Thou, even thou, art to be 
feared." Thy majesty is to be reverenced, thy sovereignty to be submitted to, 
and thy justice to be dreaded by those that have offended thee. Let all the 
world learn by this event to stand in awe of the great God. 1. Let all be 
afraid of his wrath against the daring impiety of sinners; 'Who may stand 
in thy sight from the minute that thou art angry?' If God be a consuming 
fire, how can chaff and stubble stand before him, though " his anger be 
kindled but a little?" Ps. ii. 12. 2. Let all be afraid of his jealousy for oppressed 
innocency. and the injured cause of his own people: "Thou didst cause judg- 
ment to be heard from heaven," then "when thou didst arise to save all the 
meek of the earth," ver. 8, 9. And then "the earth feared and was still:" 
waiting what would be the issue of those glorious appearances of thine. Note, 
1st. God's people are the meek of the earth, Zep. ii. 3; the quiet in the land, 
Ps. xxxv. 20 : that can bear any wrong, but do none. 2nd. Though the meek 
of the earth are by their meekness exposed to injury, yet God will sooner or 
later appear for their salvation, and plead their cause. 3rd. When God comes 
"to save all the meek of the earth he will " cause judgment to be heard from 
heaven," that is, he will make the world kno w that he is angry at the oppressors 
of his people, and takes what is done against them as done against himself. 
The righteous God long seems to keep silence, yet sooner or later he will 
"make judgment to be heard." 4th. When God is speaking judgment from 
heaven, it is time for the earth to compose itself into an awful and reverent 
silence; ' The earth feared and was still," as silence is made by proclamation 
when the court sits. "Be still, and know that I am God," Ps. xlvi. 10; "Be 
silent, O all flesh, before the Lord, for he is raised" up to judgment. Zee. ii. 13. 
Those that suppose this psalm to have been penned upon the occasion of the 
routing of Sennacherib's army, take it for granted that the descent of the 
destroying angel who did the execution was accompanied with thunder, by 
which God caused judgment to be heard from heaven, and that the earth 
feared; that is, there was an earthquake, but it was soon over. But this is 
altogether uncertain. 

Secondly. Comfort to God's people, ver. 10. We live in a very angry pro- 
voking world, we feel much many times, and are apt to fear more from the 
wrath of man, which seems boundless. But this is a great comfort to us, 
1. That as far as God permits the wrath of man to break forth at any time, 
he will make it turn to his praise, will bring honour to himself and serve his 
own purposes by it. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee," not only 
by the checks given to it, when it shall be forced to confess its own impotency, 
but even by the looses given to it for a time. The hardships which God's 
people suffer by the wrath of their enemies, are made to redound to the glory 
of God and his grace; and the more the heathen rage and plot against the 
Lord and his Anointed, the more will God be praised for setting his king upon 
his holy hill of Zion in spite of them, Ps. ii. 1, 6. When the heavenly hosts 
make this the matter of their thanksgiving-songs, that God has taken to him 
his great power, and has reigned, though the nations were angry, Rev. xi. 17, 18, 
then the wrath of man adds lustre to the praises of God. 2. That what will 
not turn to his praise shall not be suffered to break out ; " the remainder of 
wrath shalt thou restrain." Men must never permit sin, because they cannot 
check it when they will, but God can. He can set bounds to the wrath of man, 
as he doth to the raging sea, "Hitherto it shall come, and no farther; here 
shall its proud waves be stayed." God restrained the remainder of Sennacherib's 
rage, for he put a hook in his nose, and a bridle in his jaws, Isa. xxxvii. 29; and, 
though he permitted him to talk big, he restrained him from doing what he 
designed. 

Thirdly. Duty to all, ver. 11, 12. Let all submit themselves to this great God, 
and become his loyal subjects. Observe, 

1. The duty required of us all; "all that are about him," that have any 
dependence upon him, or any occasion to approach to him ; and who is there 
that has not? We are, therefore, every one of us commanded to do our homage 
to the Kings of kings ; " Vow and pay," that is, take an oath of allegiance to 
him, and make conscience of keeping it. Vow to be his, and pay what you vow ; 
bind your souls with a bond to him, (for that is the nature of a vow.) and then 
live up to the obligations you have laid upon yourselves; for "better it is not 
to vow, than to vow and not to pay." And having taken him for our King, 
let us bring presents to him, as subjects to their sovereign, 1 Sa,n. x. 17. " Send 
ye the lamb to the ruler of the land," Isa, xvi. 1. I\ot that God needs apy 
present we can bring, or can be benefited by it ; but thus we must give him 
honour, and own that w r e have our all from him. Our prayers and praises, and 
especially our nearts, are the presents we should briny- to the Lord our God. 

2. The reasons to enforce this duty ; " Render to all their due; fear to whom 
fear is due." And is it not due to God.? Yes ; 1st. He "ought to be f*ared." 



PSALM LXXVIL 



367 



He is the fear, so the word is; his name is glorious and fearful, and lie is the 
proper object of our fear : with him is terrible majesty. The God of Abraham 
is called ''the fear of Isaac,'' Gen. xxxi. 42; and we are commanded to make 
him our fear, Isa. viii. 13. When we bring presents to him, we must have an 
eye to him as greatly to be feared: for he is terrible in his holy places. 2nd. He 
will be feared, even by those who think it their own sole prerogative to be 
feared ; ver. 12, " He shall cut off the spirit of princes." He shall slip it off as 
easily as we slip off a flower from the stalk, or a bunch of grapes from the 
vine, so the word signifies. He can dispirit those that are most daring, and 
make them heartless; for " He is." or will be, "terrible to the kings of the 
earth." And sooner or later, if they be not so wise as to submit themselves 
to him, he will force them to call in vain to rocks and mountains to fall on them 
and hide them from his wrath, Rev. vi. 16. Since there is no contending with 
God, it is as much our wisdom as it is our duty to submit to him. 

PSALM LXXVIL 

This psalm, according to the method of many other psalms, begins with sorrowful com- 
plaints, but ends with comfortable encouragements. The complaints seem to be of 
personal grievances, but t;ie encouragements relate to the public concerns of the church, 
so that it is not certain whether it was penned upon a personal or a public account. If 
they were private troubles that he was groaning under, it teacheth us, that what God 
has wrought for his church in general may be improved for the comfort of particular 
believers. If it was some public calamity that he is here lamenting, his speaking of it 
so feelingly, as if it had been some particular trouble of his own, shews how much we 
should lay to heart the interests of the church of God, and make them our own. One 
of the rabbins saith, this psalm is spoken in the dialect of the captives, and therefore 
some think it was penned in the captivity in Babylon. I. The psalmist complains here 
of the deep impressions which his troubles made upon his spirits, and the temptation 
he was in to despair of relief, ver. 1 — 10. II. He encourageth himself to hope that it 
would be well at last, by the remembrance of God's former appearances for the help of 
his people, of which he gives several instances, ver. 11 — 20. In singing this psalm, we 
must take shame to ourselves for all our sinful distrusts of God, and of his providence 
and promise, and give to him the glory of his power and goodness by a thankful com- 
memoration of what he has done for us formerly, and a cheerful dependence upon him 
for the future. 

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph. 

I CRIED unto God with my voice, 
Even unto God with my voice ; and he gave ear unto me. 

2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord ; 
My sore ran in the night, and ceased not: 
My soul refused to be comforted. 

3 I remembered God, and was troubled : 

I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. 

4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking : 

I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 

5 I have considered the days of old, 
The years of ancient times. 

6 I call to remembrance my song in the night : 
I commune with mine own heart : 

And my spirit made diligent search. 

7 Will the Lord cast off for ever ? 
And will he be favourable no more ? 

8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? 
Doth his promise fail for evermore ? 

9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? 

Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ? Selah. 



368 



PSALM LXXVIL 



J 0 And I said, This is my infirmity : 

But I will remember the years of the right hand of the 
most High. 

"We have here the lively portraiture of a good man under prevailing melan- 
choly, falling into, and sinking in, that horrible pit. and that miry clay, but 
struggling to get out. Drooping saints that are of a sorrowful spirit, may 
here as in a glass see their own faces. The conflict which the psalmist had 
with his griefs and fears seems to have been over when he penned this record 
of it ; for he sait-h, ver. 1, " I cried unto God, and he gave ear unto me;" which 
while the struggle lasted he had not the comfortable sense of, as he had after- 
wards ; but he inserts it in the beginning of his narrative, as an intimation that 
his trouble did not end in despair, for God heard him, and at length he knew 
that he heard him. Observe, 

First. His melancholy prayers. Being afflicted he prayed, Jas. v. 13; and 
being in an agony he prayed more earnestly, ver. 1. 1 My voice was unto God 
and I cried, even with my voice unto God;' he was full of complaints, loud 
complaints; but he directed them to God, and turned them all into prayers, 
vocal prayers, very earnest and importunate. Thus he gave vent to his grief, 
and gained some ease, and thus he took the right way in order to relief; ver. 2, 
" In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord."' # Note, Days of trouble must 
be days of prayer; days of inward trouble especially, when God seems to have 
withdrawn from us we must seek him; and seek till we find him. In the day 
of his trouble he did not seek for the diversion of business or recreation, to 
shake off his trouble that way, but he sought God and his favour and grace. 
Those that are under trouble of mind must not think todrink it away, or laugh 
it away, but pray it away. i My hand was stretched out in the night, and ceased 
not,' so Dr. Hammond reads the following words, as speaking the incessant 
importunity of his prayers : compare Ps. cxliii. 5, 6. 

Secondly. His melancholy grief. Grief may then be called melancholy in- 
deed, 1. When it admits of no intermission. Such was his: "My sore," or 
wound, "ran in the night," and bled inwardly, "and it ceased not;"' no, not in 
the time appointed for rest and sleep, 2. When it admits of no consolation. 
And that also was his case: "My soul refused to be comforted." He had no 
mind to hearken to those tnat would be his comforters; "As vinegar upon 
nitre, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart," Pr. xxv. 20 ; nor had he any 
mind to think of those things that would be his comforts ; he put them far from 
him as one that indulged himself in sorrow. Those that are in sorrow upon 
any account do not only prejudice themselves, but affront God, if they refuse 
to be comforted. 

Thirdly. His melancholy musings. He pored so much upon the trouble, 
whatever it was, personal or public, that, 1. The methods that should have 
relieved him did but increase his grief, ver. 3. 1st. One would have thought 
that the remembrance of God should have comforted him, but it did not ; " I 
remembered God, and was troubled," as poor Job, ch. xxiii. 15, " I am troubled 
at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him." When he remembered 
God, his thoughts fastened only upon his justice, and wrath, and dreadful 
majesty; and thus God himself became a terror to him. 2nd. One would have 
thought that pouring out his soul before God should have given him ease, but it 
did not ; he complained, and yet his spirit was overwhelmed, and sunk under the 
load. 2. The means of his present relief were denied him, ver. 4. He could not 
sleep; which, if it be quiet and refreshing, is a parenthesis to our griefs and 
cares. "Thou holdest mine eyes waking" with thy terrors, which make me 
"full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day." He could not speak 
by reason of the disorder of his thoughts, and the tumult of his spirits, and 
the mighty confusion his mind was in. He kept silence even from good, while 
his heart was hot within him, he was ready to burst like a new bottle, 
Job xxxiii. 19 ; and yet so troubled, that he could not speak and refresh him- 
self. And grief never preys so much upon the spirits as when it is thus 
smothered and pent up. 

Fourthly. His melancholy reflections; ver. 5, 6, " I have considered the days 
of old," and compared them with the present days, and our former prosperity 
doth but aggravate our present calamities ; for we see not " the wonders that 
our fathers told us of." Melancholy people are apt to pore altogether upon 
the days of old, and the years of ancient times, and to magnify them for the 
justifying of their own uneasiness and discontent at the present posture of 
affairs. But "say not thou that the former days were better than these;" 
because it is more than thou knowest whether they were or no, Eccl. vii. 10. 
Neither let the remembrance of the comforts we have lost make us unthankful 
for those that are left, or impatient under our crosses. Particularly, he called 
to remembrance his song in the night ; the comforts with which he had sup- 
ported himself in his former sorrows, and entertained himself in his former 



PSALM LXXYIL 



369 



solitude. These songs he remembered, and tried if he could not sing them over 
again ; but he was out of tune for them, and the remembrance of them did but 
pour out his soul in him, Ps. xlii. 4 : see Job xxxv. 10. 

Fifthly. His melancholy fears and apprehensions. " I communed with mine 
own heart," ver. 6. Come, my soul, what will be the issue of these things ? 
What can I think of them, and what can I expect they will come to at last ? 
"I made diligent search" into the causes of my trouble, inquiring wherefore 
God contended with me, and what would be the consequences of it ? And thus 
I began to reason ; " Will the Lord cast off for ever," as lie doth for the pre - 
sent? He is not now favourable ; "and will he be favourable no more?" His 
mercy is now gone, and is it clean gone for ever? His promise now fails, and 
doth it fail for evermore? God is not now gracious, but hath he forgotten 
to be gracious ? His tender mercies have been withheld, perhaps in wisdom, 
but are they shut up? shut up in anger ? ver. 7—9. This is the language of a 
disconsolate, deserted soul,, now walking in darkness, and having no light; a 
case not uncommon, even with those " that fear the Lord, and obey the voice of 
his servant," Isa. 1. 10. He may here be looked upon, 1. As groaning under a 
sore trouble. God hid his face from him, and withdrew the usual tokens of his 
favour. Note, Spiritual trouble is of all other most grievous to a gracious 
soul; nothing wounds and pierceth it like the apprehensions of God's being 
angry, the suspending of his favour, and the superseding of his promise ; this 
wounds the spirit, and who can bear that? 2. As grappling with a strong 
temptation. Note, God's own people, in a cloudy and dark day, may be tempted 
to make desperate conclusions about their own spiritual state, and the con- 
dition of God's church and kingdom in the world, and as to both to give up all 
for gone. We may be tempted to think that God has abandoned us, and cast 
us off, that the covenant of grace fails us, and that the tender mercy of our 
God shall be for ever withheld from us. But we must not give way to such 
suggestions as these. If fear and melancholy ask such peevish questions, let 
faith answer them from the Scripture, "Will the Lord cast off for ever?" 
"God forbid," Rom. xi. 1. No; "The Lord will not cast off his people," 
Ps. xciv. 14. " Will he be favourable no more?" Yes, he will; for "though 
he cause grief, yet will he have compassion," Lam. iii. 32. " Is his mercy clean 
gone for ever?" No; "his mercy endureth for ever;" as it is "from ever- 
lasting, it is to everlasting," Ps. ciii. 7. " Doth his promise fail for evermore? " 
No ; it is impossible for God to lie," Heb. vi. 18. Hath God forgotten to be 
gracious?" No; he cannot deny himself, and his own name which he hath 
proclaimed gracious and merciful, Ex. xxxiv. 6. "Has he in anger shut up 
his tender mercies?" No ; they "are new every morning," Lam. iii. 22; and, 
therefore, " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" Hos. xi. 8, 9. 

Thus was he going on with his dark and dismal apprehensions, when on 
a sudden he first checked himself with that word, Selah, — stop there, go no 
farther, let us hear no more of these unbelieving surmises ; and he then chid 
himself; ver. 10, " I said, This is mine infirmity." He is soon aware that it is 
not well said, and therefore, Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? 1 said, This 
is mine affliction, (so some understand it,) this is the calamity that falls to my 
lot, and I must make the best of it. Every one has his affliction, his trouble 
in the flesh ; and this is mine, the cross I must take up. Or rather, This is my 
sin, — it is mine iniquity, the plague of my own heart. These doubts and fears 
proceed from the want and weakness of faith, and the corruption of a dis- 
tempered mind. Note, 1. We all know that ill by ourselves, of which we must 
say, This is pur infirmity ; a sin that most easily besets us. 2. Despondency of 
spirit, and distrust of God under affliction, are too often the infirmities of good 
people; and as such are to be reflected upon by us with sorrow and shame, 
as by the # psalmist here: "This is my infirmity." And when at any time it is 
working in us, we must thus suppress the rising of it, and not suffer the evil 
spirit to speak. We must argue down the insurrections of unbelief, as the 

Ssalmist here : "But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most 
[igh." He had been considering the >ears of ancient times, ver. 5, the blessings 
formerly enjoyed, the remembrance of which did only add to his grief; but now 
he considered them as the years of the right hand of the Most High ; that those 
blessings of ancient times came from the Ancient of Days, from the power and 
sovereign disposal of his right hand, who is over all, God blessed for ever ; and 
this satisfied him : for may not the Most High with his right hand make what 
changes he pleaseth ? 

] 1 I will remember the works of the Lord : 
Surely I will remember thy wonders of old 

12 I will meditate also of all thy work, 
And talk of thy doings. 



370 



PSALxM LXXYII. 



13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary : 

Who is so great a God as our God ? 

14 Thou art the God that doest wonders : 

Thou hast declared thy strength among the people, 

15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, 
The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. 

1 6 The waters saw thee, 0 God, the waters saw thee ; 
They were afraid : 

The depths also were troubled. 
J 7 The clouds poured out water : 
The skies sent out a sound : 
Thine arrows also went abroad. 

18 The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven : 
The lightnings lightened the world : 

The earth trembled and shook. 

1 9 Thy way is in the sea, 

And thy path in the great waters, 
And thy footsteps are not known. 

20 Thou leddest thy people like a flock 
By the hand of Moses and Aaron. 

The psalmist here recovers himself out of the great distress and plague be 
was in, and silenceth his own fears of God's casting off his people by the 
remembrance of the great things he had done for them formerly, which, though 
he had in vain tried to quiet himself with, ver. 5, 6, yet he tried again, and 
upon this second trial found it not in vain. It is good to persevere in the 
proper means for the strengthening of faith, though they do not prove effec- 
tual at first. "I will remember," surely I will, what God has done for his 
people of old, till I can from thence infer a happy issue of the present dark 
dispensations, ver. 11, 12. Note, 1. The works of the Lord for his people have 
been wondrous works. 2. They are recorded for us, that they may be remem- 
bered by us. 3. That we may have benefit by the remembrance of them, we 
must meditate upon them, and dwell upon them in our thoughts, and must- 
talk of them, that we may inform ourselves and others farther concerning 
them. 4. The due remembrance of the works of God will be a powerful anti - 
dote against distrust of his promise and goodness; for he is God, and changing 
not. If he begin, he will finish his work, and bring forth the top-stone. Two 
things in general satisfied him very much : 

First. That God's " way is in the sanctuary," ver. 13. It is in holiness, so some. 
When we cannot solve the particular difficulties that may arise in our construc- 
tions of the Divine providence, this we are sure of in general, that " God is 
holy in all his works," that they are all worthy of himself, and consonant to the 
eternal purity and rectitude of his nature. He has holy ends in all he doth, 
and will be sanctified in every dispensation of his providence. His way is 
according to his promise which he has spoken in his holiness, and made known 
in the sanctuary. What he hath done is according to what he hath said, and 
may be construed by it ; and from what he hath said we may easily gather 
that he will not cast off his people for ever. God's way is for the sanctuary, 
and for the benefit of it: all he doth is intended for the good of his church. 

Secondly. That God's " way is in the sea." Though God is holy, just, and 
good in all he doth, yet w T e cannot give an account of the reasons of his pro- 
ceedings, nor make any certain judgment of his designs ; " His path is in the 
great waters, and his footsteps are not known," ver. 19. God's ways are like 
the deep waters, which cannot be fathomed, Ps. xxxvi. 6 ; like the way of a ship 
in the sea, which cannot be tracked, Pr. xxx. 18, 19. God's proceedings are 
always to be acquiesced in, but cannot always be accounted for. He instanceth 
in some particulars, for which he goes as far back as the infancy of the Jewish 
church, and from which he gathers, 1st. That there is no God to be compared 
with the God of Israel ; ver. 13, " Who is so great a God as our God ?" Let us 



PSALM LXXYIIL 



371 



first give to God the glory of the great things he has done for his people, and 
acknowledge him therein great above all comparison; and then we may take 
to ourselves the comfort of what he has done, and encourage ourselves with it. 
2nd. That he is a God of almighty power; ver. 14, "Thou art the God that*' 
alone "dost wonders," above the power of any creature ; thou hast visibly, and 
beyond any contradiction, " declared thy strength among the people/' What 
God has done for his church has been a standing declaration of his almighty 
bovver, for therein he has made bare his everlasting arm. 

1. God brought Israel out of Egypt, ver. 15. This was the beginning of mercy 
to them, and was yearly to be commemorated among them in the passover. 
** Thou hast with thine arm," stretched out in so many miracles,. " redeemed thy 
people" out of the hand of the Egyptians. Though they were delivered by 
power, yet they are said to be redeemed, as if it had been done by price, because 
it was typical of the great redemption which was to be wrought out in the 
fulness of time both by price and power. Those that were redeemed are here 
called not only the sons of Jacob, to whom the promise was made,, but of Joseph 
also, who had a most firm and lively belief of the performance of it ; for "when 
he was dying he made mention of the departing of the children of Israel out 
of Egypt, and gave commandment concerning his bones." 

2. He divided the Red sea before them; ver. 16, " The waters " gave way, and 
a lane was made through that crowd instantly, as if they had seen God himself 
at the head of the armies of Israel, and had retired for fear of him. "Not only 
the surface of the waters, but " the depths were troubled," and opened to the 
right and to the left, in obedience to his word of command. 

3. He destroyed the Egyptians; ver. 17, " The clouds poured out water" upon 
them, while the pillar of fire, like an umbrella over the camp of Israel, sheltered 
it from the shower, in which, as in the deluge, the waters that were above the 
firmament, concurred with those that were beneath the firmament, to destroy 
the rebels. Then "the skies sent out a sound; thine arrows also went 
abroad," which is explained ver. 18, " The voice of thy thunder w^as heard in 
the heaven," that is, the sound which the skies sent forth. " The lightnings 
lightened the world ;" those are the arrows that went abroad, by which the host, 
of the Egyptians was discomfited, with so much terror, that the earth of the 
adjacent coasts shook and trembled. Thus " God's yvay was in the sea," for 
the destruction of his enemies, as well as for the salvation of his people; and. 
yet, when the waters returned, to their place, "his footsteps were not known, ' 
ver. 19. There was no mark set upon the place, as there was afterwards in 
Jordan, Jos. iv. 9. We do not read in the story of Israel's passing through the 
Red sea that there were thunders and lightnings, and an earthquake ; yet there 
might be, and Josephus saith there were, such displays of the Divine terror 
upon that occasion. But it may refer to the thunders, lightnings, and earth- 
quake that were at mount Sinai when the law was given. 

4. He took his people Israel under his own conduct and protection ; ver. 20, 
" Thou leddest thy people like a flock." They being weak and helpless, and apt 
to wander like a nock of sheep, and lying exposed to the beasts of prey, God 
went before them with all the care and tenderness of a shepherd, that they 
might not miscarry. The pillar of cloud and tire led them, yet that is not here 
taken notice of, but the agency of Moses and Aaron, by whose hand God led 
them. They could not do it without God ? but God did it with and by them. 
Moses was their governor. Aa^on their high priest ; they were guides, over- 
seers, and rulers to Israel, and by them God led them. The right and happy 
administration of the two great ordinances of magistracy and ministry are, 
though not so great a miracle, yet as great a mercy to any people as the pillar 
of cloud and fire was to Israel in the wilderness. 

The psalm concludes abruptly, and doth not apply those ancient instances 
of God's power to the present distresses of the church, as one might have 
expected. But as soon as the good man began to meditate on these things he 
found he had gained his point. His very entrance upon this matter gave him 
light and joy, Ps. cxix. 130; his fears suddenly and strangely vanished, so that 
he needed to go no farther. He went his way and did eat, and his countenance 
was no more sad. 

PSALM LXXVI1I. 

This psalm is historical. It is a narrative of the great mercies God had bestowed upon 
Israel; the great sins wherewith they had provoked him, and the many tokens of his 
displeasure they had been under for their sins. The psalmist began in the foregoing 
psalm to relate God's wonders of old for his own encouragement in a difficult time; 
there he broke off abruptly, but here resumes the subject, for the edification of the 
church, and enlargeth much upon it; shewing not only how good God had been to 
them, which was an earnest of farther finishing mercy, but how basely they had carried 
themselves to God, which justified him in correcting them as he did at this time, and 
Soxb&de all. complaints. Here is, I. The preface to this churcli history, commanding; 



$72 



PSALM LXXVI1I. 



the attention of the present age to it, and recommending it to the study of the generations 
to come, ver. 1 — 8. II. The history itself from Moses to David. It is put into a psalm 
or song, that it might be the better remembered and transmitted to posterity, and that 
the singing of it might affect them with the things here related more than they would 
be with a bare narrative of them. The general scope of this psalm we have, ver. 9 — 11, 
where notice is taken of the present rebukes they were under, ver. 9 ; the sin which 
brought them under those rebukes, ver. 10; and the mercies of God to them formerly, 
which aggravated that sin, ver. 11. As to the particulars, we are here told, 1. What 
wonderful works God had wrought for them in bringing them out of Egypt, ver. 12 — 16 ; 
providing for them in the wilderness, ver. 23 — 29; plaguing and ruining their enemies, 
ver. 43 — 53 ; and at length putting them in possession of the land of promise, ver. 54, 55 ; 
2. How ungrateful they were to God for his favours to them, and how many and great 
provocations they were guilty of; how they murmured against God and distrusted him, 
ver. 17 — 20; and did but counterfeit repentance and submission when he punished 
them, ver. 34 — 37; thus grieving and tempting him, ver. 40 — 42 ; how they affronted 
God with their idolatries after they came to Canaan, ver. 56 — 58 ; 3. How God had 
justly punished them for their sins, ver. 21, 22, in the wilderness, making their sin 
their punishment, ver. 29 — 33 ; and now of late when the ark was taken by the Philis- 
tines, ver. 59 — 64 ; 4. How graciously God had spared them, and returned in mercy to 
them, notwithstanding their provocations ; he had forgiven them formerly, ver. 38 — 39 ; 
and now of late had removed the judgments they had brought upon themselves, and 
Drought them under a happy establishment both in church and state, ver. 65 — 72. As 
the general scope of this psalm may be of use to us in the singing of it, to put us upon 
recollecting what God has done for us and for his church formerly, and what we have 
done against him, so the particulars also may be of use to us for warning against those 
sins of unbelief and ingratitude which Israel of old was notoriously guilty of, and the 
record of which was preserved for our learning; " These things happened unto them for 
ensamples," 1 Cor. x. 11 ; Heb. iv. 11. 

Maschil of Asaph. 

&IVE ear, 0 my people, to my law : 
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 

2 I will open my mouth in a parable : 
I will utter dark sayings of old : 

3 Which we have heard and known, 
And our fathers have told us. 

4 We will not hide them from their children, [Lord, 
Shewing to the generation to come the praises of the 
And his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath 

5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, [done. 
And appointed a law in Israel, 

Which he commanded our fathers, 

That they should make them known to their children : 

6 That the generation to come might know them, 
Even the children which should be born; 

Who should arise and declare them to their children . 

7 That they might set their hope in God, 
And not forget the works of God, 

But keep his commandments : 

8 And might not be as their fathers, 

A stubborn and rebellious generation ; 

A generation that set not their heart aright, 

And whose spirit was not stedfast with God. 

These verses, which contain the preface to this history, shew that the psalm 
answers the title. It is indeed Maschil,— 'a psalm to give instruction.' If we 
receive not the instruction it gives, it is our own fault. 

Here, First. The psalmist demands attention to what he wrote ; ver. 1, 
w Give ear, O my people, to my law." Some make these the psalmist's words.' 



PSALM LXXVIII. 273 

Oavid, as a king, or Asaph in his name, as his secretary of state, or scribe to 
the sweet singer of Israel, here calls upon the people, as his people, committed 
to his charge, to give ear to his law. He calls his instructions his law or edict ; 
such was their commanding force in themselves. Every good truth, received in 
the light and love of it, will have the power of a law upon the conscience. Yet 
that was not all ; David was a king, and he would interpose his royal power 
for the edification of his people. If God by his grace make great men good 
men, they will be capable of doing more good than others, because their word 
will be a law to all about them, who must therefore give ear and hearken ; for 
to what purpose is Divine revelation brought to our ears if we will not incline 
our ears to it ; both humble ourselves and engage ourselves to hear it, and heed 
it ? Or ? the psalmist being a prophet ;> speaks as God's mouth, and so calls 
them his people, and demands subjection to what was said as to a law. "Let 
him that has an ear" thus "hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches/' 
Rev. ii. 7. 

Secondly. Several reasons are given why we should diligently attend to that 
which is here related. 

1. The things here discoursed of are weighty, and deserve consideration; 
strange, and need it; ver. 2, "I will open my mouth in a parable," — in that 
which is sublime and uncommon, but very excellent, and well worthy your 
attention; "I will utter dark sayings," which challenge your most serious 
regards as much as the enigmas with which the eastern princes and learned 
men used to pose one another. These are called dark sayings, not because 
they are hard to be understood, but because they are greatly to be admired, 
and carefully to be looked into. This is said to be fulfilled in the parables 
which our Saviour put forth, Mat xiii. 35, which were, as this, representations 
of the state of the kingdom of God among men. 

2. They are the monuments of antiquity; "Dark sayings of old, which our 
fathers have told us," ver. 3. They are things of undoubted certainty : we 
have heard them and known them, and there is no room left to question the 
truth of them. The Gospel of Luke is called a " declaration of those things 
which are most surely believed among us," Lu. i. 1 ; so were the things here 
related. The honour we owe to our parents and ancestors obligeth us to attend 
to that which our fathers have told us ; and, as far as it appears to be true and 
good, to receive it with so much the more reverence and regard. 

3. They are to be transmitted to posterity, and it lies as a charge upon us 
carefully to hand them down, ver. 4. Because our fathers told them us, "we 
will not hide them from their children. '" Our children are called theirs, for 
they were in care for their seed's seed, and looked upon them as theirs ; and 
in teaching our children the knowledge of God we repay to our parents some 
of that debt we owe to them for teaching us. Nay, if we have no children of 
our own, we must declare the things of God to their children, the children 
of others. Our care must be for posterity in general, and not only for our own 
posterity ; and for the generation to come hereafter, the children that shall be 
born, as well as for the generation that is next rising up, and the children that 
are born. That which we are to transmit to our children is not only the know- 
ledge of languages, arts, and sciences, their liberty and property, but especially 
the praises of the Lord, and his strength appearing in " the wonderful works 
that he has done." Our great care must be to lodge our religion, that great 
depositum, pure and entire in the hands of those that succeed us. There are 
two things, the full and clear knowledge of which we must preserve the entail 
of to our heirs: 

1st. The law of God; for this was given with a particular charge to teach 
it diligently to their children; ver. 5, "He established a testimony," or covenant, 
and enacted a law in Jacob and Israel, gave them precepts and promises, which 
he commanded them to make known to their children, Deu. vi. 7, 20. The 
church of God, as the historian saith of the Roman commonwealth, was not 
to be res unius cetatis, — * a business of one age,' but was to be kept up from one 
generation to another; and therefore, as God provided for a succession of 
ministers in the tribe of Levi and the house of Aaron, so he appointed that 
parents should train up their children in the knowledge of his law ; and when 
they were grown up, they must "arise, and declare them to their children," ver. 6. 
That, as one generation of God's servants and worshippers passetn away, 
another generation may come, and the church, as the earth, may abide for ever ; 
and thus God's name among men may be as the days of heaven. 

2nd. The providences of God concerning them, both in mercy and in judg- 
ment. The former seems to be mentioned for the sake of this; since God gave 
order that his laws should be made known to posterity, it is requisite that with 
them his works also should be made known, and the fulfilling of the promises 
made to the obedient, and the threatenings denounced against the disobedient. 
Let these be told to our children, and our children's children, 

First. That they may take encouragement to conform themselves to the will 



371 



PSALM LXXVIII. 



of God, ver. 7. That, not forgetting the works of God wrought in former days, 
they might set their hope in God, and keep his commandments, might make his 
comniand their rule, and his covenant their stay; and those only may with 
confidence hope for God's salvation that make conscience of doing his com- 
mandments. The works of God, duly considered, will very much strengthen 
our resolution both to set our hope in him and to keep his commandments ; for 
he is able to bear us out in both. 

Secondly. That they may take warning not to conform themselves to the 
example of their fathers; ver. 8, "That they might not be as their fathers, a 
stubborn and rebellious generation." See here, 1st. What was the character 
of their fathers. Though they were the seed of Abraham, taken into covenant 
with God, and, for aught we know, the only professing people he had then 
in the world, yet they were stubborn and rebellious, and walked contrary to 
God, in direct opposition to his will. They did, indeed, profess relation to him, 
but they did not set their hearts right, they were not cordial in their engage- 
ments to God, nor inward with him in their worship of him; and therefore their 
spirit was not stedfast with him, but upon every occasion they new off from 
him. Note, Hypocrisy is the high road to apostacy ; those that do not set their 
hearts right will not be stedfast with God, but play fast and loose. 2nd. What 
was a charge to the children. "That they be not as their fathers." Note, Those 
that are descended from wicked and ungodly ancestors, if they will but consider 
the word and works of God, will see reason enough not to tread in their steps. 
It will be no excuse for a vain conversation, that it was received by tradition 
from our fathers, 1 Pet. i. 18. For what we know of them that was ill must 
be an admonition to us, that we dread that which was so pernicious to them, 
as we would shun those courses which they took that were ruinous to their 
health or estates. 

9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying 
Turned back in the day of battle. [bows, 

10 They kept not the covenant of God, 
And refused to walk in his law ; 

1 1 And forgat his works, 

And his wonders that he had shewed them. 

12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, 
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. 

13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through ; 
And he made the waters to stand as an heap. 

1 4 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, 
And all the night with a light of fire. 

15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, 

And gave them drink as out of the great depths. 
" 1 6 He brought streams also out of the rock, 
And caused waters to run down like rivers. 

1 7 And they sinned yet more against him 

By provoking the most High in the wilderness. 

1 8 And they tempted God in their heart 
By asking meat for their lust. 

1 9 Yea, they spake against God ; 

They said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness ? 

20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out. 
And the streams overflowed ; 

Can he give bread also ? 

Can he provide flesh for his people ? 

21 Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth : 



PSALM LXX^IIL 375 
So a fire was kindled against Jacob, 
And anger also came up against Israel ; 

22 Because they believed not in God, 
And trusted not in his salvation : 

23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, 
And opened the doors of heaven, 

24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, 
And had given them of the corn of heaven. 

25 Man did eat angels' food : 

He sent them meat to the full. 

26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven : 
And by his power he brought in the south wind. 

27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, 

And feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea : 

28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, 
Round about their habitations. 

29 So they did eat, and were well filled : 
For he gave them their own desire ; 

30 They were not estranged from their lust. 
But while their meat was yet in their mouths, 

31 The wrath of God came upon them, 
And slew the fattest of them, 

And smote down the chosen men of Israel. 

32 For all this they sinned still, 

And believed not for his wondrous works. 

33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, 
And their years in trouble. 

34 When he slew them, then they sought him : 
And they returned and enquired early after God. 

35 And they remembered that God was their rock, 
And the high God their redeemer. 

36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, 
And they lied unto him with their tongues. 

37 For their heart was not right with him, 
Neither were they stedfast in his covenant. 

38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, 
And destroyed them not : 

Yea, many a time turned he his anger away, 
And did not stir up all his wrath. 

39 For he remembered that they were but flesh ; 

A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. 

In these verses, 

First. The psalmist observes the late rebukes of Providence that the people 
of Israel had been under, which they had brought upon themselves by their 
dealing treacherously with God: ver. 9—11, "The children of Ephraim," in 



376 PSALM LXXYIII. 

which tribe Shiloh was, though they were well armed, and shot with bows, yet 
"turned back in the day of battle." This seems to refer to that shameful 
defeat which the Philistines gave them in Eli's time, when they took the ark 
prisoner, 1 Sam. iv. 10, 11 ; which the psalmist here begins to speak of, and after 
ix long digression returns to it again, ver. 61. And well might that event be 
thus fresh in mind in DaYid's time, above forty years after; for the ark, which 
in that memorable battle was seized by the Philistines, though it was quickly 
brought out of captivity, was never brought out of obscurity till David fetched 
it from Rirjath-jearim to his own city. Observe, 

1. The shameful cowardice of the children of Ephraim, that warlike tribe, 
so famed for valiant men, Joshua's tribe. The children of that tribe, though 
as well armed as ever, yet turned back when they came to face the enemy. 
Note, Weapons of war stand men in little stead without a martial spirit; 
and that is gone if God be gone. Sin dispirits men, and takes away the 
heart. 2. The causes of their cowardice, which were no less shameful ; and 
these were, 1st. A shameful violation of God's law, and their covenant with 
him, ver. 10. They were basely treacherous and perfidious, for "they kept 
not the covenant of God," and basely stubborn and rebellious, (as they w T ere 
described, ver. 8,) for they peremptorily refused to walk in his law, and in effect 
told him to his face they would not be ruled by him. 2nd. A shameful ingrati- 
tude to God for the favours he had bestowed upon them. They forgot his 
works and his wonders, his works of wonder which they ought to have admired, 
ver. 11. Note, Our forgetfulness of God's works is at the bottom of our dis- 
obedience to his laws. 

Secondly. He takes occasion from hence to consult precedents, and to com- 
pare this with their fathers' case; who were in like manner unmindful of God's 
mercies to them, and ungrateful to their founder and great benefactor, and 
were therefore often brought under his displeasure. The narrative in these 
verses is very observable, for it relates a kind of struggle between God's good- 
ness and man's badness, and mercy at length rejoiceth against judgment. 

1. God did great things for his people Israel when he first incorporated them, 
and formed them into a people. "Marvellous things did he in the sight of their 
fathers," and not only in their sight, but m their cause, and for their benefit ; 
so strange, so kind, that one would think they should never be forgotten. 
What he did for them in the land of Egypt is only mentioned here, ver. 12; but 
afterwards resumed, ver. 43. And here he goes on to shew, 1st. How r he made 
a lane for them through the Red sea, and caused them, that is, gave them 
courage, to pass through, though the waters stood over their heads as a heap, 
ver. 13; see Isa. lxiii. 12, 13, where God is said to lead them by the hand, as it 
were, "through the deep, that they should not stumble." 2nd. How he provided 
a guide for them through the untrodden paths of the wilderness, ver. 14. He 
led them step by step, "in the daytime by a cloud," which also sheltered them 
from the heat, and "all the night with a light of fire," which perhaps warmed 
the air ; however, made the darkness of the night the less frightful, and perhaps 
kept off wild beasts, Zee. ii. 5. 3rd. How he furnished their camp with fresh 
water in a dry and thirsty land where no water was ; not by opening the bottles 
of heaven, that had been a common way, but by broaching a rock; ver. 15, 16, 
" He clave the rocks in the wilderness," which yielded water, though they were 
not capable of receiving it either from the clouds above or the springs beneath. 
Out of the dry and hard rock he gave them drink, not distilled as out of at} 
alembic, drop by drop, but in streams, running down like rivers, and as out 
of the great depths. God gives abundantly, and is rich in mercy ; ne gives sea- 
sonably, and sometimes makes us to feel the want of mercies, that we may 
the better know the worth of them. This water which God gave Israel out 
of the rock was the more valuable, because it was spiritual drink, "and that 
rock was Christ." 

2. When God began thus to bless them, they began to affront him; ver. 17, 
" They sinned yet more against him," more than they had done in Egypt, though 
there they were bad enough, Eze. xx. 8. They bore the miseries of their servi- 
tude better than the difficulties of their deliverance; and never murmured 
at their taskmasters so as they did at Moses and Aaron, as if they were 
'* delivered to do all these abominations," Jer. vii. 10. # As sin sometimes takes 
occasion by the commandment, so at other times it takes occasion by the 
deliverance, to become more exceeding sinful. " They provoked the most High ;" 
though he is most High, and they knew themselves an unequal match for him, 
yet they provoked him, and even bade defiance to his justice. And this in the 
wilderness, where he had *them at his mercy, and therefore they were bound 
in interest to please him ; and where he shewed them so much mercy, and there- 
fore they were bound in gratitude to please him; yet there they said and did 
that which they knew would provoke him; " They tempted God in their heart," 
ver. 18. Their sin began in their heart, and thence it took its malignity; " They 
do always err in their heart," Bed. iii. 10. Thus they tempted God, tried his 



PSALM LXXVIII. 377 

atience to the utmost whether he would bear with them or no; and, in effect, 
ade him do his worst. Two ways they provoked him : 

1st. By desiring, or rather demanding, that which he had not thought fit to 
give them; "They asked meat for their lust." God had given them meat for 
their hunger in the manna, — wholesome, pleasant food, and in abundance. He 
had given them meat lor their faith, out of the heads of leviathan, which he brake 
in pieces, Ps. lxxiv. 14. But all this would not serve ; they must have meat 
for their lust, dainties and varieties to gratify a luxurious appetite. Nothing 
is more provoking to God than our quarrelling with our allotment, and indulg- 
ing the desires of the flesh. 

2nd. By distrusting his power to give them what they desired. This was 
tempting God indeed. They challenged him to give them flesh ; and if he did 
not, they would say it was because he could not; not because he did not see 
it fit for them; ver. 19, "They spake against God." They that set bounds to 
God's pow r er speak against him. It was as injurious a reflection as could be 
cast upon God to say, " Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" They had 
manna, but they did not think they had a table furnished unless they had boiled 
and roast, a first, a second, and a third course, as they had in Egypt, where they 
had both flesh and fish, and sauce too, Ex. xvi. 3 ; Num. xi. 5 ; dishes of meat, 
and salvers of fruit. What an unreasonable, insatiable thing is iuxury ! Such 
a mighty thing did these epicures think a table well furnished to be, that they 
thought it was more than God himself could give them in that wilderness; 
whereas the beasts of the forests, and all the fowls of the mountains, are his, 
Ps. 1. 10, 11. Their disbelief of God's power was so much the worse, in that 
they did at the same time own that he had done as much as that came to: 
ver. 20, "Behold, he smote the rock that waters gushed out," which they ana 
their cattle drunk of. And whether is easier to furnish a table in the wilder- 
ness, which a rich man can do, or to fetch water out of a rock, which the 
greatest potentate on the earth cannot do? Never did unbelief, though always 
unreasonable, ask so absurd a question ; Can he that melted down a rock into 
streams of water give bread also? Or, Can he that has given bread provide 
flesh also ? Is any thing too hard for Omnipotence ? When once the ordinary 
powers of nature are exceeded, God has made bare his arm, and we must con- 
clude nothing is impossible with him. Be it never so great a tiling that we ask, 
it becomes us to own, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst."' 

3. God justly resented the provocation, and was much displeased with them: 
ver. 21, " The Lord heard this, and was wroth." Note, God is a witness to all 
our murmurings and distrusts; he hears them and is much displeased with 
them. "A fire was kindled" for this "against Jacob, the fire of the Lord 
burnt among them," Num. xi. 1. Or, it may be understood of the fire of God's 
anger which came up against Israel. To unbelievers our God is himself a con- 
suming fire. And those that will not believe the power of God's mercy shall 
feel the power of his indignation, and be made to confess that it is a fearful 
thing to fall into his hands. Now here we are told, 

1st. Why God thus resented the provocation, ver. 4. Because by this it 
appeared that they believed not in God, they did. not give credit to the revela- 
tion he had made of himself to them, for they durst not commit themselves 
to him, nor venture themselves with him; they trusted not in the salvation he 
had begun to work for them; for then they would not thus have questioned 
its progress. Those cannot be said to trust in God's salvation as their felicity 
at last who cannot find in their hearts to trust in his providence for food con- 
venient in the way to it. And that which aggravated their unbelief was, the 
experience they had had of the power and goodness of God, ver. 23 — 25. He 
had given them undeniable proofs of his power, not only on earth beneath, but 
in heaven above; for "he commanded the clouds from above," as one that had 
created them and commanded them into being; he made what use he pleased 
of them. Ordinarily by their showers they contribute to the earth's producing 
corn; but now, when God so commanded them, they showered down corn 
themselves, which is therefore called here, the corn of heaven; for heaven 
can do the work without the earth, but not the earth without heaven. God, 
who has the key of the clouds, opened the doors of heaven ; that is more than 
opening the windows, which yet is spoken of as a great blessing, Mai. iii. 10. 
To all that by faith and prayer ask, seek, and knock, these doors shall at any 
time be opened, for the God of heaven is rich in mercy to all that call upon him; 
he not only keeps a good house, but keeps open house. Justly might God take 
it ill they should distrust him, when he had been so very kind to them, that he 
"had rained down manna upon them to eat," substantial food daily, duly, 
enough for all, enough for each; "Man did eat angels' food," such as angels, 
if they had occasion for food, would eat and be thankful for; or rather, such 
as was given by the ministry of angels, and (as the Chaldee reads it) 1 descended 
from the dwelling of angels.' * Every one,' even the least child in Israel, 'did 
eat the bread of the mighty,' (so the margin reads it;) the weakest stomach 
could digest it, and yet it w r as so nourishing, that it was strong meat for strong 



373 PSALM LXXVIII. 

men. And though the provision was so good, yet they were not stinted, no? 
ever reduced to short allowance; for He "sent then) meat to the full;" if they 
gathered little it was their own fault, and yet even then they had no lack, 
JEx. xvi. 18. The daily provision God makes for us, and has made ever since 
we came into the world, though it has not so much of miracle as this, has no 
less of mercy, and is therefore a great aggravation of our distrust of God. 

2nd. How he expressed his resentment of the provocation, not in denying 
them what they so inordinately lusted after, but in granting it to them. First. 
Did they question his power? he soon gave them a sensible conviction that he 
could "furnish a table in the wilderness." Though the winds seem to blow 
where they list, yet when he pleased he could make them his caterer to fetch in 
provisions, ver. 26. He caused an east wind to blow, and a south wind, either 
a south-east wind or an east wind first, to bring in the quails from that quar- 
ter, and then a south wind to bring in more from that quarter; so that he 
rained flesh upon them, and that of the most delicate sort; not butcher's meat, 
but wild fowl, and abundance of it, as dust, as the sand of the sea, ver. 27. So 
that the meanest Israelite might have his belly full of it, and it cost them 
nothing, no, not the pains of fetching it from the mountains, for " he let it fall 
in the midst of their camp, round about their habitation." ver. 28. We have the 
story Num. xi. 31, 32. See how good God is, even to the evil and unthankful, 
and wonder that his goodness doth not overcome their badness. See what 
little reason we have to judge of God's love by such gifts of his bounty as these. 
Dainty bits are no tokens of his peculiar favour. Christ gave dry bread to the 
disciples he loved, but a sop dipped in the sauce to Judas that betrayed him. 
Secondly. Did they defy his justice, and boast that they had gained their point ? 
he made them pay dear for their quails; for, though he "gave them their own 
desire, they were not estranged from their lust," ver. 29, 30 ; that is, their appe- 
tite was insatiable, they were well rilled, and yet they were not satisfied; for 
they knew not what they would have. Such is the nature of lust, it is content 
with nothing ; and the more it is humoured the more humoursome it grows. 
They that indulge their lust w r ill never be estranged from it. Or, it intimates 
that God's liberality did not make them ashamed of their ungrateful lustings, 
as it would have done if they had had any sense of honour. But what came 
of it? While "the meat was yet in their mouth," rolled under the tongue as 
a sweet morsel, "the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest 
of them," ver. 31, those that were most luxurious, and most daring : see 
Num. xi. 33, 34. They were fed as sheep for the slaughter. The butcher 
takes the fattest first. We may suppose there w r ere some pious and contented 
Israelites that did eat moderately of the quails, and were never the worse; for 
it was not the meat that poisoned them, but their own lust. Let epicures and 
sensualists here read their doom. They who make a god of their belly, their 
end is destruction, Phil. iii. 19. " The prosperity of fools shall destroy them," 
and their ruin will be the greater. 

4. The judgments of God upon them did not reform them, nor attain the 
end, no more than his mercies ; ver. 32, " For all this they sinned still," they 
murmured and quarrelled with God and Moses as much as ever. Though God 
u was wrath and smote them, yet they w ent on frowardly in the way of their 
heart," Isa. lvii. 17 ; "they believed not for his w^ondrous works." Though his 
works of justice were as wondrous and as great proofs of his power as his 
works of mercy, yet they were not wrought upon by them to fear God, nor 
convinced how much it w 7 as their interest to make him their friend. Those 
hearts are hard indeed that will neither be melted by the mercies of God nor 
broken by his judgments. 

5. They persisting in their sins, God proceeded in his judgments, but they 
were judgments of another nature, which wrought not suddenly, but slowly. 
He punished them, not now with such acute diseases as that was which "slew 
the fattest of them," but a lingering, chronical distemper ; ver. 33. " Therefore 
their days did he consume in vanity" in the wilderness, "and their years in 
trouble." By an irreversible doom they were condemned to wear out thirty- 
eight tedious years in the wilderness, which, indeed, were consumed in vanity; 
for in all those years there was not a step taken nearer Canaan, but they were 
turned back again, and wandered to and fro as in a labyrinth, nor one stroke 
struck towards the conquest of it ; and not only in vanity, but in trouble, for 
their carcasses were condemned to fall in the wilderness, and there they all 
perished but Caleb and Joshua. Note, Those that sin still must expect to be 
m trouble still. And the reason why we spend our days in so much vanity and 
trouble, why we live with so little comfort, and to so little purpose, is, because 
we do not live by faith. 

6. Under these rebukes they professed repentance, but they were not cordial 
and sincere in it. 1st. Their profession was plausible enough; ver. 34, 3.% 
"When he slew them," or condemned them to be slain, "then they sought 
him," they confessed their fault," and begged his pardon. When some were 
slain, others in a fright cried to God for mercy, and promised they would 



PSALM LXXYIIL 370 

reform and be very good; then "they returned to God, and inquired early after 
him." So one would take them to be such as desired to find him. And they 
pretended to do this because, however they had forgotten it formerly, now 

they remembered that God was their rock," and therefore, now they needed 
him, they would fly to him, and take shelter in him ; and that "the high God 
was their Redeemer," that brought them out of Egypt, and to whom therefore 
they might come with boldness. Afflictions are sent to put us in mind of God 
as our Rock and our Redeemer; for in prosperity we are apt to forget him. 
2nd. They were not sincere jn this profession ; ver. 36, 37, 44 They did but flatter 
him with their mouth," as if they thought by fair speeches to prevail with him 
to revoke the sentence, and remove the judgment, with a secret intention to 
break their word when the danger was over; they did not " return to God with 
their whole heart, but feignediy," Jer. iii. 10. All their professions, prayers, 
and promises, were extorted by the rack. It was plain they did not mean as 
they said, for they did not stick to it; they thawed in the sun, but froze in the 
shade; they did but "lie to God with their tongues, for their heart was not 
with him," was not right with him, as appeared by the issue, for "they were not 
stedfast in his covenant." They were not sincere in their reformation, for they 
were not constant; and by thinking thus to impose upon a heart- searching 
God they really put as great an affront upon him as by any of their reflections. 

7. God hereupon in pity to them put a stop to the judgments which were 
threatened and in part executed ; ver. 38, 39, " But he, being full of compassion, 
forgave their iniquity." One would think this counterfeit repentance should 
have filled up the measure of their iniquity. What could be more provoking 
than to lie thus to the holy God ? than thus to keep back part of the price, the 
chief part, Acts v. 3. And "yet he, being full of compassion, forgave their 
iniquity " thi s far, that he did not destroy them, and cut them off from being a, 
people, as justly be might have done ; but spared their lives till they had reared 
another generation which should enter into the promised land. " Destroy it 
not, for a blessing is in it," Isa. lxv. 8. " Many a time he turned his anger away" 
for he is Lord of his anger, "and did not stir up_ all his wrath," to deal with 
them as they deserved. And why did he not ? iSot because their ruin would 
have been any loss to him, but, 1st. Because he was full of compassion ; and 
when he was going to destroy them his repentings were kindled together, and 
he said, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, 
Israel?" Hos. xi. 8. 2nd. Because, though they did not rightly remember that 
lie was their Rock, he "remembered that they were but flesh." He considered 
the corruption of their nature, w hich inclined them to evil, and was pleased to 
make that an excuse for his sparing them, though it was really no excuse for 
their sin : see Gen. vi. 3. He considered the weakness and frailty of their 
nature, and what an easy thing it would be to crush them ; they are as a wind 
that passeth away and cometh not again." They may soon be taken off, but 
when they are gone, they are gone irrecoverably, and then what will become oi 
the covenant with Abraham? They are flesh, they are wind, from whence it 
were easy to argue, they may justly, they may presently, be cut off, and there 
would be no loss of them. But God argues on the contrary^, therefore he will 
not destroy them ; for the true reason is, he is full of compassion. 

40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness^ 
And grieve him in the desert ! 

4 1 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, 
And limited the Holy One of Israel. 

42 They remembered not his hand, 

Nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. 

43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, 
And his wonders in the field of Zoan : 

44 And had turned their rivers into blood ; 

And their floods, that they could not drink. [them ; 

45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured 
And frogs, which destroyed them. 

46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, 
And their labour unto the locust. 



380 



PSALM LXXVIIL 



47 He destroyed their vines with hail, 
And their sycomore trees with frost. 




SYCAMORE TREES. 

48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, 
And their flocks to hot thunderbolts. 

49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, 
Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, 

By sending evil angels among them, 

50 He made a way to his anger ; 

He spared not their sold from death, 
But gave their life over to the pestilence; 

5 1 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt ; 

The chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: 

52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, 
And guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 

53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not : 
But the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 

54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, 
Even to this mountain, which his right hand had pur- 

55 He cast out the heathen also before them, [chased. 
And divided them an inheritance by line, 

And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. 

56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, 
And kept not his testimonies : 

57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers : 
They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. 

£8 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, 
And moved him to jealousy with their graven images. 

59 When God heard this, he was wroth, 
And greatly abhorred Israel : 

60 So that he forsook the. tabernacle of Shiloh, 
The tent which he nlaced among men ; 



PSALM LXXVIII. 



381 



61 And delivered his strength into captivity, 

And his glory into the enemy's hand. 
(32 He gave his peojDle over also unto the sword ; 

And was wroth with his inheritance. 

63 The fire consumed their young men , 

And their maidens were not given to marriage. 

64 Their priests fell by the sword ; 

And their widows made no lamentation. 

65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, 

And like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wiB8 

66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts : 
He put them to a perpetual reproach. 

67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, 
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim : 

68 But chose the tribe of Judah, 
The mount Zion which he loved. 

69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, 
Like the earth which he hath established for even 

70 He chose David also his servant, 
And took him from the sheepfolds : 

71 From following the ewes great with young 
He brought him to feed Jacob his people, 
And Israel his inheritance. 

72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart ; 
And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. 

The matter and scope of this paragraph is the same with the former, shewing 
what great mercies God had bestowed upon Israel, how provoking they had 
been, what judgments he had brought upon them for their sins, and yet how in 
judgment he remembered mercy at last. Let not those that receive mercy from 
God be thereby emboldened to sin ; for the mercies they receive will aggravate 
their sin, and hasten the punishment of it. Yet let not those that are under 
Divine rebukes for sin be discouraged from repentance ; for their punishments 
are means of repentance, and shall not prevent the mercy God has yet in store 
for them. Observe, 

First. The sins of Israel in the wilderness again reflected on, because written 
for our admonition; ver. 40, 41, "How oft did they provoke him in the wilder- 
ness." Not once, or twice, but many a time ; and the repetition of the provoca- 
tion was a great aggravation of it, as well as the place, ver. 17. God kept an 
account how oft they provoked him, though they did not; Num. xiv. 22, " They 
have tempted me these ten times." By provoking him they did not so much 
anger him as grieve him; for he looked upon them as his children, " Israel is 
my son, my firstborn," and the undutiful, disrespectful carriage of children doth 
more grieve than anger the tender parents ; they lay it to heart, and take it 
unkindly, Isa. i. 2. They grieved him, because they put him under a necessity 
of afflicting them; which he did not willingly. After they had humbled them- 
selves before him, they "turned back and tempted God/" as before, "and 
iimited the Holy One of Israel," prescribing to him what proofs he should give 
of his power and presence with them, ana what methods he should take in 
leading them, and providing for them. They limited him to their way, and 
their time, as if he did not observe that they quarrelled with him. It is pre- 
sumption for us to " limit the Holy One of Israel ; " for, being the Holy One, 
he will do what is most for his own glory; and being the Holy One of IsraeL 
he will do what is most for their good; and we both impeach his wisdom and 
betray our own pride and folly if we go about to prescribe to him. That 
which occasioned their limiting God for the future was their forgetting his 
former favours ; ver. 42, " They remembered not his hand," how strong it is, 



382 



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and how it had been stretched out for them, nor "the day when he delivered 
them from the enemy;" Pharaoh, that great enemy that sought their ruin. 
There are some days made remarkable oy signal deliverances, which ought 
never to be forgotten; for the remembrance of them would encourage us in 
our greatest straits. 

Secondly. The mercies of God to Israel, which they were unmindful of when 
they tempted God, and limited him, and this catalogue of the works of wonder 
which God wrought for them begins higher, and is carried down farther, than 
that before, ver. 12, &c. 

1. This begins with their deliverance out of Egypt, and the plagues with 
which God compelled the Egyptians to let them go. These were the signs God 
wrought in Egypt ; ver. 43, the wonders he wrought in the field of Zoan," that 
is, in the country of Zoan, as we say, in agro N., meaning in such a country. 

1st. Divers of the plagues of Egypt are here instanced in, which speak aloud 
the power of God, his favours to Israel, as well as terror to his and their 
enemies. As, First. The turning the waters into blood. They had made 
themselves drunk with the blood of God's people, even the infants, and now 
God gave them blood to drink, for they were worthy, ver. 44. Secondly. The 
flies and frogs which infested them, mixtures of insects in swarms, in shoals, 
which devoured them, which destroyed them, ver. 45. For God can make the 
weakest and most despicable animals instruments of his wrath when he 
pleaseth; what they want in strength may be made up in number. Thirdly. 
The plague of locusts, which devoured their increase, and that which they had 
laboured for, ver. 46. They are called God's great army, Joel ii. 25. Fourthly. 
The hail, which destroyed their trees, especially their vines, the weakest of 
trees, ver. 47, and their cattle, especially their flocks of sheep, the weakest of 
their cattle, which were killed vvith hot thunderbolts, ver. 48; and the frost 
or congealed rain (as the word signifies) was so violent, that it destroyed even 
the sycamore trees. Fifthly. The death of the firstborn was the last and sorest 
of the plagues of Egypt, and that which perfected the deliverance of Israel. It 
was first in intention, Ex. iv. 23, but last in execution ; for, if gentler methods 
would have done the work, this had been prevented. But it is here largely- 
described, ver. 49 — 51. 1st. The anger of God was the cause of it. Wrath was 
now come upon the Egyptians to the uttermost. Pharaoh's heart having been 
often hardened, after lesser judgments had softened it, God now stirred up all 
his wrath ; for he cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, anger in the 
highest degree; wrath and indignation the cause, and trouble (tribulation and 
anguish, Rom. ii. 8, 9) the effect. This from on high he cast upon them, and did 
not spare, and they could not flee out of his hands, Job xxvii. 22. " lie made 
away," or, as the word is, 'He weighed a path' "to his anger;" he did not 
cast it upon them uncertainly, but by weight. His anger was weighed with the 
greatest exactness in the balances of justice; for in his greatest displeasure he 
never did, nor ever will, do any wrong to any of his creatures. The path of his 
anger is always weighed. 2nd. The angels of God were the instruments 
employed in this execution. He sent evil spirits among them; not evil in their 
own nature, but in respect of the errand upon which they w r ere sent. They were 
destroying angels, or angels of punishment, which passed through all the land 
of Egypt, with orders according to the weighed paths of God*s anger, not to 
kill all, but the firstborn only. Good angels become evil angels to sinners. 
They that make the holy God their enemy, let them never expect the holy 
angels to be their friends. 3rd. The execution itself was very severe. "He 
spared not their soul from death," but suffered death to ride in triumph among 
them, and "gave their life over to the pestilence,'^ which cut the thread of life 
off immediately ; for 4i he smote all the firstborn in Egypt," ver. 51, " the chief 
of their strength," the hopes of their respective families. Children are the 
parents' strength, and the firstborn the chief of their strength. Thus, because 
Israel w r as precious in God's sight, he gave men for them, and people for-their 
life, Isa. xliii. 4. 

2nd. By these plagues on the Egyptians, " God made "a way for "his own 
people to go forth like sheep ;" distinguishing between them and the Egyptians, 
"as the shepherd divideth between the sheep and the goats," having set his own 
mark on these sheep, by the blood of the lamb sprinkled on their doorposts, 
"He made them go forth like sheep," not knowing whither they went, "and 
guided them in the wilderness," like as a shepherd guides his flock, with ail pos- 
sible care and tenderness ; ver. 52, " He led them on safely," though in dangerous 
paths, so that " they feared not," that is, they did not need to fear. They were 
indeed frightened at the Red sea, Fx. xiv. 10, but that was said to them, and 
done for them, which effectually silenced their fears : "but the sea overwhelmed 
their enemies " that ventured to pursue them into it, ver. 53. It was a lane to 
them, but a grave to their persecutors. 

2. It is carried down as far as their settlement in Canaan ; ver. 54, "He 
brought them to the border of his sanctuary/' that is, to that land, in the midst 
of which he set up his sanctuary, which was as it w r ere the centre and metro- 
polis, the crown and glory of it. That is a happy land which is the border 



PSALM LXXYIII. 333 

of God's sanctuary; it was the happiness of that land, that there God was 
known, and there was his sanctuary and dwelling-place, Ps. lxxyi. 1, 2. The 
whole land in general, and Zion in particular, was "the mountain which his 
right hand had purchased," which by his own power he had set apart for him- 
self : see Ps. xliv. 3. lie " made them to ride on the high places of the earth," 
Isa. lviii. 14; Deu. xxxii. 13. They found the Canaanites in the full and quiet 
possession of that land, but God "cast out the heathen before them," not only 
took away their title to it, as the Lord of the whole earth, but himself executed 
the judgment given against them, and as Lord of hosts turned them out of it, 
and made his people "Israel tread upon their high places;" dividing each 
tribe an inheritance by line, and making them to dwell in the houses of those 
whom they had destroyed. God could have turned the uninhabited, unculti- 
vated wilderness (which perhaps was almost as much compass of ground as 
Canaan) into fruitful soil, and have planted them there ; but the land he 
designed them was to be a type of heaven, and therefore must be the glory 
of all lands ; it must likewise be fought for, for "the kingdom of heaven sutlers 
violence." 

Thirdly. The sins of Israel after they were settled in Canaan, ver. 56—58. 
The children were like their fathers, and brought their old corruptions into 
their new habitations; though God had done so much for them, yet "they 
tempted and provoked the most high God still." He gave them his testimonies, 
but they did not keep them ; they began very promisingly, but they turned 
back; gave God good words, but dealt unfaithfully ; and were like a deceitful 
bow, which seemed likely to send the arrow to the mark, but when it is drawn, 
breaks, and drops the arrow at the archer's foot, or, perhaps makes it recoil in 
his face. There was no hold of them, nor any confidence to be put in their 
promises or professions. They seemed sometimes devoted to God, but they 
presently turned aside, and " provoked him to anger with their high places, and 
their graven images." Idolatry was the sin that did most easily beset them, 
and which, though they often professed their repentance^ for, they as often 
relapsed into. It was spiritual adultery either to worship idols, or to worship 
God by images, as if he had been an idol ; and therefore by it they are said to 
move him to jealousy, Deu. xxxii. 16, 21. 

Fourthly. The judgments God brought upon them for these sins. Their 
place in Canaan would no more secure them in a sinful way than their descent 
From Israel ; "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore 
I will punish you," Am. iii. 2. Idolatry is winked at among the Gentiles, but 
not in Israel. 

1. God was displeased with them; ver. 59, "When God heard this," when he 
heard the cry of their iniquity which came up before him, " he was wroth," he 
took it very heinously, as well he might, "and he greatly abhorred Israel," 
whom he had greatly loved and delighted in. They that had been the people 
of his choice became the generation of his wrath. Presumptuous sins, idola- 
tries especially, render even Israelites odious to God's holiness, and obnoxious 
to his justice. 

2. He deserted his tabernacle among them, and removed the _ defence which 
was upon that glory, ver. 60. God never leaves us till we leave him, never with- 
draws till we have driven him from us. His name is Jealous, and he is a jealous 
God, and therefore no marvel if a people whom he had betrothed to himself 
be loathed and rejected, and he refuse to cohabit with them any longer, when 
they have embraced the bosom of a stranger. The tabernacle at Shiloh was the 
tent God had placed among men, in which God would in very deed dwell with 
men upon earth; but when his people treacherously forsook it, he justly for- 
sook it, and then all its glory departed. Israel has small joy of the tabernacle 
without the presence of God in it. 

3. He gave up all into the hands of the enemy. > Those whom God forsakes 
become an easy prey to the destroyer. The Philistines are sworn enemies to 
the Israel of God, and no less so to the God of Israel, and yet God will make 
use of them to be a scourge to his people. 1st. God permits them to take the 
ark prisoner, and carry it off as a trophy of their victory, to shew that he had 
not only forsaken the tabernacle, but even the ark itself, which shall now be no 
longer a token of his presence; ver. 61, "He delivered his strength into cap- 
tivity," as if it had been weakened and overcome, and his glory fell under the 
disgrace of being abandoned into the enemies' hands. ¥e have the story 
1 bam, iv. 11. When the ark is become as a stranger among Israelites, no 
marvel if it soon be made a prisoner among Philistines. 2nd. He suffers the 
armies of Israel to be routed by the Philistines ; ver. 62, 63, " He gave his peo- 
ple over unto the sword," to the sword of his own justice, and of the enemies' 
rage, for " he was wroth with his inheritance ; " and that wrath of his was " the 
fire which consumed their young men," in the prime of their time, by^ the sword 
or sickness, and made such a devastation of them, that " their maidens were 
not praised," that is, "were not given in marriage,'' which is honourable in 



384 



PSALM LXXYIIL 



all; because there were no young men for them to be given to ; and because 
the distresses and calamities of Israel were so many and great, that the joys 
of marriage solemnities were judged unseasonable; and it was said, "Blessed 
is the womb that beareth not." General destructions produce a scarcity 
of men ; Isa. xiii. 12, " I will make a man more precious than fine gold," so 
that "seven women shall take hold of one man," Isa. iv. 1 : compare ck. iii. 25. 
Yet this was not the worst : 3rd. Even their priests that attended the ark fell 
by the sword, Hophni and Phinehas. Justly they fell, for they " made them- 
selves vile," and were " sinners before the Lord exceedingly ;" and their priest- 
hood was so far from being their protection, that it aggravated their sin, and 
hastened their fall ; and justly did they fall by the sword, because they exposed 
themselves in the field of battle without call or warrant ; and we throw our 
selves out of God's protection when we go out of our place and out of the way 
of our duty. When the priests fell "their widows made no lamentation, 
ver. 64. All the ceremonies of mourning were lost and buried in substantial 
grief. The widow of Phinehas, instead of lamenting her husband's death, died 
herself, when she had called her son Ichabod, 1 Sam. iv. 19. 

Fifthly. God's return in mercy to them, and his gracious appearances for 
them after this. We read not of their repentance and return to God, but God 
was grieved for the miseries of Israel, Jud. x. 16, and concerned for his own 
honour, "fearing the wrath of the enemy, lest they should behave themselves 
strangely," Deu xxxii. 27 ; and therefore, "then the Lord awaked as one out 
of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine,"' ver. 65, 
not only like one that is raised out of sleep, and recovers himself from the 
slumber, which by drinking he was overcome with, who then regardeth that 
which before he seemed w r holly to neglect, and to be mindless of : but like one 
that is refreshed with sleep, and w r hose heart is made glad by the sober and 
moderate use of wine, and is therefore the more lively and vigorous, and fit 
for business. When God had delivered the ark of his strength into captivity, 
as one jealous of his honour, he soon put forth the arm of his strength to rescue 
it ; stirred up his strength to do great things for his people. 

1. He plagued the Philistines that held the ark in captivity, ver. 66. He smote 
them with emerods in the hinder parts, wounded them behind, as if they were 
fleeing from him, even then when they thought themselves more than con- 
querors. He put them to reproach, and they themselves helped to make it a 
perpetual reproach by the golden images of their emerods, which they returned 
with the ark for a trespass offering, 1 Sam. vi. 5, to remain in perpetuam rei 
memorianiy — 'as a perpetual memorial.' Note, Sooner or later God will glorify 
himself by putting disgrace upon his enemies, then when they are most elevated 
with their successes. 

2. He provided a new settlement for his ark, after it had been some months 
in captivity, and some years in obscurity. He did indeed refuse the tabernacle 
of Joseph, he never sent it back to Shiloh, in the tribe of Ephraim, ver. 67. The 
ruins of that place were standing monuments of Divine justice, " Go see what 
I did to Shiloh,"' Jer. vii. 12. But he did not wholly take away the glory from 
Israel ; the moving of the ark is not the removing of it ; Shiloh has lost it, but 
Israel has not. God will have a church in the world, and a kingdom among 
men, though this or that place may have its candlestick removed; nay, the 
rejection of Shiloh is the election of Zion, as, long after, the fall of the Jew r s 
was the riches of the Gentiles, Rom. xi. 12. When God chose not the tribe 
of Ephraim, of which tribe Joshua was, he chose the tribe of Judah, ver. 68, 
because of that tribe Jesus was to be, who is greater than Joshua. Kirjath- 
jearim, the place to which the ark was brought after its rescue out of the hands 
of the Philistines, was in the tribe of Judah. There it took possession of that 
tribe; but thence it was removed to Zion, "that mount Zion which he loved," 
ver. 61, which was "beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth ;" there 
it was that he " built his sanctuary like high palaces, and like the earth." David 
indeed erected only a tent for the ark ; but a temple was then designed and 

Prepared for, and finished by his son. And that was, 1st. A very stately place, 
t was built like the palaces of princes, and the great men of the earth ; nay, it 
excelled them all in splendour and magnificence. Solomon built it, and yet 
here it is said God built it, for his father had taught him, perhaps with refer- 
ence to this undertaking, that " Except the Lord build the house, they labour 
in vain that build it," Ps. cxxvii. 1, which is a psalm for Solomon. 2nd. A very 
stable place, like the earth. Though not to continue as long as the earth, yet 
while it was to continue it was as firm as the earth, which God upholds by the 
word of his power, and it was not finally destroyed till the gospel temple was 
erected, which is to continue as long as the sun and moon endure, Ps. lxxxix. 36, 37, 
and against which the gates of hell shall never prevail. 

3. lie set a good government over them ; a monarchy, and a monarch after 
his own heart. " He chose David his servant" out of all the thousands of Israel, 
and put the sceptre into his hand, out of whose loins Christ was to come, and 
who was to be a type of him, ver. 70. Concerning David observe here, 



PSALM LXXIX. 385 

1st. The meanness of his beginning. His extraction indeed was great, for he 
descended from the prince of the tribe of Judah; but his education was poor. 
He was bred not a scholar, not a soldier, but a shepherd; he was taken from the 
sheepfolds, as Moses was ; for God delights to put honour upon the humble and 
diligent, to raise the poor out of the dust, and to set them among princes ; and 
sometimes finds those most fit for public action that have spent the beginning 
of their time in solitude,and contemplation. The Son of David was upbraided 
with the obscurity of his original, "Is not this the carpenter?" David was 
taken — he doth not say from leading the rams, but— from following the ewes, 
especially those great with young, which intimated that of all the good proper- 
ties of a shepherd, he was most remarkable for his tenderness and compassion 
to those of his flock that most needed it. This temper of mind fitted him for 
government; and made him a type of Christ, who when he feeds his flock 
like a shepherd, doth with a particular care "gently lead those that are with 
young," Is a. xl. 11. 

2nd. The greatness of his advancement. God preferred him "to feed Jacob 
his people," ver. 71. It was a great honour God put upon him in advancing 
him to be a k*ng, especially to be king over Jacob and Israel, God's peculiar 
people, near and dear to him; but withal it was a great trust reposed in him 
when he was charged with the conduct of those that were God's own inherit- 
ance. God advanced him to the throne that he might feed them, not that he 
might feed himself; that lie might do good, not that he might make his family- 
great . It is the charge given to all the under shepherds, both magistrates and 
ministers, that they feed the flock of God. 

3rd. The happiness of his management. David having so great a trust put 
into his hands, obtained mercy of the Lord to be found both skilful and faithful 
in the discharge of it; ver. 72, "So he fed them;" he ruled them, and taught 
them, guided and protected them, First, Very honestly ; he did it " according 
to the integrity of his heart," aiming at nothing else but the glory of God, and 
the good of the people committed to his charge. The principles of his religion 
were the maxims of his government, which he administered, not with carnal 
policy, but with godly sincerity, by the grace of God. In every thing he did 
he meant well, and had no by-end in view. Secondly. Very discreetly. He 
did it "by the skilfulness of his hands ;" he was not only very sincere in what 
he designed, but very prudent in what he did, and chose out the most proper 
means in pursuit of his end ; for his God did instruct him to discretion. Happy 
the people that are under such a government ; and with good reason doth the 
psalmist make this the finishing crowning instance of God's favour to Israel, 
for David was a type of Christ, the great and good Shepherd, who was humbled 
first, and then exalted, and of whom it was foretold, that ne should be filled 
with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and should judge and reprove 
with equity, Isa. xi. 3, 4. On the integrity of his heart, and the skilfulness of 
his hands, all his subjects may entirely rely, and of the increase of his govern - 
ment and people there shall be no end. 



> PSALM LXXIX. 

This psalm, if penned with any particular event in view, is, with most probability, made 
to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the woful havoc made of 
the Jewish nation by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. It is set to the same tune, 
as 1 may say, with the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and that weeping prophet borrows 
two verses out of it, (ver. 6, 7,) and makes use of them in his prayer, Jer. ii. 25. Some 
think it was penned long before by the spirit of prophecy, prepared for the use of the 
church in that cloudy and dark day ; others, that it was penned then by the spirit of 
prayer, either by a prophet named Asaph, or some other prophet for the sons of Asaph. 
"Whatever the particular occasion was, we have here, I. A representation of the very 
deplorable condition that the people of God were in at this time, ver. 1 — 5. II. A 
petition to God for succour and relief, that their enemies might be reckoned with, 
ver. 6, 7. 10, 12 ; that their sins might be pardoned, ver. 8, 9; and that they might bo 
delivered, ver. 11. III. A plea taken from the readiness of his people to praise him, 
ver. 13. In times of the church's peace and prosperity, this psalm may, in the singing- 
of it, give us occasion to bless God that Ave are not thus trampled on and insulted ; hue 
it is especially seasonable in a day of treading down and perplexity, for the exciting 
of our desires towards God, and the encouragement of our faith in him as the church's 
patron. 

A Psalm of Asaph. 

OGOD, the heathen are come into thine inheritance ; 
Thy holy temple have they deiiled ; 
They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. 

2 B 



386 



PSALM LXXIX. 



2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given 
To be meat unto the fowls of the heaven. 

The flesh of thy saints 

Unto the beasts of the earth. [salem; 

3 Their blood have they shed like water Vound about Jeru- 
And there was none to bury them. 

4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, 

A scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 

5 How long, Lord ? wilt thou be angry for ever ? 
Shall thy jealousy burn like fire ? 

We have here a sad complaint exhibited in the court of heaven. The world 
is full of complaints, and so is the church too, for it not only suffers with it, but 
from it, as a lily among ^thorns. God is complained to ; whither should children 
go with their grievances but to their father, to such a father as is able and 
willing to help? The heathen are complained of, who being themselves aliens 
from the commonwealth of Israel, were sworn enemies to it. Though they 
knew not God, nor owned him, yet God having them in a chain, the church 
very fitly appeals to him against them, for he is King of nations, to overrule 
them, to judge among the heathen, and King of saints, to favour and protect 
them. 

First. They complain here of the anger of their enemies, and the outrageous 
fury of the oppressor, exerted, 

1. Against places, ver. 1. They did all the mischief they could, 1st. To 
the holy land ; they invaded that, and made inroads into it ; " The heathen are 
come into thine inheritance," to plunder that, and lay it waste. Canaan was 
dearer to the pious Israelites, as it was God's inheritance, than as it was their 
own; as it was the land in which God was known, and his name was great, 
than as it was the land in which they were bred and born, and which they 
and their ancestors had been long in possession of. Note, Injuries done to 
religion should grieve us more than even those done to common right, nay, 
to our own right. We should better bear to see our own inheritance wasted, 
than God's inheritance. This psalmist had mentioned it in the foregoing psalm 
as an instance of God's great favour to Israel, that he had cast out the heathen 
before them, Ps. lxxviii. 55. But see what a change sin made; now the heathen 
are suffered to pour in upon them. 2nd. To the holy city; "they have laid 
Jerusalem on heaps," heaps of rubbish, such heaps as are raised over graves, 
(so some). The inhabitants were buried in the ruins of their own houses, and 
their dwelling-places became their sepulchres, their long homes. 3rd. To the 
holy house; that sanctuary which God had built like high palaces, and which 
was thought to be established as the earth, was now laid level with the ground. 
" Thy holy temple have they defiled," by entering into it and laying it waste. 
God's own people had defiled it by their sins, and therefore God suffered their 
enemies to defile it by their insolence. 

2. Against persons, against the bodies of God's people, and farther their malice 
could not reach. 1st. They were prodigal of their blood, and killed them with- 
out mercy; their eye did not spare, nor did they give any quarter; ver. 3, 
" Their blood have they shed like water," wherever they met with them, round 
about Jerusalem, in all the avenues to the city; whoever went out or came in 
was waited for of the sword. Abundance of human blood was shed, so that 
the channels of water ran with blood : and they did it with no more reluctancy 
or regret than if they had spilled so much water; little thinking that every 
drop of it will be reckoned for in the day when " God shall make inquisition for 
blood." 2nd. They were abusive to their dead bodies; when they had killed 
them they would let none bury them. Nay, those that were buried, even the 
" dead bodies of God's servants, the flesh of his saints," whose names and 
memories they had a particular spite at, they digged up again, and "gave them 
to be meat to the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth;" or at 
least they left those so exposed whom they slew; they hung them in chains, 
which was in a particular manner grievous to the Jews to see, because God 
had given them an express law against this, as a barbarous thing, Deu. xxi. 23. 
This inhuman usage of Christ's witnesses is foretold Rev. xi. 9, and thus even 
the dead bodies were witnesses against their persecutors. This is mentioned 
(saith Austin, De Civ. Dei, lib. i. cap. 12,) not as an instance of the misery of the 
persecuted.— for the bodies of the saints shall rise in glory, however they 
became meat to the birds and the fowls,— but of the malice of their persecutors. 



FSALM LXXIX. 387 

3. Against their names; ver. 4, "We" that survive "are become a reproach 
to our neighbours," they all study to abuse us, and load us with contempt, and 
represent us as ridiculous, or odious, or both, upbraiding us with our sins and 
with our sufferings, or giving the lie to our relation to God, and expectations 
from him ; so that we are become "a scorn and derision to them that are round 
about us." If God's professing people degenerate from what themselves and 
their fathers were, they must expect to be told of it; and it is well if a just 
reproach will help to bring us to a true repentance. But it has been the lot 
of the Gospel Israel to be made unjustly a reproach and derision ; the apostles 
themselves were counted as the offscouring of all things. 

Secondly. They wonder more at God's anger, ver. 5. This they discern in the 
anger of their neighbours, and this they complain most of, " How long, Lord, 
wilt thou be angry ?" Shall it be " for ever?" This intimates that they desired 
no more but that God would be reconciled to them, that his anger might be 
turned away, and then the remainder of men's wrath would be restrained. 
Note, Those who desire God's favour as better than life, cannot but dread and 
deprecate his wrath as worse than death. 

6 Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not 

known thee, 

And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy 

7 For they have devoured Jacob, [name. 
And laid waste his dwelling place. 

8 0 remember not against us former iniquities : 
Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us : 
For we are brought very low. 

9 Help us, 0 God of our salvation, 
For the glory of thy name : 

And deliver us, and purge away our sins, 
For thy name's sake. 

10 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God ? 
Let him be known among the heathen in our sight 

By the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is 

1 1 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee ; [shed. 
According to the greatness of thy power 

Preserve thou those that are appointed to die ; 

12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their 

bosom 

Their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee. O 

13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture [Lord, 
Will give thee thanks for ever: 

We will shew forth thy praise to all generations. 

The petitions here put up to God, are very suitable to the present distresses 
of the church, and they have pleas to enforce them interwoven with them, 
taken mostly from God's honour. 

First. They pray that God would so turn away his anger from them, as to 
turn it upon those that persecuted and abused them ; ver. 6, " Pour out thy 
wrath," the full vials of it, "upon the heathen ;" let them wring out the dregs 
of it and drink them. This prayer is in effect a prophecy, in which "the wrath 
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness 
of men." Observe here, 1. The character of those he prays against; they are 
such as have not known God, nor called upon his name. And the reason why 
men do not call upon God is because they do not know him, how able and 
willing he is to help them. They that persist in ignorance of God, and neglect 
of prayer, are the ungodly, who live without God in the world. There are 
kingdoms that know not God, and obey not the Gospel, but neither their 
multitude, nor their force united, will secure them from his just judgments. 



388 



PSALM LXXIX. 



2. Their crime; "They have devoured Jacob," ver. 7. And that is crime 
enough in the account of Him who reckons those that touch his people, touch 
the apple of his eye. They have not only disturbed, but devoured Jacob ; not 
only encroached upon his dwelling-place, the land of Canaan, but have laid it 
waste by plundering and depopulating it. 3. Their condemnation. " Pour out 
thy wrath" upon them ; do not only restrain them from doing farther mischief, 
but reckon with them for the mischief they have done. 

Secondly. They pray for the pardon of sin, which they own to be the pro- 
curing cause of all their calamities. How unrighteous soever men were, God 
was righteous in permitting them to do what they did. They pray, 

1. That God would not remember against them their former iniquities, ver. 8. 
Either their own former iniquities, that now they were old they might not be 
made to possess the iniquities of their youth. Or, the former iniquities of their 
people, the sins of their ancestors. In the captivity of Babylon former iniquities 
were brought to account ; but God promiseth not again to do so, Jer. xxxi. 29, 30; 
and so they pray, Remember not against us our first sins; which some make to 
look as far back as the golden calf, because that God said, '* In the day when 
I visit, I will visit for this sin" of theirs "upon them," Ex. xxxii. 34. If the 
children by repentance and reformation cut off the entail of the parents' sin, 
they may in faith pray that God will not remember them against them. When 
God pardons sin he blots it out, and remembers it no more. 

2. That he would purge away their sins they had been lately guilty of, by the 
guilt of which their minds and consciences had been defiled. " Deliver us, and 
purge away our sins," ver. 9. Then deliverances from trouble are granted in 
love, and are mercies indeed, when they are grounded upon the pardon of sin, 
and flow from that; we should therefore be more earnest with God in prayer 
for the removal of our sins, than for the removal of our afflictions; and the 
pardon of them is the foundation and sweetness of our deliverances. 

Thirdly. They pray that God would work deliverance and salvation for 
them, and bring their troubles to a good end, and that speedily; "Let thy 
tender mercies speedily prevent us," ver. 8. They had no hopes but from God's 
mercies, his tender mercies ; their case was so deplorable that they looked upon 
themselves as the proper objects of Divine compassion; and so near to des- 
perate, that unless Divine mercy did speedily interpose to prevent their ruin, 
they were undone. This whets their importunity, "Lord, help us, Lord, de- 
liver us ;" help us under our troubles, that we may bear them well; help us out 
of our troubles, that the spirit may not fail. Deliver us from sin, from sinking. 
Three things they plead: 1. The great distress they were reduced to; "We 
are brought very low ;" and being low, shall be lost, if thou help us not. The 
lower we are brought, the more need we have of help from heaven, and the 
more will Divine power be magnified in raising us up. 2. Their dependence 
upon him; "Thou art the God of our salvation," who alone canst help, "Sal- 
vation belongeth to the Lord," and whom we expect help from; for "in the 
Lord alone is the salvation of his people." They who make God the God of 
their salvation shall find him so. 3. The interest of his own honour in their 
case. They plead no merit of theirs, they pretend to none ; but, " Help us for 
the glory of thy name;" pardon us "for thy name's sake." The best encou- 
ragements in prayer are those that are taken from God only, and those things 
whereby he has made himself known. Two things are insinuated in this plea : 
1st. That God's name and honour would be greatly injured if he did not deliver 
them; for those that derided them blasphemed God, as if he were weak and 
could not help them, or withdrawn, and would not; therefore they plead, 
ver. 10, "Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God?" He has 
forsaken them, and forgotten them; and this they get by worshipping a God 
whom they cannot see. (Nil prceter nubes et cceli numen aaorarit, — 1 They adore 
no other divinity than the clouds and the sky.' — Juv.) That which was their 
praise, that they served a God that is every where, was now turned to their 
reproach and his too, that they served a God that is nowhere. Lord, say they, 
make it to appear that thou art, by making it to appear that thou art with us, 
and for us; that when we are asked, " Where is your God?" we may be able 
to say, He is nigh unto us in all that which we call upon him for ; and you see 
he is so by what he doth for us. 2nd. That God's name and honour would 
be greatly advanced if he did deliver them ; his mercy would be glorified 
in delivering them that were so miserable and helpless. By making bare his 
everlasting arm on their behalf, he would make unto himself an everlasting 
name ; and their deliverance would be a type and figure of the great salvation 
which, in the fulness of time, Messiah the Prince would work out, to the glory 
of God's name. 

Fourthly. They pray that God would avenge them on their adversaries. 
1. For their cruelty and barbarity, ver. 10. Let the avenging of our blood 
(according to the ancient law, Gen. vi. 6,) be known among the heathen, let 
them be made sensible that what judgments are brought upon them are punish- 
ments of the wrong they have done to us, and let this be in our sight ; and by 



PSALM LXXX. 

this means let God be known among the heathen, as the God to whom venge- 
ance belongs, Ps. xciv. 1, and the God that espouseth his people's cause. Those 
that have intoxicated themselves with the blood of the saints shall have blood 
given them to drink, for they are worthy. 2. For their insolence and scorn, 
ver. 12, "render to them their reproach." The indignities which by word and 
deed they have done to the people of God himself, and his name, let them be 
repaid to them with interest. The reproach wherewith men have reproached 
us only, we must leave it to God whether he will render it to them or no, and 
must pray that he would forgive them: but the reproach wherewith they have 
blasphemed God himself, we may in faich pray that God would render it seven- 
fold into their bosoms, so as to strike at their hearts, to humble them, and 
bring them to repentance. This prayer is a prophecy of the same import with 
that of Enoch, that God will convince sinners of all their hard speeches which 
they have spoken against him, Jude 15, and will return them into their own 
bosoms by everlasting terrors at the remembrance of them. 

Fifthly. They pray that God would find out a way for the rescue of his poor 
prisoners, especially the condemned prisoners, ver. 11. The case of their bre- 
thren that were fallen into the hands of the enemy was very sad; they were 
kept close prisoners, and because they durst not be heard to bemoan them- 
selves, they vented their griefs in deep and silent sighs. All their breathing 
was sighing, and so was their praying. They were appointed to die, as sheep fqr 
the slaughter, and had received the sentence of death within themselves. This 
deplorable case the psalmist recommends, 1. To the Divine pity; "Let their 
sighs come up before thee," and be thou pleased to take cognizance of their 
moans. 2. To the Divine power; "According to the greatness of thy arm," 
which no creature can contest with; "Preserve thou th^se that are appointed 
to die" from the death to which they are appointed. Man's extremity is God's 
opportunity to appear for his people : see 2 Cor. i. 8—10. 

Sixthly. They promise the returns of praise for the answers of prayer ; ver. 13, 
"So we will give thee thanks for ever." Observe, 1. How they please them- 
selves with their relation to God; though we are oppressed and brought low, 
yet we are the sheep of thy pasture: not disowned and cast off by thee for 
all this; " We are thine, save us." 2. How they promise themselves an oppor- 
tunity of praising God for their deliverance ; which they therefore desired, and 
would bid welcome, because it would furnish them with matter for thanks- 
giving, and put their hearts in tune for that excellent work, the work of heaven. 
3. How they oblige themselves not only to give God thanks at present, but to 
shew forth his praise unto all generations, that is, to do all they could, both to 
perpetuate the remembrance of God's favours to them, and to engage their 
posterity to keep up the work of praise. 4. How they plead this with God; 
Lord, appear for us against our enemies, for if they get the better, they will 
blaspheme thee, ver. 12; but if we be delivered we will praise thee. Lord, we 
are that people of thine, which thou hast formed for thyself, to shew forth thy 
praise : if we be cut off, whence shall that rent, that tribute, be raised ? Note, 
Those lives that are entirely devoted to God's praise, are assuredly taken under 
his protection. 

PSALM LXXX. 

This psalm is much to the same purpose with the next foregoing. Some think it was 
penned upon occasion of the desolation and captivity of the ten tribes, as the foregoing 
psalm of the two. But many were the distresses of the Israel of God, many, perhaps, 
which are not recorded in the sacred history, some whereof might give occasion for the 
drawing up of this psalm, which is proper to be sung in the day of Jacob's trouble ; and 
if, in singing it, we express a true love to the church, and a hearty concern for its 
interest, with a firm confidence in God's power to help it out of its greatest distresses, we 
make melody with our hearts to the Lord. The psalmist here, I. Begs for the tokens 
of God's presence with them, and favour to them, ver. 1 — 3. II. He complains of the 
present rebukes they were under, ver. 4 — 7. III. He illustrates the present desolations 
of the church by the comparison of a vine and a vineyard ; which had flourished, but 
was now destroyed, ver. 8 — 16. IV. He concludes with prayer to God lor the preparing 
of mercy for them, and the preparing of them for mercy, ver. 17 — 19. This, as many 
psalms before and after, relate to the public interests of God's Israel, which ought to lie 
nearer our hearts than any secular interest of our own. 

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim-Eduth, A Psalm of Asaph. 

GIVE ear, 0 Shepherd of Israel, 
Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock ; 
Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. 
2 Before Ephrairn and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy 
And come and save us. [strength, 



300 



PSALM LXXX. 



8 Turn us again, 0 God, and cause thy face to shine; 
And we shall be saved. 



How long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy 

5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears : 
And givest them tears to drink in great measure. 

6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours : 
And our enemies laugh among themselves. 

7 Turn us again, 0 God of hosts, 

And cause thy face to shine ; and we shall be saved. 

The psalmist here in the name of the church applies himself to God by prayer 
with reference to the present afflicted state of Israel. 

First. He entreats God's favour for them, ver. 1, 2, that is all in all to the 
sanctuary when it is desolate, and is to be sought in the first place. Observe^ 

1. How he eyes God in his address; as the Shepherd of Israel, whom he had 
nailed the sheep of his pasture, Ps. lxxix. 13, under whose conduct and care 
Israel was, as the sheep under the care and conduct of the shepherd. Christ is 
the great and good shepherd, to whom we may in faith commit the custody of 
his sheep that were given to him. He leads Joseph like a flock to the best 
pastures, and out of the way of danger; if Joseph follow him not as obse- 
quiously as the sheep do the shepherd, it is his own fault. He dwells between 
the cherubims, where he is ready to receive petitions, and to give directions. 
The mercy-seat was between the cherubims, and it is very comfortable in 
prayer to look up to God as sitting on a throne of grace, and that it is so to us 
is owing to the great propitiation, for the mercy-seat was the propitiatory. 

2. What he expects and desires from God. That he would give ear to the cry 
of their miseries, and of their _ prayers ; that he would shine forth both in his 
own glory, and in favour and in kindness to his people; that he would shew 
himself, and smile on them; that he would stir up his strength, that he would 
excite it, and exert it: it had seemed to slumber, Lord, awaken it; his causs 
met with great opposition, and the enemies threatened to overpower it, Lord, 
put forth thy strength so much the more, and come for salvation to us; be to 
thy people a powerful help, and a present help. Lord, do this before Ephraim, 
Benjamin, and Manasseh ; that is, in the sight of all the tribes of Israel, let 
them see it to their satisfaction. Perhaps these three tribes are named because 
they were the tribes which formed that squadron of the camp of Israel that in 
their march through the wilderness followed next after the tabernacle ; so that 
before them the ark of God's strength rose to scatter their enemies. 

Secondly. He complains of God's displeasure against them ; God was angry, 
and he dreads that more than any thing, ver. 4. 1. It was great anger : he 
apprehended that God was angry against the prayer of his people; not only 
that he was angry notwithstanding their prayers, by which they hoped to turn 
away his wrath from them, but he was angry with their prayers; though they 
were his own people that prayed. That God should be angry at the sins of his 
people, and at the prayers of his enemies, is not strange ; but that he should be 
angry at the prayers of his people, is strange indeed. He not only delayed to 
answer them, that he often doth in love, but he was displeased at them. If lie 
be really angry at the prayers of his people, we may he sure it is because they 
ask amiss, Jas. iv. 3. They pray, but they do not wrestle in prayer, their ends 
are not right, or there is some secret sin harboured and indulged in them; they 
do not lift up pure hands, or with wrath and doubting. But perhaps it is only 
in their own apprehension; he seems angry with their prayers when really he 
is not; for thus he will try their patience and perseverance in prayer; as 
Christ tried the woman of Canaan when he said, "It is not meet to take the 
children's bread and cast it to dogs." 2. It was anger that had continued a 
great while. " How long wilt thou be angry ?" We have still continued pray- 
ing_, and yet are still under thy frowns. 

ISow the tokens of God's displeasure, which they had been long under, were 
both their sorrow and shame. 1st. Their sorrow, ver. 5, " Thou feedest them 
with the bread of tears." They eat their meat from day to day in tears; this 
is the vinegar in which they dipped their morsel, Ps. x'lii. 3. They had tears 
given them to drink, not now and then a taste of that bitter cup, but in great 
measure. Note, There are many that spend their time in sorrow, who yet shall 
spend their eternity in joy. 2nd. It was their shame, ver. 7. God by frowning 
upon them made them a strife unto their neighbours, each strove which should 



4 0 Lord God of hosts, 




PSALM LXXX. 331 

expose them most; and such a cheap and easy prey were they made to them, 
that all the strife was who should have the stripping and plundering of then:. 
Their enemies laughed among themselves to see the frights they were in, the 
straits they were reduced to, and the disappointments they met with. When 
God is displeased with his people, we must expect to see them in tears, and 
their enemies in triumph. 

Thirdly. He prays earnestly for converting grace in order to their acceptance 
with God, and their salvation: "Turn us again, O God," ver. 3; "Turn us 
again, O God of hosts," ver. 7, and then " cause thy face to shine, and we shall 
be saved." It is the burthen of the song, for we have it again, ver. 19. They 
are conscious to themselves that they have gone astray from God and their 
duty, and have turned aside into sinful ways, and that was it that provoked 
God to hide his face from them, and to give them up into the hand of their 
enemies; and therefore they desire to begin their work at the right end ; Lord, 
turn us to thee in a way of repentance and reformation, and then, no doubt, 
thou wouldst return to us in a way of mercy and deliverance. Observe, 1. No 
salvation but from God's favour; " cause thy face to shine," let us have thy 
love, and the light of thy countenance, and then we shall be saved. 2. No 
obtaining favour with God unless we be converted to him. We must turn 
again to God from the world and the flesh, and then he will cause his face to 
shine upon us. 3. No conversion to God but by his own grace ; we must frame 
our doings to turn to him, Hos. v. 4, and then pray earnestly for his grace, 
f* Turn thou me, and I shall be turned;" pleading that gracious promise, 
Pr. i. 23, " Turn you at my reproof, behold I wili pour out- my Spirit unto you." 
The prayer here is for a national conversion. In this method we must pray for 
national mercies, that what is amiss may be amended, and then our grievances 
would be soon redressed. National holiness would secure national happiness. 

8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: 
Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. 

9 Thou preparedst room before it, 
And didst cause it to take deep root, 
And it filled the land. 

10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, 

And the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. 

1 1 She sent out her boughs unto the sea, 
And her branches unto the river. 

12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, 

So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her ? 

13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it, 

And the wild beast of the field doth devour it. 

14 Eeturn, we beseech thee, 0 God of hosts: 

Look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine ; 

15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, 
And the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. 

16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down : 

They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. 

17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, 
Upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thy- 

18 So will not we go back from thee: [self. 
Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. 

19 Turn us again, 0 Lord God of hosts, 

Cause thy face to shine ; and we shall be saved. 

The psalmist is here presenting his suit for the Israel of God, and pressing it 
home at the throne of grace, pleading with God for mercy and grace for them. 
The church is here represented as a vine, ver. 8, 14, and a vineyard, ver. 15. 



392 



PSALM LXXX. 



The root of this vine is Christ, Mom. xi. 28. The branches are believers, 
Jno. xv. 5. The church is like a vine, weak, and needing support ; unsightly, 
and having an unpromising outside, but spreading and fruitful, and its fruit 
most excellent. The church is a choice and noble vine; we have reason to 
acknowledge the goodness of God, that he has planted such a vine in the 
wilderness of this world, and preserved it to this day. Now observe here*, 

First. How the vine of the Old Testament church was planted at first. It 
was brought out of Egypt with a high hand, the heathen were cast out of 
Canaan to make room for it ; seven nations to make room for that one. * Thou 
didst sweep before it,' so some read ver. 9, to make clear work; the nations 
were swept away as dirt with the besom of destruction. God, having made 
room for it and planted it, he caused it to take deep root by a happy establish- 
ment of their government both in church and state; which was so firm that, 
though their neighbours about them oft attempted it, they could not prevail to 
pluck it up. 

Secondly. How it spread and flourished. 1. The land of Canaan itself was fully 
peopled. At first they were not so numerous as to replenish it, Ex. xxiii. 29. 
But in Solomon's time Judah and Israel were many as the sand of the sea; the 
land was filled with them, and yet such a fruitful land that it was not over- 
stocked, ver. 10. The hills of Canaan were covered with their shadow, and the 
branches, though they extend themselves far like those of the vine, yet were 
not weak like them, but as strong as those of the goodly cedars ; Israel not only 
had abundance of men, but those mighty men of valour. 2. They extended 
their conquests and dominion to the neighbouring countries ; ver. 11, " She sent 
out her boughs to the sea," the great sea westward, "and her branches to the 
river," to the river of Egypt southward, the river of Damascus northward, or 
rather, the river Euphrates eastward, Gen. xv. 18. Nebuchadnezzar's great- 
ness is represented by a flourishing tree, Dan. iv. 20= 21. But it is observable 
here concerning this vine, that it is praised for its shadow, its boughs and its 
branches, but not a word of its fruit, for Israel was an empty vine, Hos. x. 1. 
God came looking for grapes, but behold wild grapes, Isa. v. 2. And if a vine 
do not bring forth fruit, no tree so useless, so worthless, Eze. xv. 2, 6. 

Thirdly. How it was wasted and ruined. Lord, thou hast done great things 
for this vine, and why shall it all be undone again ? If it were a plant not of 
God's planting it were not strange to see it rooted up; but shall God desert 
and abandon that which he himself gave being to? ver. 12, " Why hast thou 
then broken down her hedges?" There was a good reason for this change in 
God's way towards them ; this noble vine was become the degenerate plant of 
a strange vine, Jer. ii. 21, to the reproach of its great owner; and then no 
marvel if he took away its hedge, Isa. v. 5. Yet God's former favours to this 
vine are urged as pleas in prayer to God, and improved as encouragements to 
faith, that for all this God would not wholly cast them off. Observe, 1. The 
malice and enmity of the Gentile nations against Israel. As soon as ever God 
broke down their hedges and left them exposed, troops of enemies presently 
broke in upon them, that waited for an opportunity to destroy them. They 
that passed by the way had a pluck at them ; the boar out of the wood, and the 
wild beast of the field were ready to ravage it, ver. 13. But, 2. See also the 
restraint w r hich these cruel enemies were under, for till God had broken down 
their hedges they could not pluck a leaf of this vine. The devil could not hurt 
Job so long as God continued the hedge round about him, Job i. 10. See how 
much it is the interest of any people to keep themselves in the favour of God, 
and then they need not fear any wild beast of the field, Job v. 23. But if we 
provoke God to withdraw, " our defence is departed from us," and we are 
undone. The deplorable state of Israel is described ver. 16, " It is burned 
with fire, it is cut down the people are treated like thorns and briars, that 
are nigh unto cursing, and whose end is to be burned, and no longer like vines, 
that are protected and cherished. " They perish," not through the rage of 
the wild beast and the boar, but " at the rebuke of thy countenance ; " that was 
it which they dreaded, and to which they attributed all their calamities. It is 
well or ill with us according as we are under God's smiles or frowns. 

Fourthly. What their requests were to God hereupon. 

1. That God would help the vine, ver. 14, 15; that he would graciously take 
cognizance of its case ? and do for it as he thought fit. "Return, we beseech 
thee, O Lord of hosts,'' for thou hast seemed to go away from us. " Look down 
from heaven," to which thou hast retired ; from heaven, that place of prospect, 
whence thou seest all the wrongs that are done us; that place of power, 
whence thou canst send effectual relief; from heaven, where thou hast pre- 
pared thy throne of judgment, to which we appeal; and where thou hast 
prepared a better country for those that are Israelites indeed : thence give a 
gracious look, thence make a gracious visit to this vine. Take our woful 



PSALM LXXXL 



393 



condition into thy compassionate consideration, and for the particular fruits of 
thy pity we refer ourselves to thee. Only " behold the vineyard," or rather 
the root, " which thy right hand hath planted," and which therefore we hope 
thy right hand will protect; that "branch which thou madest strong for 
thyself," to shew forth thy praise, Isa. xliii. 21, that with the fruit of it thou 
mightest be honoured. Lord, it is formed by thyself, and for thyself, and 
therefore it may with an humble confidence be committed to thyself, and to 
thine own care. "As for God, his work is perfect." What we read "the 
branch," in the Hebrew is ' the son' {Ben), whom in thy counsel thou hast made 
strong for thyself. That branch was to come out of the stock of Israel, " My 
servant, the branch," Zee. iii. 8. _ And therefore, till he was come, Israel in 
general, and the house of David in particular, must be preserved, and upheld, 
and kept in being. "He is the true vine," Jno. xv. 1 ; Isa. xi. 1 ; " Destroy it 
not, for that blessing is in it," Isa. lxv. 8. 

2. That he would help the vinedresser; ver. 17, 18, " Let thy hand be upon 
the man of thy right-hand ; " that king, whoever it was, of the house of David, 
that was now to go in and out before them; let thy hand be upon him, not only 
to protect and cover him, but to own him, and strengthen him, and give him 
success. We have this phrase, Ezr. vii. 28, "And I was strengthened as the 
hand of the Lord my God was upon me." Their king is called the man of God's 
right hand, as he was the representative of their state, which was dear to God, 
as his Benjamin, the son of his right hand; and as he was president in their 
affairs, and an instrument in God's right hand of much good to them, defending 
them from themselves and from their enemies, and directing them in the right 
way; and under shepherd under him who was the great Shepherd of Israel. 
Princes that have power must remember that they are sons of men, of Adam, 
so the word is ; that if they are strong, it is God that hath made them strong, 
and he has made them so for himself, for they are his ministers to serve the 
interests of his kingdom among men ; which if they do in sincerity, his hand 
shall be upon them, and we should pray in faith that it may be so ; adding this 
promise, that if God will adhere to our governors we will adhere to him : " So 
will not we go back from thee;" we will never desert a cause which we see 
that God espouseth, and is the patron of. Let God be our leader, and we will 
follow him. Adding also this prayer, " Quicken us," put life into us, revive our 
dying interests, revive our drooping spirits, "and then we will call upon thy 
name." We will continue to do so upon all occasions, having found it not in 
vain to do so. We cannot call upon God's name in a right manner, unless he 
quicken us; but it is he puts life into our souls, that puts liveliness into our 
prayers. 

But many interpreters, both Jewish and Christian, apply this to the Messiah, 
the son of David, the protector and saviour of the church, and the keeper of the 
vineyard. 1st. He is the man of God's right hand ; to whom he hath sworn by 
his right hand, so the Chaldee; whom he has exalted to his right hand, and 
who is indeed his right hand, the arm of the Lord, for all power is given to him. 
2nd. He is that Son of Man whom he has made strong for himself, for the 
glorifying of his name, and the advancing of the interests of his kingdom among 
men. 3rd. God's hand is upon him throughout his whole undertaking, to bear 
him out, and carry him on, to protect and animate him, that " the good pleasure 
of the Lord might prosper in his hand." 4th. The stability and constancy of 
believers is entirely owing to that grace and strength which is laid up for us in 
Jesus Christ, Ps. lxviii. 28. In him is our strength found, by which we are 
enabled to persevere to the end. Let thy hand be upon him, on him let our help 
be laid, who is mighty, let him be made able to save to the uttermost, and that 
will be our security, " So will not we go back from thee." 

Lastly. The psalm concludes with the same petition that had been put up 
twice before, and yet it is no vain repetition; ver. 19, "Turn us again." The 
title given to God rises, ver. 3, " O God ! " ver. 7, " O God of hosts ! " ver. 19, 
" O Lord, Jehovah, God of hosts !" When we come to God for his grace, his 
good will towards us, and his good work in us, we should pray earnestly, con- 
tinue instant in prayer, and pray more earnestly. 

PSALM LXXXI. 

This psalm was penned, as is supposed, not upon occasion of any particular providence, 
but for the solemnity of a particular ordinance, either that of the new moon in general, 
or that of the feast of trumpets, on the new moon of the seventh month, Lev. xxiii. 24 ; 
Num. xxix. 1. When David, by the Spirit, introduced the singing of psalms into the 
temple service, this psalm was intended for that day, to exene and assist the proper 
devotions of it. All the psalms are profitable ; but if one psalm be more suitable than 
another to the day, and the observances of it, we should choose that. The two great 
intentions of our religious assemblies, and which we ought to have in our eye in our 



394 



PSALM LXXXT. 



attendance on them, are answered in this psalm, which are, to give glory to God. and 
to receive instruction from God, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his 
temple. Accordingly, by this psalm we are assisted on our solemn feast days, I. In 
praising God, for what he is to his people, ver. 1 — 3 ; and has done for them, ver. 4 — 7. 
II. In teaching and admonishing one another concerning the obligations we lie under 
to God, ver. 8—10; the danger of revolting from him, ver. 11, 12; and the happiness 
we should have if we would but keep close to him, ver. 13—16. This, though speaking 
primarily of Israel of old, is written for our learning, and is therefore to be sung with 
application. 

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph. 

SING aloud unto God our strength : 
Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. 

2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, 
The pleasant harp with the psaltery. 

3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, 

In the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. 

4 For this was a statute for Israel, 
And a law of the God of Jacob. 

5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, 
When he went out through the land of Egypt: 
Where I heard a language that I understood not. 

6 I removed his shoulder from the burden : 
His hands were delivered from the pots. 

7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee ; 
I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: 
I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. 

"When the people of God were gathered together in the solemn day, the day 
of the feast of the Lord, they must be told that they had business to do, for we 
do not go to church to sleep, or to be idle. No * x there is that which the duty 
of every day requires ; work of the day, which is to be done in its day. And 
here, 

First. The worshippers of God are excited to their work: and are taught, by 
singing this psalm, to stir up both themselves and one another to it, ver. 1 — 3. 
Our errand is to " give unto God the glory due unto his name ;" and in all our 
religious assemblies we must mind this as our business. 1. In doing this, we 
must eye God as our strength, and as the God of Jacob, ver. l. He is the 
strength of Israel, as a people; for he is a God in covenant with them, that will 
powerfully protect, support, and deliver them; that fights their battles, and 
makes them to do valiantly, and victoriously. He is the strength of every 
Israelite ; by his grace we are enabled to go through all our services, sufferings, 
and connects. And to him. as our strength, we must both pray and sing praise 
to him, as the God of all the wrestling seed of Jacob, with whom we have a 
spiritual communion. 2. We must do this by all the expressions of holy joy 
and triumph. It w T as then to be done by musical instruments, the timbrel, 
harp, and psaltery, and by blowing the trumpet: some think, in remembrance 
of the sound of the trumpet on mount Sinai, which waxed louder and louder. 
It was then, and is now to be done, by singing psalms, singing aloud, ^and 
making a joyful noise. The pleasantness of the harp, and the awfulness of the 
trumpet, intimates to us that God is to be worshipped with cheerfulness and 
holy joy, with reverence and godly fear. Singing aloud, and making a noise, 
intimates that we must be warm and affectionate in praising God ; that we 
must with a hearty good- will shew forth his praise, as those that are not 
ashamed to own our dependence on him, and obligations to him; and that we 
should join many together in this work, the more the better, it is the liker 
to heaven. 3. This must be done in the time appointed. No time amiss for 

? raising God; "Seven times a day will I praise thee;" nay, "at midnight will 
rise and give thanks to thee." But some are times appointed, not for God to 
meet us, he is always ready, but for us to meet one another, that we may jpin 
together in praising God. The solemn feast-day must be a day of praise, 
when we are receiving the gifts of God's bounty, and rejoicing in them then 
it proper to sing his praises. 



PSALM LXXXI. • m 

Secondly. They are here directed in their work. 

1. They must look up to the Divine institution, which it is the observation 
of. In all religious worship we must have an eye to the command; ver. 4, 
"This was a statute for Israel," for the keeping up of a face of religion among 
them; it was "a law of the God of Jacob," which all the seed of Jacob are 
bound by, and must be subject to. Note, Praising God is not only a good 
thing, which we may do well to do, but it is our indispensable duty, which w r e 
are obliged to do. It is at our peril if we neglect it ; and in all religious exercises 
we must have an eye to the institution as our warrant and rule. This I do, 
because God has commanded me; and therefore, I hope he will accept me. 
Then it is done in faith. 

2. They must look back upon those operations of Divine providence, which 
it is the memorial of. This solemn service was ordained for a testimony, ver. 5 ; 
a. standing traditional evidence, for the attesting of the matters of fact/ It was 
a testimony to Israel, that they might know and remember what God had done 
for their fathers, and would be a testimony against them, if they should be 
ignorant of them and forget them. 

1st. The psalmist, in the people's name, puts himself in mind of the general 
work of God on Israel's behalf, which was kept in remembrance by this and 
other solemnities, ver. 5. When God went out against the land of Egypt, to 
lay it waste, that he might force Pharaoh to let Israel go, then he ordained 
solemn feast days to be observed by a statute for ever in their generations, as 
a memorial of it, particularly the passover, which perhaps is meant by the 
solemn feast day, ver. 3. That was appointed just then when God went out 
through the land of Egypt to destroy the firstborn, and passed over the houses 
of the Israelites, Ex. xii. 23, 24. And by it that work of wonder was to be kept 
in perpetual remembrance, that all ages might in it behold the goodness and 
severity of God. The psalmist, speaking for his people, takes notice of this 
aggravating circumstance of their slavery in Egypt, that there they heard a 
language that they understood not ; there they were strangers in a strange 
land. The Egyptians and the Hebrews understood not one another's language ; 
for Joseph spake to his brethren by an interpreter. Gen. xlii. 23; and the 
Egyptians are said to be to the house of Jacob a people of a strange language, 
Ps. cxiv. 1. To make a deliverance appear the more gracious, the more glorious, 
it is good to observe every thing that makes the trouble we are delivered from 
appear the more grievous 

2nd. The psalmist, in God's name, puts the people in mind of some of the 
particulars of their deliverance. Here he changeth the person ; ver. 6, God 
speaks by him, saying, " I removed his shoulder from the burthen." Let him 
remember this on the feast day, First. That God had brought them out of the 
house of bondage ; had removed their shoulder from the burthen of oppression, 
under which they are ready to sink; had delivered their hands from the pots, 
or panniers, or baskets in which they carried clay or bricks. Liberty out of 
slavery is a very sensible mercy, and which ought to be had in everlasting 
remembrance. But this was not all, Secondly. God had delivered them at the 
Red sea. Then they called in trouble, and he rescued them, and disappointed 
the designs of their enemies against them, Ex. xiv. 10. Then he answered them 
with a real answer out of the secret place of thunder, that is, out of the pillar 
of fire, through which God looked upon the host of the Egyptians, and trou- 
bled it, Ex. xiv. 25. Or, it may be meant of the giving of the law at mount 
Sinai ; which was the secret place ; for it was death to gaze, Ex. xix. 21, and it 
was in thunder that God then spake. Even the terrors of Sinai were favours 
to Israel, ±)eu. iv. 33. Thirdly. God had borne their manners in the wilder- 
ness ; " I proved thee at the waters of Meribah, that is, thou didst there shew 
thy temper, what an unbelieving murmuring people thou wast, and yet I 
continued my favour to thee; Selah, mark that. Compare God"s goodness 
and man's badness, and they will serve as foils to each other. Now if they on 
their solemn feast days were thus to call to mind their redemption out of 
Egypt, much more ought we on the Christian sabbath to call to mind a more 
glorious redemption wrought out for us by Jesus Christ, from worse than 
Egyptian bondage, and the many gracious answers he hath given to us, not- 
withstanding our manifold provocations. 

8 Hear, 0 my people, and I will testify unto thee : 
0 Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me ; 

9 There shall no strange god be in thee ; 
Neither shalt thou worship any strange god. 

10 I am the Lord thy God, 

Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: 
Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. 



395 



PSALM LXXXL 



1 1 But my people would not hearken to my voice ; 
And Israel would none of me. 

12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust : 
A?id they walked in their own counsels. 

13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, 
A?id Israel had walked in my ways ! 

14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, 
And turned my hand against their adversaries. 

15 The haters of the Lord should have submitted them- 

selves unto him : 
But their time should have endured for ever. 

1 6 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat : 
And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied 

thee. 

God, by the psalmist, here speaks to Israel, and in them to us, on whom the 
ends of the world are come. 

First. He demands their diligent and serious attention to what he was about 
to say; ver. 8, "Hear, O my people;" and who should hear me if my own 
people will not? I have heard and answered thee, now wilt thou hear me? 
Hear what is said with the greatest solemnity, and the most unquestionable 
certainty ; for it is what " I will testify unto thee." Do not only ^ive me the 
hearing, but hearken unto me, that is, be advised by me, be ruled by me. 
Nothing could be more reasonably or more justly expected, and yet God puts 
an 'if ' upon it ; " If thou wilt hearken unto me." It is thine interest to do so, 
and yet it is questionable whether thou wilt or no; for thy neck is an iron 
sinew. 

Secondly. He puts them in mind of their obligation to him, as the Lord their 
God and Redeemer ; ver. 10, w I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out 
of the land of Egypt," whicn is the preface to the Ten Commandments, and a 
powerful reason for the keeping of them, shewing that we are bound to it 
m duty, interest, and gratitude, all which bonds we break asunder if we be 
disobedient. 

Thirdly. He gives them an abstract, both of the precepts and of the promises 
which he gave them as the Lord, and their God. upon their coming out of 
Egypt. 1. The great command was, that they should have no other gods before 
him ; ver. 9, " There shall no strange god be in thee," none beside thine own 
God. Other gods might well be called strange gods, for it was very strange 
that ever any people, who had the true and living God for their God, should 
hanker after any other. God is jealous in this matter, for he will not suffer his 
glory to be given to another ; and therefore in this matter they must be circum- 
spect, Ex. xxiii. 13. 2. The great promise was, that God himself, as a God 
all-sufficient, would be nigh unto them in all that which they called upon him 
for, Deu. iv. 7. That if they would adhere to him as their powerful protector 
and ruler, they should always find him their bountiful benefactor; " Open thy 
mouth wide and I will fill it," as the young ravens that cry, open their mouths 
wide, and the old ones fill them. See here, 1st. What is our duty. To raise 
our expectations from God, and enlarge our desires towards him. We cannot 
look for too little from the creature, nor too much from the Creator. We are 
not straitened in him, and therefore why should we be straitened in our own 
bosoms? 2nd. What is God's promise. I will fill thy mouth with good things, 
Ps. ciii. 5. There is enough in God to fill our treasures, Pr. viii. 21 ; to replenish 
every hungry soul. Jer. xxxi. 25 ; to supply all our wants, to answer all our 
desires, and to make us completely happy. The pleasures of sense will surfeit, 
and never satisfy, Isa. lv. 2 ; Divine pleasures will satisfy, and never surfeit. 
And we may have enough from God if we pray for it in faith ; " Ask, and it 
shall be given you;" "he gives liberally, and upbraideth not." God assured 
his people Israel, that it should be their own fault if he did not do as great 
and kind things for them as he had done for their fathers. Nothing should 
have been thought too good, too much, to give them, if they would but have 
kept close to God. He "would moreover have given them such and such 
tilings," 2 Sam, xii. 8. 



PSALM LXXXI. 397 

Fourthly. He chargeth them with a high contempt of his authority as their 
lawgiver, and his grace and favour as their benefactor, ver. 11. He had done 
much for them, and designed to do more; but all in vain, ''My people would 
not hearken to my voice," but turned a deaf ear to all I said. Iwo things he 
complains of: 1. Their disobedience to his commands. They did hear his voice, 
so as never any people did ; but they would not hearken to it,— they would not 
be ruled by it,— neither by the law, nor by the reason of it. 2. Their dislike 
of his covenant-relation to them ; " They would none of me ; " ' they acquiesced 
not in my word,' so the Chaldee. God was willing to be to them a God, but 
they were not willing to be to him a people ; they did not like his terms ; " 1 
would have gathered them, but they would not/' They had none of him ; and 
why had they not? It was not because they might not : they were fairly invited 
into covenant with God. It was not because they could not ; for "the word was 
nigh them, even in their mouth, and in their heart;" but it was purely because 
they would not. God calls them his people, for they were bought by him, 
bound to him, his by a thousand ties, and yet even they have not hearkened, 
have not obeyed : Israel, the seed of Jacob my friend, set me at nought, and 
would have none of me. Note, All the wickedness of the wicked world is 
owing to the wilfulness of the wicked will. The reason why people are not 
religious is because they will not be so. 

Fifthly. He justifies himself with this in the spiritual judgments he had 
brought upon them; ver. 12, " So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts," 
which would be more dangerous enemies, and more mischievous oppressors 
to them than any of the neighbouring nations ever were. God withdrew his 
Spirit from them, took off the bridle of restraining grace, left them to them- 
selves, and justly; they will do as they will, and therefore let them do as they 
will; "Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone." It is a righteous thing with 
God to give those up to their own hearts' lusts that indulge them, and give up 
themselves to be led by them ; for w r hy should his Spirit always strive ? His 
grace is his own, and he is debtor to no man; and yet, as he never gave his 
grace to any that could say they deserved it, so he never took it away from anv 
but such as had first forfeited it. "They would none of me, so I gave them 
up let them take their course, and see what follows j "they walked in their 
own counsels," in the way of their heart, and in the sight of their eye,— both 
in their worships and in their conversations. I left them to do as they would, 
and then they did all that was ill ; they walked in their own counsels, and not 
according to the counsels of God, and his advice. God therefore was not the 
author of their sin; he left them to the lusts of their own hearts, and the 
counsels of their own heads; if they do not well, the blame must lie upon 
their own hearts, and the blood upon their own heads. 

Sixthly. He testifies his good-will to them, in wishing they had done well for 
themselves. He saw how sad their case was. and how sure their ruin, when 
they were delivered up to their own lusts. That is worse than being given up 
to Satan, that may be in order to reformation, 1 Tim. i. 20, and to salvation, 
1 Cor. v. 5. But to be delivered up to our own hearts' lusts, is to be sealed 
under condemnation. "He that is filthy let him be filthy still.*' What fatal pre- 
cipices will not these hurry a man to ! Now here God looks upon them with 
pity, and shews that it was with reluctancy that he thus abandoned them to 
their folly and fate; "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" Bos. xi. 8, 9; 
so here; O that my people had hearkened!" see Isa. xlviii. IS. Thus Christ 
lamented the obstinacy of Jerusalem, "If thou hadst known," Lu. xix. 41. 
The expressions here are very affecting^ ver. 13 — 16 ; # designed to shew, 1. How 
unwilling God is that any should perish, and desirous that all should come 
to repentance. He delights not in the ruin of sinful persons or nations. 
2. What enemies sinners are to themselves, and what an aggravation it will 
be of their misery that they might have been happy upon such easy terms. 

Observe here, 1st. The great mercy God had in store for his people, and 
which he would have wrought for them if they had been obedient. First. He 
would have given them victory over their enemies, and would soon have com- 
pleted the reduction of them. They should not only have kept their ground, 
but have gained their point against the remaining Canaanites, and their en- 
croaching, vexatious neighbours ; ver. 14, " oUould soon have subdued their 
enemies ;" and it is God only that is to be tepended on for the subduing our 
enemies. Nor would he have put them if. the expense and fatigue of a tedious 
war ; he would soon have done it ; for he would have " turned his hand against 
their adversaries," and then they had not been able to stand before them. It 
intimates how easily he would have done it, and without any difficulty ; with 
the turn of a hand, nay, "with the breath of his mouth shall he slay the 
wicked," Isa. xi. 4. If he but turn his hand, "the haters of the Lord will 
submit themselves to him," ver. 15. And though they arc not brought to love 
him, yet they shall be made to fear him. and to confess that he is too hard for 



393 PSALM LXXXII. 

them, and it is in vain to contend with him. God is honoured, and so is his 
Israel, by the submission of those that have been in rebellion against them, 
though it be but a forced and feigned submission. Secondly. He would have 
confirmed and perpetuated their posterity, and established it upon sure and 
lasting foundations. In despite of all the attempts of their enemies against 
them, " their time should have endured for ever," and they should never have 
been disturbed in the possession of the good land God had given them, much 
less evicted, and turned out of possession. Thirdly. He would have given them 
g[reat plenty of all good things; ver. 16, "He should have fed them with the 
finest of the wheat," with the best grain, and the best of the kind. Wheat was 
the staple commodity of Canaan, and they exported a deal of it, Eze. xxvii. 17. 
He would not only have provided for them the best sort of bread, but " with 
honey out of the rock would he have satisfied them." Besides the precious 
products of the fruitful soil, that there might not be a barren spot in all their 
land, even the clefts of the rock should serve for beehives, and in them they 
should find honey in abundance : see Deu. xxxii. 13, 14. In short, God designed 
to make them every way easy and happy. 

2nd. The duty God required from them as the condition of all this mercy. 
He expected no more but that they should hearken to him, as a scholar to his 
teacher, to receive his instructions ; as a servant to his master, to receive his 
commands. And that they should walk in his ways, those ways of the Lord 
which are right and pleasant, that they should observe the institutions of his 
ordinances, and attend the intimations of his providence. And there was 
nothing unreasonable in this. 

3rd. Observe how the reason of the withholding of the mercy is laid in their 
neglect of the duty. If they had hearkened to me, " I would soon have sub- 
dued their enemies." Note, National sin and disobedience is the great and 
only thing that retards and obstructs national salvation and deliverance. 
"When I would have healed Israel," and set every thing to rights among 
them, then " the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered," and so a stop was put 
to the cure, Has. vii. 1 . We are apt to say, if such a method had been taken, 
such an instrument employed, we should soon have subdued our enemies ; but 
we mistake. If we had hearkened to God, and kept to our duty, the thing had 
been done; but it is sin that makes our troubles long, and salvation slow. And 
this is that which God himself complains of, and wisheth it had been otherwise. 
Note, Therefore God would have us do our duty to him, that we may be quali- 
fied to receive favour from him. He therefore delights in our serving him, not 
because he is the better for it, but because we shall be. 



PSALM LXXXII. 

This psalm is calculated for the meridian of princes' courts, and courts of justice, not in 
Israel only, but in other nations ; yet it was probably penned primarily for the use of 
the magistrates of Israel, the great Sanhedrim, and others their elders that were in 
places of power, and perhaps by David's direction. This psalm is designed to make 
kings wise, and to instruct the judges of the earth, as Ps. ii. 10; to tell them their duty, 
as 2 Sam. xxii. 3 ; and tell them of their faults, as Ps. lviii. 1. We have here, I. The 
dignity of magistracy, and its dependence upon God, ver. 1. II. The duty of magis- 
trates, ver. 3, 4. III. The degeneracy of bad magistrates, and the mischief they do, 
ver. 2, 5. IV. Their doom read, ver. 6, 7. V. The desire and prayer of all good people 
that the kingdom of God may be set up more and more, ver. 8. Though magistrates may 
most closely apply this psalm to themselves, yet we may any of us sing it with under- 
standing, when we give glory to God in singing of it, as presiding in all public affairs, 
providing for the protection of injured innocency, and ready to punish the most power- 
ful injustice, and when we comfort ourselves with the belief of his present government, 
and with the hopes of his future judgment. 

A Psalm of Asaph. 

GOD standetli in the congregation of the mighty ; 
He judge th among the gods, 

2 How long will ye judge unjustly, 

And accept the persons of the wicked ? Selah* 

3 Defend the poor and fatherless : 

Do justice to the afflicted and needy. 

4 Deliver the poor and needy : 

Eid them out of the hand of the wicked. 



PSALM LXXXII. 



S99 



5 They know not, neither will they understand ; 
They walk on in darkness : 

All the foundations of the earth are out of course. 

W r e have here, 

First. God's supreme presidency and power in all councils and courts asserted 
and laid down, as a great truth necessary to be believed both by princes and 
subjects; ver. 1 ; "God stands'' as chief director "in the congregation of the 
mighty," the mighty One, in ccetu fortis, — 'in the councils of the prince,' the 
supreme magistrate, and "he judgeth among the gods," the inferior magis- 
trates ; both the legislative and the executive power of princes is under his 
eye and his hand. Observe here, 1. The power and honour of magistrates. 
They are the mighty ; they are so in authority for the public good. It is a great 
power that they are intrusted with, and they ought to be so in wisdom and 
courage ; they are in the Hebrew dialect called gods. The same word is used 
for these subordinate governors that is used for the sovereign ruler of the 
world; they are Elohim. Angels are so called, both because they are great 
in power and might, and because God is pleased to make use of their service 
in the government of this lower world. And magistrates, in an inferior 
capacity, are likewise the ministers of his providence in general, for the 
keeping up of order and peace in human societies, and particularly of his 
justice and goodness, in punishing evil-doers, and protecting them that do well. 
Good magistrates, that answer the ends of magistracy, are as God; some of 
his honour is put upon them ; they are his vicegerents, and great blessings to 
any people. " A divine sentence is in the lips of the king," Pr. xvi. 10 ; but. 
"as roaring lions and ranging bears, so are wicked rulers over the poor people, 
Pr. xxviii. 15. 2. A good form and constitution of government intimated, and 
that is a mixed monarchy, like ours. Here is the mighty One, the sovereign, 
and here is his congregation, his privy council, his parliament, his bench of 
judges, who are called the gods. 3. God's incontestable sovereignty maintained 
in and over all the congregations of the mighty. God stands, he judgeth among 
them ; that is, they have their power from him, and are accountable to him ; by 
him kings reign. He is present at all their debates, and inspects all they say 
and do ; and what is said and done amiss will be called over again, and they 
reckoned with for their maladministrations. God has their hearts in his hands, 
and their tongues too, and he directs them which way soever he will, Pi . xxi. 1. 
So that he has a negative voice in all their resolves, and his counsels shall stand, 
whatsoever devices rise in men's hearts. He makes what use he pleaseth of 
them, and serves his own purposes and designs by them, though little doth 
their heart think so, Isa. x. 7. m Let magistrates consider this, and be awed by 
it; God is with them in the judgment, 2 Chr. i. 6; Deu. xix. 17. Let subjects 
consider this, and be comforted with it ; for good princes and good judges, that 
mean well, are under a Divine direction ; and bad ones, that mean never so ill, 
are under a Divine restraint. 

Secondly. A charge given to all magistrates to do good with their power, as 
they will answer it to Him by whom they are intrusted with it, ver. 3, 4. 
L They are to be the protectors of those that lie exposed to injury, and the 
patrons of those that want advice and assistance. Defend the poor that have 
no money wherewith to make friends, or fee council ; and the fatherless, that 
while they are young and unable to help themselves, have lost those that would 
have been the guides of their youth. Magistrates, as they must be fathers to 
their country in general, so particularly to those in it that are fatherless. Are 
they called gods? Herein they must be followers of him, they must be fathers 
of the fatherless. Job was so, Job xxix. 13. 2. They are to administer justice 
impartially, and " do right to the afflicted and needy," who, being weak and 
helpless, have often wrongs done them, and will be in danger of losing all, if 
magistrates do not ex officio interpose for their relief. If a poor man has an 
honest cause, his poverty must be no prejudice to his cause, how great and 
powerful soever those are that contend with him. 3. They are to rescue those 
that are already fallen into the hands of oppressors, and deliver them; ver. 4, 
" rid them out of the hand of the wicked." " Avenge them of their adversary," 
Lu. xviii. 3. These are clients that there is nothing to be got by, no pay lor 
serving them, no interest by obliging them, yet these are they whom judges and 
magistrates must concern themselves for, whose comfort they must consult, 
and whose cause they must espouse. 

Thirdly. A charge drawn up against bad magistrates, that neglect their duty, 
and abuse their power, forgetting that God standeth among them, ver. 2, 5» 
Observe, 

1. What the sin is they are here charged with. They judge unjustly, con- 
trary to the rules of equity, and the dictates of their consciences ; giving judg- 



403 



PSALM LXXXIL 



ment against those that have right on their side, out of malice and ill-will: or 
for those that have an unrighteous cause, out of favour and partial affection. 
To do unjustly is bad, but to judge unjustly is much worse, because it is doing 
wrong under colour of right; against such acts of injustice there is least fence 
for the injured, and by them encouragement is given to the injurious. It was 
as great an evil as any Solomon saw under the sun, when he observed "the 
place of judgment that iniquity was there,'' Eccl. hi. 16; Isa. v. 7. They nut 
only accepted the persons of the rich, because they were rich, though that is 
bad enough ; but, which is much worse, they " accepted the persons of the 
wicked/' because they were wicked ; they not only countenanced them in their 
wickedness, but loved them the better for it, and fell in with their interests. 
'Woe unto thee, O land, when thy judges are such as these. 

2. What were the cause of this sin. They were told plainly enough that it 
was their office and duty to protect and deliver the poor ; it was many a time 
given them in charge, yet they judge unjustly, for they know not, neither will 
they understand. They do not care to hear their duty, they will not take pains 
to study it ; they have no desire to take things right, but are governed by 
interest, not by reason or justice ; " A gift in secret blinds their eyes." They 
know not, because they will not understand; none so blind as those that wiii 
not see. They have baffled their own consciences, and so they walk on in 
darkness, not knowing or caring what they do, or whither they go. They that 
walk on m darkness are walking on to everlasting darkness. 

3. What were the consequences of this sin. "All the foundations of the 
earth," or of the land, "are out of course." When justice is perverted, what 
good can be expected? "The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dis- 
solved," as the psalmist speaks in a like case, Ps. lxxv. 3. The miscarriages 
of public persons are public mischiefs. 

6 I have said, Ye are gods ; 

And all of you are children of the most High 

7 But ye shall die like men, 
And fall like one of the princes. 

8 Arise, 0 God, judge the earth : 
For thou shalt inherit all nations. 

We have here, 

First. Earthly gods abased and brought down, ver. 6 7. The dignity of their 
character is acknowledged : ver. 6, " I have said, Ye are gods." They have been 
honoured with the name and title of gods ; God himself called them so in the 
statute against treasonable words, Ex. xxii. 28, "Thou shalt not revile the 
gods." And if they have this style from the fountain of honour, who can dis- 
pute it? But w r hat is man, that he should be thus magnified? "He called 
them gods, because unto them the w r ord of God came," so our Saviour expounds 
it, Jno. x. 35; that is, they had a commission from God, and were delegated and 
appointed by him to be the shields of the earth, the conservators of the public 
peace, and revengers to execute wrath upon those that disturb it, Rom. xiii. 4. 
All of them are in this sense children of the Most High ; God has put some of 
his honour upon them, and employs them in his providential government of the 
world, as David made his sons chief rulers. Or, because " I said ye are gods," 
you have carried the honour farther than was intended, and have imagined 
yourselves to be "the children of the Most High," as the king of Babylon, 
Jsa. xiv. 14, "I will be like the Most High ;" and the king of Tyre, Eze. xxviii. 2, 
" Thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God." It is a hard thing for men to 
have so much honour put upon them by the hand of God, and so much honour 
paid them, as ought to be by the children of men, and not to be proud of it, and 
puffed up w r ith it, and so think of themselves above what is meet. But here 
follows a mortifying consideration, "Ye shall die like men." This may be taken 
either, 

1. As the punishment of bad magistrates, such as judged unjustly, and by 
their misrules put the foundations of the earth out of course. God will reckon 
with them, and will cut them off in the midst of their pomp and prosperity ; they 
shall die like other wicked men, and fall like one of the heathen princes, and 
their being Israelites shall not secure them, no more than their being judges, 
or like one of the angels that sinned ; or like one of the giants of the old world. 
Compare this with that wmich Elihu observed concerning the mighty oppres- 
sors in his time; Job xxxiv. 26, "He striketh them as wicked men in the open 
sight of others." Let those that abuse their power know that God will take 
both it and their lives from them ; for wherein they deal proudly, he will shew 
himself above them. Or, 

2. As the period of the glory of all magistrates in this world. Let them not 



PSALM LXXXIII. 401 

be puffed up with their honour, or neglect their work ; but let the consideration 
of their mortality be both mortifying to their pride and quickening to their 
duty. Ye are called gods, but ye have no patent for immortality ; " ye shall die 
like men," like common men, and e like one of them ye, O princes, shall fall.' 
Note, Kings and princes, old judges of the earth, though they are gods to us, 
are men to God, and shall die like men, and all their honour shall be laid in the 
dust. Mors sceptra ligonibus csquat, — ' Death mingles sceptres with spades.' 

Secondly. The God of heaven exalted, and raised high, ver. 8. The psalmist 
finds it to little purpose to reason with these proud oppressors ; they turned 
a deaf ear to all he said, and walked on in darkness, and therefore he looks up 
to God, appeals to him, and begs of him to take unto himself his great power. 
'* Arise, O God, judge the earth." And when he prays that he would do it, he 
believes that he will do it: " Thou shalt inherit all nations." This has respect, 
1. To the kingdom of providence. God governs the world, sets up and puts 
down whom he pleaseth ; he inherits all nations, has an absolute dominion over 
them, to dispose of them as a man doth of his inheritance. ^ This we are to 
believe, and to comfort ourselves with, that the earth is not given so much into 
the hands of the wicked, the wicked rulers, as we are tempted to think it is, 
Job ix. 24; but God has reserved the power to himself, and overrules them. 
In this faith we must pray, "Arise, O God, judge the earth," appear against 
those that judge unjustly, and set shepherds over thy people after thine own 
heart. There is a righteous God to whom we may have recourse, and on whom 
we may depend, for the effectual relief of all that find themselves aggrieved by 
unjust judges. 2. It has respect to the kingdom of the Messiah. It is a prayer 
for the hastening of that, that Christ would come, who is to judge the earth ; 
and that promise is pleaded, that God shall give him the heathen for his inherit- 
ance. Thou, O Christ, shalt inherit all nations, and be the governor over them, 
Ps. ii. 8 ; xxii. 28. Let the second coming of Christ set to rights all these dis- 
orders. There are two words with which we may comfort ourselves and one 
another, in reference to the mismanagements of power among men; one is, 
Rev. xix. 6, " Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ; " the other is, 
Rev. xxii. 20, " Surely I come quickly." 



PSALM LXXXIII. 

This psalm is the last of those that go under the name of Asaph. It is penned, as most 
of those, upon a public account, with reference to the insults of the church's enemies, 
that sought its ruin. Some think it was penned upon occasion of the threatening 
descent which was made upon the land of Judah in Jehoshaphat's time by the Moabites 
and Ammonites, those children of Lot here spoken of, ver. 8, who were at the head of 
the alliance, and to whom all the other states here mentioned were auxiliaries. We have 
the story 2 Chr. xx. 1, where it is said, the children of Moab and Ammon, and others 
besides them, invaded the land. Others think it was penned with reference to all the 
confederacies of the neighbour nations against Israel from first to last. The psalmist 
here makes an appeal and application, I. To God's knowledge, by a remonstrance of 
their designs and endeavours to destroy Israel, ver. 1 — 8. II. To God's justice and 
jealousy both for his church and for his own honour, by an earnest prayer for the defeat 
of their attempt, that the church might be preserved, the enemies humbled, and God 
glorified, ver. 9 — 18. This, in the singing of it, we may apply to the enemies of the 
gospel church, all antichristian powers and factions, representing to God their con- 
federacies against Christ and his kingdom, and rejoicing in hopes that all their projects 
will be baffled, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. 

A Song or Psalm of Asaph. 

"|7~EEP not thou silence, 0 God :* 

Jljl Hold not thy peace, and be not still, 0 God. 

2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult : 

And they that hate thee have lifted up the head. 

3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, 
And consulted against thy hidden ones. [a nation ; 

4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being 
That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. 

5 For they have consulted together with one consent : 
They are confederate against thee : 

2 G 



402 



PSALM LXXXIII. 



6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishrnaelites ; 
Of Moab, and the Hagarenes ; 

7 Gebal. and Ammon, and Amalek ; 

The Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre ; 

8 Assur also is joined with them : 

They have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. 

The Israel of God was now in danger, and fear, and great distress; and yet 
their prayer is called, a song or psalm, for singing psalms is not unseasonable, 
no, not when the harps are hung upon the willow trees. 

First. The psalmist here begs of God to appear on the behalf of his injured, 
threatened people ; ver. 1, " Keep not thou silence, O God," but give judgment 
for us against those that do us an apparent wronj*. Thus Jehoshaphat prayed 
upon occasion of that invasion, 2 Chr. xx. 11, ".Behold how they reward us, 
to come to cast us out of thy possession. " > Sometimes God seems to connive 
at the unjust treatment which is given to his people ; he keeps silence, as one 
that either did not observe it or did not concern himself in it; he holds his 
peace, as if he would observe an exact neutrality, and let them fight it out ; he 
is still, and gives not the enemies of his people any disturbance or opposition, 
but seems to sit by "as a man astonied, or as a mighty man that cannot save." 
Then He gives us leave to call upon him, as here, " Keep not thou silence, O 
God." Lord, speak to us by thy prophets for our encouragement against our 
fears, as he did in reference to that invasion, 2 CJn\ xx. 14. Lord, speak for us 
by thy providence, and speak against our enemies ; speak deliverance to us, and 
disappointment to them. God's speaking is his acting ; for with him saying and 
doing are the same thing. 

Secondly. He here gives an account of the grand alliance of the neighbour 
nations against Israel, which he begs of God to break, and blast the projects 
of. Now observe here, 

1. Against whom this confederacy is formed. It is against the Israel of God, 
and so in effect against the God of Israel. Thus the psalmist takes care to 
interest God in their cause, not doubting but tha+, if it appeared that they were 
for God, God would make it appear he was for them, and then they might set 
all their enemies at defiance ; for who then could be against them ? Lord, saith 
he, they are thine enemies, and they hate thee. All wicked people are God's 
enemies; "the carnal mind is enmity against God," but especially wicked per- 
secutors; they hated the religious worshippers of God, because they hated 
God's holy religion, and the worship of him. This was that which made God's 
people so zealous against them, — that they fought against God; "They are 
confederates against thee," ver. 5. Were our interest only concerned, we could 
the better bear it ; but when God himself is struck at, it is time to cry, Help, 
Lord; "'Keep not thou silence, O God." He proves that they are confederate 
against God, for they are so against thepeople of God, who are near and dear 
to him, — his son, his firstborn, his portion, and the lot of his inheritance. He 
may truly be said to fight against me that endeavours to destroy my children, 
to root out my family, and ruin my estate. Lord, saith the psalmist, they are 
thy enemies, for they consult against thy hidden ones. Note, God's people are 
his hidden ones. Hid, 1. In respect of secrecy. Their life is hid with Christ 
in God; the world knows them not; if they knew them, they would not hate 
them as they do. 2nd. In respect of safety. God takes them under his special 
protection, hides them in the hollow of his hand; and yet, in defianceof God, 
and his power and promise to secure his people, they will consult to ruin them, 
and cast them down from their excellency, Ps. lxii. 4, and to make a prey of 
those whom " the Lord hath set apart for himself," Ps. iv. 3. They resolve 
to destroy those whom God resolves to preserve. 

2. How this confederacy is managed. The devil is at the bottom of it. and 
therefore it is carried on, 1st. With a great deal of heat and violence. " Thine 
enemies make a tumult," ver. 2 ; " The heathen rage," Ps. ii. 1 ; " The nations are 
angry," Rev. xi. 18. They are noisy in their clamours against the people, whom 
they hope to run down with their loud calumnies. This comes in as a reason 
why God should not keep silence. The enemies talk big, and talk much; Lord, 
let them not talk all, but do thou speak to them in thy wrath, Ps. ii. 5. 2nd. 
"With a great deal of pride and insolence. They have lift up the head; in^con- 
fidence of their success they are so elevated, as if they could overtop the Most 
High, and overpower the Almighty. 3rd. With a great deal of art and policy. 
They have taken crafty counsel, ver. 3. The subtlety of the old serpent appears 
in their management, and they contrive by all possible means, though never so 



PSALM LXXXII1. 403 

base, never so bad, to gain their point. They are profound to make slaughter. 
Hos. v. 2; as if they could outwit Infinite Wisdom. 4th. With a great deal 
of unanimity. Whatever separate, clashing interests they have among them- 
selves, against the people of God they consult with one consent, ver. 5; nor 
is Satan's kingdom divided against itself. To push on this unholy war, they lay 
their heads together, and their horns, and their hearts too. Fas est et ab hosts 
doceri, — ' Even an enemy may instruct.' Do the enemies of the church act with 
one consent to destroy it? Are the kings of the earth of one mind to give their 
power and honour to the beast? And shall not the church's friends be unani- 
mous in serving her interests? If Herod and Pilate are made friends, that 
they may join in crucifying Christ, sure Paul and Barnabas, Paul and reter, 
will soon be made friends, that they may join in preaching Christ. 

3. What is it that is aimed at in this confederacy. They consult not like the 
Gibeonites to make a league with Israel, that they might strengthen themselves 
by such a desirable alliance, which had been their wisdom. They consult not only 
to clip the wings of Israel, to recover their new conquests, and check the pro- 
gress of their victorious arms ; not only to keep the balance even between them 
and Israel, and to prevent their power from growing exorbitant. This will not 
serve; it is no less than the utter ruin and extirpation of Israel that is designed; 
ver. 4, " Come, let us cut them off from being a nation," as they cut oft' the 
seven nations of Canaan ; let us leave them neither root nor branch, but lay 
their country so perfectly waste, "that the name of Israel may be no more 
in remembrance," no, not in history; for with them they would destroy their 
Bibles, and burn all their records. Such is the enmity of the serpent's seed 
against the seed of the woman. It is the secret wish of many wicked men, that 
the church of God might not have a being in the world, that there might be 
no such thing as religion among mankind. Having banished the sense of it out 
of their own hearts, they would gladly see the whole earth as well rid of it; 
all its laws and ordinances abolished, all its restraints and obligations shaken 
off, and all that preach, profess, or practise it, cut off; this they would bring it 
to if it were in their power ; but '* He that sits in heaven shall laugh at them." 

4. Who they are that are drawn into this confederacy. The nations that 
entered into this alliance are here mentioned, ver. 6 — 8. The Edomites and 
Ishmaelites, both descendants from Abraham, lead the van ; for apostates from 
the church have been its most bitter and spiteful enemies; witness Julian. 
These were allied to Israel in blood, and yet in alliance against Israel. There 
are no bonds of nature so strong but the spirit of persecution has broke through 
them ; " The brother shall betray the brother to death." Moab and Amnion 
were the children of righteous Lot ; but as an incestuous, so a degenerate race. 
The. Philistines were long a thorn in Israel's side, and very vexatious : but how 
the inhabitants of Tyre, who in David's time were Israel's firm allies, come 
in among their enemies, I know not. But that Assur, that is, the Assyrian, also 
is joined with them, is not strange, or that, as the word is, they were an arm 
to the children of Lot. See how numerous the enemies of God's church have 
always been ; " Lord, how are they increased that trouble it ! " God's heritage 
was as a speckled bird, all the birds round about were against her, Jer. xii. 9; 
which highly magnifies the power of God in preserving to himself a church 
in the world in despite of the combined force of earth and hell. 

9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites ; 

As to Sisera, as to J abin, at the brook of Kison : 

10 Which perished at En-dor : 

They became as dung for the earth. 

11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb : 
Yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna : 

12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves 
The houses of God in possession. 

13 0 my God, make them like a wheel ; 
As the stubble before the wind. 

14 As the fire burnetii a wood, 

And as the flame setteth the mountains on fire | 

15 So persecute them with thy tempest, 
And make them afraid with thy storm. 



404 



PSALM LXXXI1L 



16 Fill their faces with shame; 

That they may seek thy name, 0 Lord. 

17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever ; 
Yea, let them be put to shame, and perish : 

18 That -men may know that thou, whose name alone is 

JEHOVAH. 
Art the most high over all the earth. 

The psalmist here, in the name of the church, prays for the destruction of 
those confederate forces, and in God's name foretells it; for this prayer that 
it might be so amounts to a prophecy that it shall be so; and this prophecy 
reacheth to all the enemies of the gospel church. Whoever they be that oppose 
the kingdom of Christ, here they may read their doom. The prayer is, in short, 
that these enemies that were confederate against Israel might be defeated in 
all their attempts, and that they might prove their own ruin, and so God's 
Israel might be preserved and perpetuated. Now this is here illustrated, 

First. By some precedents. Let that be their punishment which has been the 
fate of others who have formerly set themselves against God's Israel. The 
defeat and discomfiture of former combinations may be pleaded in prayer to 
God, and improved for the encouragement of our own faith and hope; because 
God is the same still that ever lie was, the same to his people, and the same 
against his and their enemies; with him is no variableness. 

1. He prays that their armies might be destroyed as the armies of former 
enemies had been ; ver. 9, 10, " Do to them as to the Midianites ;" let them be 
routed by their own fears; for so the Midianites were, more than by Gideon's 
three hundred men. Do to them as to the army under the command' of Sisera, 
who was general under Jabin king of Canaan, which God discomfited, 
Jud. iv. 15, at the brook Kishon, near to which was Endor. They became as 
dung on the earth, their dead bodies were thrown like dung laid in heaps, 
or spread to fatten the ground ; they were trodden to dirt by Barak's small 
but victorious army ; and this was fitly made a precedent here, because Deborah 
made it so to aftertimes when it was fresh ; Jud. v. 31, " So let all thine enemies 
perish, O Lord;" that is, so they shall perish. 

2. He prays that their leaders may be destroyed as they_ had been formerly. 
The common people would not have been so mischievous if their princes had 
not set them on; and therefore they are particularly prayed against, ver. 11, 12. 
Observe, 1st. What their malice was against the Israel of God. They said, 
''Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession," ver. 12. The plea- 
sant places of God, so the word is; by which we may understand the land of 
Canaan, which was a pleasant land, and was Immanuel's land; or, the temple. 
w T hich was indeed God's pleasant place, Isa. lxiv. 11 ; or, as Dr. Hammond 
suggests, the pleasant pastures, which these Arabians, who traded in cattle, 
did m a particular manner court. The princes and nobles aimed to enrich them- 
selves by this war; and their armies must be made as dung for the earth to serve 
their covetousness and ambition. 2nd. What their lot should be. They shall 
be made like Oreb and Zeeb, two princes of the Midianites, who, when their 
forces were routed, were taken in their flight by the Ephraimites and slain, 
Jud. vii. 25; and like Zebah and Zalmunna, whom Gideon himself slew, 
Jud. viii. 21. Let these enemies of ours be made as easy a prey to us as they 
were to the conquerors then. W r e may not prescribe to God ; but we may pray 
to God that he will deal with the enemies of his church in our days as he did 
with those in the days of our fathers. 

Secondly. He illustrates it by some similitudes, and prays, 

1. That God would make them like a wheel, ver. 13; that they might be in 
continual motion, unquiet, unsettled, and giddy in all their counsels and 
resolves ; that they might roll down easily and speedily to their own ruin. Or, 
as some think, that they might be broken by the judgments of God, as the corn 
is broken, or beaten out by the wheel which was then used in threshing. Thus, 
when a wise king scattereth the wicked, he is said to bring the wheel over 
them, Pr. xx. 26. They that trust in God have their hearts fixed; they that fight 
against him are unfixed, like a wheel. 

2. That they might be chased as stubble, or chaff before the fierce wind. 
The wheel, though it continually turn round, yet is fixed on its own axis. But 
let them have no more fixation than the light stubble has which the wiri£ 
hurries away, and nobody desires to save it, but is willing it should go, Ps. i. 4. 
Thus shall "the wicked be driven away in his wickedness, and chased out of 
the world." 

3. That they might be consumed as wood by the fire, or as briars and thorns, 
as fern or furze upon the mountains by the flames, ver. 14. W T hen the stubble 



PSALM LXXXIV. 



40-5 



is driven by the wind, yet it will rest at last under some hedge, in some ditch 
or other. But he prays that they might not only be driven away as stubble, 
but burnt up as stubble. And this will be the end of wicked men, TIeb. vi. 8; 
and particularly of all the enemies of God's church. The redditlon of these com- 
parisons we have ver. 15, "So persecute them with thy tempest," persecute 
them to their utter ruin, " and make them afraid with thy storm." See how 
sinners are made miserable ; the storm of God's wrath raiseth terrors in their 
own hearts, and so they are made completely miserable. God can deal with the 
proudest and most daring sinner that has bid defiance to his justice, and can 
- make him afraid as a grasshopper." It is the torment of devils that they 
tremble. 

Thirdly. He illustrates it by the good consequences of their confusion, 
ver. 16 — 18. He prays here that God, having filled their hearts with terror, 
would thereby fill their faces with shame, that they might be ashamed of their 
enmity to the people of God, lsa. xxvi. 11 ; ashamed of their folly in acting both 
against Omnipotence itself and their own true interest. They did what they 
could to put God's people to shame; but the shame will, at long run, return 
upon themselves. Now, 

1. The beginning of this shame might be a means of their conversion. Let 
them be broken and baffled in their attempts, "that they may seek thy name, 
O Lord." Let them be put to a stand, that they may have both leisure and 
reason to pause a little, and consider who it is that they are fighting against, 
and what an unequal match they are for him, and may therefore humble and 
submit themselves, and desire conditions of peace. Let them be made to fear 
thy name, and perhaps that will bring them to seek thy name. Note, That 
which we should earnestly desire and beg of God for our enemies and perse- 
cutors is, that God would bring them to repentance, and we should desire 
their abasement in order to this; no other confusion to them, but what may 
be a step towards their conversion. 

2. If it did not prove a means of their conversion, the perfecting of it would 
redound greatly to the honour of God. If they will not be ashamed and 
repent, let them be put to shame, and perish. If they will not be troubled 
and turned, which would soon put an end to all their trouble, a happy end, 
"let them be troubled for ever;" and never have peace. And this will be for 
God's glory ; ver. 18, " That" other " men may know" and own, if they them- 
selves will not, "that thou whose name alone is Jehovah," (that incom- 
municable, though not ineffable name,) "art the most high over all the earth." 
God's triumphs over his and his church's enemies will be incontestable proofs, 
1st. That he is, according to his name Jehovah, a self-existent, self-sufficient 
being, that has all power and perfection in himself. 2nd. That he is the most 
high God, Sovereign Lord of all, above all gods, above all kings ; above all 
that exalt themselves, and pretend to be high, 3rd. That he is so not only over 
the land of Israel, but over all the earth ; even those nations of the earth that 
do not know him, or own him, for his kingdom ruleth over all. These are great 
and unquestionable truths, but men will hardly be persuaded to know and 
believe them; therefore the psalmist prays that the destruction of some might 
be the conviction of others. The final ruin of all God's enemies in the great 
day will be the effectual proof of this before angels and men ; when the 
everlasting shame and contempt to which sinners shall rise, Dan. xii. 2, shall 
redound to the everlasting honour and praise of that God to whom vengeance 
belongs. 

PSALM LXXXIV. 

Though David's name be not in the title of this psalm, yet we have reason to think he 
was the penman of it, because it breathes so much of his excellent spirit, and is so like 
to^the 63rd psalm, which was penned by him. It is supposed that David penned this 
psalm when he was forced by Absalom's rebellion to quit his city, which he lamented 
his absence from, not so much because it was the royal city, as because it was the holy 
city; witness this psalm, which contains the pious breathings of a gracious soul after 
God. and communion with him. Though it be not entitled, yet it may fitly be looked 
upon as, a psalm or song for the sabbath day, the day of our solemn assemblies. The 
psalmist here, with great devotion, expresseth his affection, I. To the ordinances of 
God : his value for them, ver. 1 ; desire towards them, ver. 2, 3 ; his conviction of the 
happiness of those that did enjoy them, ver. 4, 7 ; and his placing his own happiness so 
very much in the enjoyment of them, ver. 10. II. To the God of the ordinances: his 
desire towards him, ver. 8, 9 ; his faith in him, ver. 11 ; and his conviction of the hap- 
piness of those that put their confidence in him, ver. 12. In singing this psalm, we 
should have the same devout affections working towards God that David had, and thea 
the singing of it will be very pleasant. 

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Koraji. 



40G 



PSALM LXXXIV. 



HOW amiable are thy tabernacles, 0 Lord of hosts \ 
2 My soul longeth, yea, even faint eth 
For the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh 



3 Yea, the sj)arrow hath found an house, 
And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay 
Even thine altars, 0 Lord of hosts, [her young, 
My King, and my God. 

4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : 
They will be still praising thee. Selah. 

5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee ; 
In whose heart are the ways of them. 

6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well ; 
The rain also filleth the pools. 

7 They go from strength to strength, 

Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. 

The psalmist here, being by force restrained from waiting upon God in public 
ordinances, by the want of them is brought under a more sensible conviction 
than ever of the worth of them. Observe, 

First. The wonderful beauty he saw in holy institutions; ver. I, "How 
amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!" Some think he here calls God 
the Lord of hosts, that is, in a special manner of the angels, the heavenly 
hosts, because of the presence of the angels in God's sanctuary. They attended 
the Shechinah, and were, as some think, signified by the cherubim ; God is the 
Lord of these hosts, and his the tabernacle is. It is spoken of as more than 
one, •* thy tabernacles" because there were divers courts in which the people 
attended; and because the tabernacle itself consisted of a holy place, and a 
most holy. How amiable are these! How lovely is the sanctuary in the eyes 
of all that are truly sanctified ! Gracious souls see a wonderful, inexpressible 
beauty in holiness, and in holy work. A tabernacle was a mean habitation, 
but the disadvantage of external circumstances makes holy ordinances not at 
all the less amiable ; for the beauty of holiness is spiritual, and their glory 
is within. 

Secondly. The longing desire he had to return to the enjoyment of public 
ordinances, or rather of God in them, ver. 2. It was an entire desire ; body, 
soul, and spirit concurred in it. He was not conscious to himself of any rising 
thought to the contrary ; it was an intense desire; it was like the desire of the 
ambitious, or covetous, or epicure. He longed, he fainted, he cried out, impor- 
tunate to be restored to his place in God's courts; and almost impatient of 
delay. Yet it was not so much the courts of the Lord that he coveted, but 
he cried out in prayer for the living God himself. O that I might know him, 
and be taken again into communion with him, 1 Jno. i. 3. Ordinances are empty 
things, if we meet not with God in the ordinances. 

Thirdly. His grudging the happiness of the little birds that made their nests 
in the buildings that were adjoining to God's altars, ver. 3. This is an elegant 
and surprising expression of his affection to God's altars. " The sparrow has 
found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself." These little birds, by the 
instinct and direction of nature, provide habitations for themselves in houses, 
as other birds do in the woods, both for their own repose and in which to lay 
their young. Some such David supposeth there were in the buildings about 
the courts of God's house; and wisheth himself with them. He would rather 
live in a bird's nest nigh God's altars than in a palace at a distance from them. 
He sometimes wished for the wings of a dove, on which to fly into the wil- 
derness, Ps. lv. 6. Here for the wings of a sparrow that he might fly undis- 
covered into God's courts; and though to watch as a sparrow alone upon the 
housetop is the description of a very melancholy state and spirit. Ps cii. 7, yet 
David would be glad to take it for his lot, provided he might be near God's 
altars. It is better to be serving God in solitude, than serving sin with a 
multitude. The word for a sparrow signifies any little bird; and, if I may 
offer a conjecture, perhaps, when in David's time, music was introduced so 
much into the sacred service, both vocal and instrumental, to complete the 



For the living God. 



[crieth out 



PSALM LXXXIV. m 

harmony they had singing-birds in cages hung about the courts of the taber- 
nacle } (for we find the singing of birds taken notice of to the glory of God, 
Ps. civ. 12.) And David envies the happiness of these, and would gladly 
change places with them. Observe, David envies the happiness not of those 
birds that flew over the altars, and had only a transient view of God's courts, 
but of those that had nests for themselves there. David will not think it 
enough to sojourn in God's house as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry 
for a night, but let this be his rest, his home, here he will dwell. And he takes 
notice that these birds not only have nests for themselves there, but there 
they lay their young. For those that have a place in God's courts themselves 
cannot but desire that their children also may have in God's house and within 
his walls a place and a name, that they may feed their kids beside the shep- 
herd's tents. Some give another sense of this verse. Lord, by thy providence 
thou hast furnished the birds with nests and resting-places, agreeable to their 
nature, and to them they have free recourse. But thine altar, which is my 
nest, my resting-place, which I am as desirous of as ever the wandering bird 
was of ner nest, I cannot have access to. Lord, wilt thou provide better for 
thy birds than for thy babes ? " As a bird that wanders from her nest/' so am I, 
now I wander from the place of God's altars, for that is my place, Pr. xxvii. 8, 
£ shall never be easy till I return to my place again. Note, They whose souls 
are at home, at rest in God, cannot but desire a settlement near his ordinances. 
There were two altars, one for sacrifice, the other for incense ; and David, in 
his desire of a place in God's courts, has an eye to both ; as we also must in all 
our attendance on God have an eye both to the satisfaction and to the interces- 
sion of Christ. And lastly, observe how he eyes God in this address ; Thou art 
the "Lord of hosts, my King, and my God." Where should a poor, distressed 
subject seek for protection but with his King ? " And should not a people seek 
unto their God?" my King, my God, is Lord of hosts, by him and his altars let 
me live and die. 

Fourthly. His acknowledgment of the happiness both of the ministers and 
of the people that had liberty of attendance on God's altars; "Blessed are 
they," O when shall I return to the enjoyment of that blessedness ? 

1. Blessed are the ministers. The priests and Levites that have their resi- 
dence about the tabernacle, and are in their courses employed in the service of 
it ; ver. 4, " Blessed are they that dwell in thy house ;" that are at home there, 
and whose business lies there. He is so far from pitying them as confined to 
a constant attendance, and obliged to perpetual seriousness, that he would 
sooner envy them than the greatest princes in the world. There are those that 
bless the covetous, but he blesseth the religious ; " Blessed are they that dwell 
in thy house," not because they have good wages, a part of every sacrifice for 
themselves, which would enable them to keep a good table, but because they 
have good work, " they will be still praising thee." And if there be a heaven 
upon earth, it is in praising God ; in continual praising him. Apply this to his 
house above; Blessed are they that dw r ell there; angels and glorified saints, 
" for they rest not day or night from praising God." Let us, therefore, spend as 
much of our time as may be in that blessed work in which we hope to spend 
a joyful eternity. 

2. Blessed are the people. The inhabitants of the country, who, though they 
do not constantly dwell in God's house as the priests do, yet have liberty of 
access to it, at the times appointed for their solemn feasts; the three great 
feasts, at wnich all the males were obliged to give their attendance, Deu. xvi. 16. 
David was so far from reckoning this an imposition, and a hardship put upon 
them, that he envies the happiness of those that might thus attend, ver. 5 — 7. 
Those whom he pronounceth blessed are here described. 

1st. They are such as act in religion from a rooted principle of dependence 
upon God, and devotedness to him, "Blessed is the man whose strength is in 
thee ;" that is, that makes thee his strength, and strongly stays himself upon 
thee; that makes thy name his strong tower into which he runs for safety, 
Pr. xviii. 10 ; "'Happy is the man whose hope is in the Lord his God," Ps. xl. 4; 
cxlvi. 5. Those are truly happy who go forth and go on in the exercises of 
religion, not in their own strength, for then the work is sure to miscarry, but 
in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ, from whom all our sufficiency is. 
David wished to return to God's tabernacles again, that there he might 
strengthen himself in the Lord his God for service and suffering. 

2nd. They are such as have a dear love for holy ordinances; ' in whose heart 
are the ways of them," that is, that, having placed their happiness in God as their 
end, rejoice in all the ways that lead to him; all those means by which their 
graces are strengthened, and their communion with him kept up. They not only 
walk in these ways, but they have them in their hearts, they lay them near their 
hearts : there is no care or concern, no pleasure or delight, lies nearer than this. 
Note, Those that have the new Jerusalem in their eye must have the ways, that 
lead to it in their heart ; must mind them, their eyes must look straight forward 
in them ; must ponder the paths of them, must keep close to them, and be afraid 



408 PSALM LXXXIV. 

of turning aside to the right hand or to the left. If we make God's promise our 

strength, we must make God's Word our rule, and walk by it. 

3rd. They are such as will break through difficulties and discouragements 
in waiting upon God in holy ordinances, ver. 6. When they come up out of the 
country to worship at the feasts, their way lies through many a dry and sandy 
valley, so some ; in which they are ready to perish for thirst. But, to guard 
against that inconvenience, they dig little pits to receive and keep the rain 
water, which is ready to them and others for their refreshment. When they 
make the pools, the rain of heaven fills them. If we be ready to receive the 
grace of God, that grace shall not be wanting to us, but shall be sufficient for 
us at all times. Their way lay through many a weeping valley, so Baca sig- 
nifies ; that is, as others understand it, many a watery valley ; which in wet 
weather, when the rain filled the pools, either through the rising of the waters 
or the dirtiness of the way, were unpassable. But by draining and drenching 
them, they made a road through them, for the benefit of those that went up to 
Jerusalem. Care should be taken to keep those roads in repair that lead 
to church as well as those that lead to market. But all this is intended to 
shew, First. That they had a good will to the journey. When they were 
to attend the solemn feasts at Jerusalem, they would not be kept back by bad 
weather, or bad ways ; nor make those an excuse for staying at home. Diffi- 
culties in the way of duty are designed to try our resolution, and " he that 
observes the wind shall not sow." Secondly. That they made the best of the 
way to Zion ; contrived and took pains to mend it where it was bad, and what 
inconveniences could not be removed they bore them as well as they could. 
Our way to heaven lies through a valley of Baca, but even that may be made 
a well, if we make a due improvement of the comforts God has provided for the 
pilgrims to the heavenly city. 

4th. They are such as are still pressing forward till they come to their 
journey's end at length, and do not take up short of it; ver. 7, " They go from 
strength to strength," that is, their company increaseth by the accession of more 
out of every town they pass through, till they become very numerous. Those 
that were near stayed till those that were farther off called on them, saying, 
" Come, and let us go to the house of the Lord," Ps. cxxii. 1, 2 ; that they might 
go together in a body, in token of their mutual love. Or, the particular 
persons, instead of being fatigued with the tediousness of their journey, and 
the difficulties they met with, the nearer they came to Jerusalem the more 
lively and cheerful they were, and so went stronger and stronger, Job xvii. 8. 
Thus it is promised that "they that wait on the Lord shall renew their 
strength," Isa. xh 31. Even where they are weak there they were strong ; 
they go from virtue to virtue, so some ; it is the same word that is used for the 
virtuous woman. They that press forward in their Christian course shall find 
God adding grace to their graces, Jno. i. 16. They shall be changed from glory 
to glory, 2 Cor. hi. 18; from one degree of glorious grace to another; till at 
length " every one of them appears before God in Zion," to give glory to him, 
and receive blessings from him. Note, They that grow in grace shall at last 
be perfect in glory. The Chaldee reads it, ' They go from the house of the 
sanctuary to the house of doctrine; and the pains which they have taken about 
the law shall appear before God, whose majesty dwells in Zion.' We must go 
from one duty to another, from prayer to the word, from practising what we 
have learned to learn more ; which if we do, the benefit of it will appear to 
God's glory, and our own everlasting comfort. 

8 0 Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer : 
Give ear, 0 God of Jacob. Selah. 

9 Behold, 0 God our shield, 

And look upon the face of thine anointed. 

10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. 

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, 
Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 

1 1 For the Lord God is a sun and shield : 
The Lord will give grace and glory : 
No good thing will he withhold 
From them that walk uprightly. 

12 0 Lord of hosts, 

Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. 



PSALM LXXXIV. 4C9 

Here, First. The psalmist prays for audience and acceptance with God, 
not mentioning particularly what he desired God would do for him ; he needed 
to say no more, when he had professed such an affectionate esteem for the 
ordinances of God, which now he was restrained and banished from. All his 
desire was in that profession plainly before God, and his longing, his groaning, 
was not hid from him. Therefore he prays, ver. 8, 9 ? only that God would 
hear his prayer, and give ear; that he would behold his condition, behold his 
good affection, and look upon his face, which way it was set, and how his coun- 
tenance discovered the longing desire he had towards God's courts. He calls 
himself, as many think, God's anointed, for so David was ; anointed by him, and 
anointed for him. In this petition, 1. He has an eye to God, under several of 
his glorious titles. As the Lord God of hosts, that has all the creatures at his 
command; and therefore has all power both in heaven and in earth. As the 
God of Jacob, a God in covenant with his own people, a God that never said 
to the praying seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. And as God our shield, that 
takes his people under his special protection, pursuant to his covenant with 
Abraham their father ; Gen. xv. 1, " Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield." When 
David could not be hid in the secret of God's tabernacle, Ps. xxvii. 5, being at 
a distance from it, yet he hoped to find God his shield ready to him wherever 
he was. 2. He has an eye to the Mediator, for of him I rather understand tho^e 
words, ' Look upon the face of thy Messiah,' thine anointed one ; for of his 
anointing David spoke, Ps. xlv. 7. In all our addresses to God we must desire 
that he would look upon the face of Christ, accept us for his sake, and be well 
pleased with us in him. We must look with an eye of faith, and then God will 
with an eye of favour look upon the face of the Anointed, who does shew his 
face when we without him dare not shew ours. 

Secondly. He pleads his love to God's ordinances, and his dependence upon 
God himself. 

1. God's courts were his choice, ^er. 10. A very dear love he had for holy 
ordinances; he valued them above any thing else, and he expresseth his value 
for them, 1st. By preferring the time of God's worship before all other time, 
"A day" spent "in thy courts," in attending on the services of religion, wholly 
abstracted from all secular affairs, "is better than a thousand ;" not than a thou- 
sand in thy courts, but anywhere else in this world, though in the midst of all the 
delights of the children of men. *' Better than a thousand ; " he doth not say days, 
you may^ supply it with years, with ages, if you will, and yet David will set his 
hand to it. A day in thy courts," a sabbath day, a holy day, a feast day, though 
but one day, would be very welcome to me. Nay, as some of the rabbins para- 
phrase it, though I were to die for it the next day, yet that would be more sweet 
than years spent in the business and pleasure of this world. One of these days 
shall, with its pleasure chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, to 
shame, as not worthy to be compared. 2nd. By preferring the place of worship 
before any other place. "I had rather be a doorkeeper," rather be in the 
meanest place and office " in the house of my God, than dwell " in state, as 
master, "in the tents of wickedness." Observe, He calls even the tabernacle 
a house, for the presence of God in it made even those curtains more stately 
than a palace, and more strong than a castle. It is the house of my God. # The 
covenant interest he had in God, as his God, was the sweet string on which he 
loved dearly to be harping. They, and they only, that can upon good ground 
call God theirs, delight in the courts of his house. I would rather be a porter 
in God's house than a prince in those tents where wickedness reigns ; rather lie 
at the threshold, so the word is; that was the beggars' place, Acts hi. 2; No 
matter, saith David, let that be my place rather than none. The Pharisees loved 
synagogues well enough, provided they might have the uppermost seats there, 
Mat. xxiii. 6, that they might make a figure. Holy David is not solicitous 
about that; if he may be but admitted to the threshold, he will say, " Master, it 
is good to be here." Some read it, ' I would rather be fixed to a post in the 
house of my God, than live at liberty in the tents of wickedness,' alluding to the 
law concerning servants, who, if they would not go out free, were to have their 
ear bored to the door-post, Ex. xxi. 5, 6. David loved his Master, and loved 
his work so well, that he desired to be tied to this service for ever, to be more 
free to it, but never to go out free from it, preferring bonds to duty far before 
the greatest liberty to sin. Such a superlative deliarht have holy hearts in 
holy duties ; no satisfaction in their account comparable to that in communion 
with God. 

2. God himself was his hope, and joy, and all; therefore he loved the house 
of his God, because his expectation was from his God, .and there he used to 
communicate himself, ver. 11. See, 1st. What God is and will be to his people. 
" The Lord God is a sun and shield." We are here in darkness, but if God be 
our God he will be to us a sun to enlighten and enliven us, to guide and direct 
us. We are here in danger, but he will be to us a shield, to secure us from the 
fiery darts that fly thick about us ; with his favour he will compass us as with a 



410 PSALM LXXXV. 

shield. Let us therefore always walk in the light of the Lord, and never throw 
ourselves out of his protection, and we shall find him a sun to supply us with 
all good, and a shield to shelter us from all evil. 2nd. What he doth and will 
bestow upon them. " The Lord will give grace and glory." Grace signifies both 
the good will of God towards us and the good work of God in us; glory signi- 
fies both the honour which he puts upon us in giving us the adoption of sons 
and that which he has prepared for us in the inheritance of sons. God will give 
them grace in this world as a preparation for glory, and glory in the other world 
as the perfection of grace ; both are God's gift, his free gift. And, as on the one 
hand, wherever God gives grace he will give glory, for grace is glory begun, 
and is an earnest of it, so, on the other hand, he will give glory hereafter to 
none to whom he doth not give grace now, or that receive his grace in vain. 
And if God will give grace and glory, which are the two great things that concur 
to make us happy in both wor' Ids, we may be sure that " no good thing will he 
withhold from them that walk uprightly. " It is the character of all good people, 
that they walk uprightly, that they worship God in spirit and in truth, and have 
their conversation in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, and such may 
be sure that God will withhold no good thing from them that is requisite to 
their comfortable passage through this world. Make sure grace and glory, and 
other things shall be added. This is a comprehensive promise, and is such an 
assurance of the present comfort of the saints, that whatever they desire, and 
think they need, they may be sure that either Infinite Wisdom sees it is not 
good for them, or Infinite Goodness will give it them in due time. Let it be our 
care to walk uprightly, and then let us trust God to give us everything that is 
good for us. 

Lastly. He pronounceth them blessed that put their confidence in God, as he 
did, ver. 12. They are blessed that have the liberty of ordinances, and the pri- 
vileges of God's house ; but, though we should be debarred from them, yet we 
are not therefore debarred from blessedness if we trust in God. If we cannot 
go to the house of the Lord, we may go by faith to the Lord of the house, and 
in him we shall be happy, and may be easy. 

PSALM LXXXV. 

Interpreters are generally of opinion that this psalm was penned after the return of the 
Jews out of their captivity in Babylon, when they still remained under some tokens of 
God's displeasure, which they here pray for the removal of: and nothing appears to the 
contrary, but that it might be penned then as well as Ps. cxxxvii. They are the 
public interests that lie near the psalmist's heart here, and the psalm is penned for 
the great congregation. The church was here in a deluge ; above were clouds, below 
were waves, every thing was dark and dismal. The church is like Noah in the ark, 
between life and death, between hope and fear. Being so, I. Here is the dove sent 
forth in prayer. The petitions are, against sin and wrath, ver. 4; and for mercy and 
grace, ver. 7. The pleas are taken from former favours, ver. 1 — 3 ; and present dis- 
tresses, ver. 5, 6. II. Here is the dove returning with an olive-branch of peace and 
good tidings. The psalmist expects her return, ver. 8; and then recounts the favours 
to God's Israel, which by the spirit of prophecy he gave assurance of to others, and by 
the spirit of faith he took the assurance of to himself, ver. 9—13. In singing this 
psalm we may be assisted in our prayers to God both for his church in general and for 
the land of our nativity in particular. The former part will be of use to direct our 
desires, the latter to encourage our faith and hope in those prayers. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. 

LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land : 
Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. 

2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. 
Thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. 

3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath : [anger. 
Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine 

4 Turn us, 0 God of our salvation, 

And cause thjne anger toward us to cease. 

5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever ? 

Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations ? 
0 Wilt thou not revive us again : 

That thy people may rejoice in thee ? 



PSALM LXXXV. 411 

7 Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, 
And grant us thy salvation. 

The church, in affliction and distress, is here by direction from God making 
her application to God. So ready is God to hear and answer the prayers of hfa 
people, that by his Spirit in the word, in the heart, he indites their petitions, 
and puts words into their mouths. The people of God, in a very low and weak 
condition, are here taught how to address themselves to God. 

First. They are to acknowledge with thankfulness the great things God had 
done for them, ver. 1—3. Thou hast done so and so for us and our fathers. 
Note, The sense of present afflictions should not drown the remembrance of 
former mercies, but even then when we are brought^ very low we must call to 
remembrance past experiences of God's goodness, which we must take notice of 
with thankfulness to his praise. t They speak of it here with pleasure, 1. That 
God had shewed himself propitious to their land, and had smiled upon it as his 
own; "Thou hast been favourable to thy land,]' as thine, with distinguishing 
favours. Note, The favour of God is the spring-head of all good, and the 
fountain of happiness to nations as well as to particular persons. It was by 
the favour of God that Israel got and kept possession of Canaan, Ps. xliv. 3 ; 
and if he had not continued very favourable to them they had been ruined many 
a time. 2. That he had rescued them out of the hands of their enemies, and 
restored them to their liberty. "Thou hast brought back the captivity of 
Jacob,"' and settled those in their own land again that had been driven out, and 
were strangers in a strange land, prisoners in the land of their oppressors. The 
captivity of Jacob, though it may continue long, will be brought back in due 
time. 3. That he had not dealt with them according to the desert of their pro- 
vocations; ver. 2, " Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people," and not 
punished them as in justice thou mightest. " Thou hast covered all their sin." 
When God forgives sin, he covers it ; and when he covers the sin of his people, 
he covers it all. The bringing back of their captivity was then an instance of 
God's favour to them, when it was accompanied with the pardon of their ini- 
quity. 4. That he had not continued his anger against them so far and so long 
as they had reason to fear ; ver. 3, having covered all their sin, "thou hast taken 
away all thy wrath ;" for when sin is set aside God's anger ceaseth. God is 
pacified if Ave are purified. See what the pardon of sin is : " Thou hast forgiven 
the iniquity of thy people j" that is, " thou hast turned thine anger from waxing 
hot," so as to consume us m the flame of it. In compassion to us thou hast not 
stirred up all thy wrath ; but when an intercessor hath stood before thee in the 
gap thou hast turned away thine anger. 

Secondly. They are taught to pray to God for grace and mercy in reference 
to their present distress. This is inferred from the former: thou hast done 
well for our fathers, do well for us, for we are the children of the same covenant. 
1. They pray for converting grace. "Turn us, O God of our salvation;" in 
order to the turning of our captivity, turn us from iniquity ; turn us to thyself, 
and to our duty; turn us, and we shall be turned. All those whom God will 
save sooner or later he will turn. If no conversion, no salvation. 2. They 
pray for the removal of the tokens of God's displeasure which they were under 
" Cause thine anger towards us to cease," as thou didst many a time cause it to 
cease in the days of our fathers, when thou didst take away thy wrath from 
them. Observe the method : first turn us to thee, and then cause thine anger to 
turn from us. When we are reconciled to God, then, and not till then, we may 
expect the comfort of his being reconciled to us. 3. They pray for the manifes- 
tation of God's good-will to them : ver. 7, " Shew us thy mercy, O Lord ;" that 
is, shew thyself merciful to us ; not only have mercy on us, but let us have the 
comfortable evidences of that mercy ; let us know that thou hast mercy on us, 
and mercy in store for us. 4. They pray that God would, graciously to them, 
and gloriously to himself, appear on their behalf: "Grant us thy salvation;" 
grant it by thy promise, and then, no doubt, thou wilt work it by thy provi- 
dence. Note, The vessels of God's mercy are the heirs of his salvation. He 
shews mercy to those to whom he grants salvation, for salvation is of mere 
mercy. 

Thirdly. They are taught humbly to expostulate with God concerning their 
present troubles, ver. 5, 6. Where observe, 1. What they dread and deprecate. 
"Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?" We are undone if thou art, but we 
hope thou wilt not. " Wilt thou draw out thine anger unto all generations?" 
No ; thou art gracious, slow to anger, and swift to shew mercy, and wilt not 
| contend forever. Thou wast not angry with our fathers for ever, but didst 
I soon turn thyself from the fierceness of thy wrath ; why, then, wilt thou be angry 
with us for ever? Are not thy mercies and compassions as plentiful and power- 
ful as ever they were ? Impenitent sinners God will be angry with for ever ; 
for what is hell but the wrath of God drawn out unto endless generations ? But 



iO PSALM LXXXV. 

shall a hell upon earth be the lot of thy people ? 2. What they desire and hope 
for. " Wilt thou not revive us again ? " ver. 6. Revive us with comforts spoken 
to us, revive us with deliverances wrought for us. Thou hast been favourable to 
thy land formerly, and that revived it ; wilt thou not again be favourable, and 
so revive it again ? God had granted to the children of the captivity some reviving 
in their bondage,, Ezr. ix. 8. Their return out of Babylon was as life from the 
dead, Eze. xxxvii, 11, 12. Now, Lord, (say they,) wilt thou not revive us again, and 
put thy hand again the second time to gather us in ? Isa. xi. 11 ; Ps. cxxvi. 1. 4 ; 
u Revive thy work in the midst of the years," Hab. iii. 2. " Revive us again," 
1st. "That thy people may rejoice," and so we shall have the comfort of it, 
Ps. xiv. 7. Give them life that they may have joy. 2nd. That they " may rejoice 
in thee," and so thou wilt have the glory of it. If God be the fountain of all our 
mercies, he must be the centre of all our joys. 

8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak : 

For he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints : 
But let them not turn again to folly. 

9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; 
That glory may dwell in our land. 

10 Mercy and truth are met together ; 
Eighteousness and peace have kissed each other. 

1 1 Truth shall spring out of the earth ; 

And righteousness shall look down from heaven. 

12 Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good ; 
And our land shall yield her increase. 

13 Eighteousness shall go before him ; 
And shall set us in the way of his steps. 

We have here an answer to the prayers and expostulations in the foregoing 
verses. 

First. In general it is an answer of peace. This the psalmist is soon aware of ; 
ver. 8, for he stands upon his watch tower to hear what God will say unto him, 
as the prophet, Hab. ii. 1, 2, " 1 will hear what God the Lord will speak." This 
intimates, 1. The stilling of his passion, his grief, his fear, and the tumult of his 
spirit which these occasioned. Compose thyself, O my soul, in an humble 
silence to attend upon God, and wait his motions. I have spoken enough, or 
too much; now I will hear what God will speak, and welcome his holy will; 
" What saith my Lord unto his servant ?" If we would have God to hear what 
we say to him by prayer, we must be ready to hear what he saith to us by his 
Word. 2. The raising of his expectation. Now he has been at prayer he looks 
for something very great and very kind from the God that hears prayer. When 
we have prayed, we should look after our prayers, and stay for an answer. 
Now observe here, 1st. What it is that he promiseth himself from God in 
answer to his prayers: " He will speak peace to his people, and to his saints." 
There is a people in the world that are God's people, set apart for him, subject 
to him, and that shall be saved by him. All his people are his saints, sanctified 
by his grace, and devoted to his glory ; these may sometimes want peace, when 
without are fightings and within are fears ; but sooner or later God will speak 
peace to them. If he do not command outward peace, yet he will suggest 
inward peace; speaking that to their hearts by his Spirit which he has spoken 
to their ears by his W r ord and ministers, and making them to hear joy and glad- 
ness. 2nd. What use he makes of this expectation. First. He takes the comfort 
of it ; and so must we : " I will hear what God the Lord will speak," hear the 
assurances he gives of peace in answer to prayer. When God speaks peace 
we must not be deaf to it, but with all humility and thankfulness receive it. 
Secondly. He cautions the saints to do the duty which this calls for; "But let 
them not turn again to folly ;" for it is on these terms, and no other, that peace j 
is to be expected. To those, and those only, peace is spoken who turn from 
sin ; but if they return to it again it is at their peril. All sin is folly, but espe- 
cially backsliding ; it is egregious folly to turn to sin after we have seemed to 
turn from it, to turn to it after God hath spoken peace ; God is for peace, but 
when he speaks, such are for war. 

Secondly. Here are the particulars of this answer of peace. He doubts not 
but all will be well in a little time, and therefore gives us the pleasing prospect 
of the flourishing estate of the church in the last five verses of the psalm, which 



PSALM LXXXY. 413 

describe the peace and prosperity that God at length blessed the children of 
the captivity with, when after a great deal of toil and toss at length they gained 
a settlement in their own land. But it may be taken, 1. As a promise also to 
all that fear God and work righteousness, that they shall be easy, they snail be 
happy, 2. As a prophecy of the kingdom of Messiah, and the blessings with 
which that kingdom should be enriched. Here is, 

1st. Help at hand ; ver. 9, " Surely his salvation is nigh," nigh to us, nigher 
than we think it is, it will soon be effected, how great soever our difficulties 
and distresses are, when God's time is come, and that time is not far off ; when 
the tale of bricks is doubled, then Moses comes. It is nigh to "all that fear 
him ;" when trouble is nigh, salvation is nigh ; for " God is a very present help 
in time of trouble" to all that are his; whereas "salvation is far from the 
wicked," Ps. cxix. 155. This may fitly be applied to Christ, the author of eternal 
salvation. It was the comfort of the Old Testament saints that, though they 
lived not to see that redemption in Jerusalem which they waited for, yet they 
were sure it was nigh, and would be welcome to all that fear God. 

2nd. Honour secured. " That glory may dwell in our land," that is, that we 
may have the worship of God settled and established among us ; for that is the 
glory of a land. When that goes, " Ichabod, the glory is departed ;" when that 
stays, glory dwells. This may refer to the Messiah, who was to be the glory of 
his people Israel, and who came and dwelt among them, Jno. i. 4: for which 
reason their land is called ImmanueFs land, Isa. viii. 8. 

3rd. Graces meeting and happily embracing; ver. 10, 11, "Mercy and truth, 
righteousness and peace, kiss each other." This may be understood, First. Of 
the reformation of the people, and of the government, in the administration of 
which all those graces should be conspicuous and commanding. The rulers 
and ruled shall all be merciful and true, righteous and peaceable; when there 
is no truth nor mercy all goes to ruin, Bos. iv. 1; Isa. lix. 14, 15. But when 
these meet in the management of all affairs, when these give aim, when these 
give law, when there is such plenty of truth that it sprouts up like the grass of 
the earth, and of righteousness, that it is showered down like rain from heaven, 
then things go well. "When in every congress mercy and truth meet, in every 
embrace righteousness and peace kiss, and common honesty is indeed common, 
then glory dwells in a land, as the sin of reigning dishonesty is a reproach to 
any people. Secondly. Of the return of God's favour, and the continuance of 
it thereupon. When a people return to God, and adhere to him in away of 
duty, he will return to them and abide with them in a way of mercy. So some 
understand this: Man's truth and God's mercy, man's righteousness and God's 
peace, meet together. If God finds us true to him, to one another, to ourselves, 
we shall find him merciful; if we make conscience of righteousness, we shall 
have the comfort of peace. If truth spring out of the earth, that is, (as Dr. 
Hammond expounds it) out of the hearts of men, the proper soil for it to grow 
in, righteousness, that is, God's mercy, shall look down from heaven, as the sun 
doth upon the world, when it sheds its influences on the productions of the 
earth and cherisheth them. Thirdly. Of the harmony of the Divine attributes 
in the Messiah's undertaking. In him, who is both our salvation and our glory, 
"mercy and truth are met together." God's mercy and truth, and his " right- 
eousness and peace have kissed each other;" that is, the great affair of our 
salvation is so well contrived, so well concerted, that God may have mercy 
upon poor sinners, and be at peace with them without any wrong to his truth 
and righteousness. He is true to the threatening, and just in his government, 
and yet pardons sinners, and takes them into covenant with himself. Christ as 
Mediator brings heaven and earth together again, which sin had set at variance. 
Through him truth springs out of the earth," tnat truth which God desires in 
the inward part, and then " righteousness looks down from heaven," for "God 
is just, and the justifier of them which believe in Jesus." Or, it may note that 
in the kingdom of the Messiah these graces shall flourish and prevail, and have 
a universal command. 

4th. Great plenty of every thing desirable; ver. 12, "The Lord shall give 
that which is good," that is every tiling that he sees to be good for us. All good 
comes from God's goodness ; and when mercy, truth, and righteousness have a 
sovereign influence on men's hearts and lives, all good may be expected. If we 
thus seek the righteousness of God's kingdom, other things shall be added, 
Mat. yii. 33. W T hen the glory of the Gospel dwells in our land, then it shall 
yield its increase; for soul prosperity will either bring outward prosperity 
along with it, or sweeten the want of it : see Ps. lxvii. 6. 

5th. A sure conduct in the good way, ver. 13. The righteousness of his pro- 
mise which he hath made to us, assuring us of happiness, the righteousness of 
sanctification, that good work which he has Avrought in us; these shall go 
before him, to prepare his way, both to raise our expectations of his favour 
and to qualify us for it; and this shall go before us also, and be our guide to 
"set us in the way of his steps," that is, to encourage our hopes, and guide our 



414 PSALM LXXXVI, 

practice, that we may go forth to meet him when he is coming towards us in 
ways of mercy. Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, shall bring us to God, and 
put us into the way that leads to him ; John Baptist, a preacher of righteous- 
ness, shall go before Christ, to prepare his way. Righteousness is a sure guide 
Dotn in meeting Cod and in following him. 



PSALM LXXXVI. 

This psalm is entitled a prayer of David. Probably it was not penned upon any particular 
occasion, but was a prayer he often used himself, and recommended to others for their 
use, especially in a day of affliction. Many think that David penned this prayer as a 
type of Christ, who, in the days of his flesh, offered up strong cries, Heb. v. 7. David, 
in this prayer, according to the nature of that duty, I. Gives glory to God, ver. 8 — 10, 
12, 13. II. Seeks for grace and favour from God; that God would hear his prayers, 
ver. 1, 6, 7; preserve and save him, and be merciful to him, ver. 2, 3, 16; that he 
would give him joy, and grace, and strength, and put honour upon him, ver. 4, 11, 17 ; 
he pleads God's goodness, ver. 5, 15; and the malice of his enemies, ver. 14. In sing- 
ing this, we must, as David did, lift up our souls to God with application. 

A Prayer of David. 

BOW down thine ear, 0 Lord, hear me : 
For I am poor and needy. 

2 Preserve my soul; for I am holy: 

0 thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. 

3 Be merciful unto me, 0 Lord : 
For I cry unto thee daily. 

4 Kejoice the soul of thy servant : 

For unto thee, 0 Lord, do I lift up my soul. 

5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive ; 

And plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee 

6 Give ear, 0 Lord, unto my prayer ; 

And attend to the voice of my supplications. 

7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee : 
For thou wilt answer me. 

This psalm was published under the title of a prayer of David ; not as if 
David sung all his prayers, but into some of his songs he inserted prayers ; for 
a psalm will admit the expressions of any pious and devout affections. But it is 
observable how very plain the language of this psalm is, and how little there is 
in it of poetical flights or figures, in comparison of some other psalms ; for the 
flourishes of wit are not the proper ornaments of prayer. Now here we may 
observe, 

First. The petitions he puts up to God. # It is true, prayer accidentally may 
preach, but it is most fit that (as it is in this prayer) every passage should be 
directed to God, for such is the nature of prayer, as it is here described; ver. 4, 
"Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul," as he had said, Ps. xxv. 1. In all 
the parts of prayer the soul must ascend upon the wings of faith and holy 
desire, and be lifted up to God, to meet the communications of his graces, and 
in an expectation raised very high of great things from him. 

1. He begs that God would give a gracious audience to his prayers; ver. 1, 
"Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me." When God hears our prayers it is 
fitly said that he bows down his ear to them ; for it is admirable condescension 
in God that he is pleased to take notice of such mean creatures as we are, and 
such defective prayers as ours are. He repeats this again, ver. 6, " Give ear, 
O Lord, unto my prayer," a favourable ear, though it be whispered, though it 
be stammered, "attend to the voice of my supplications." Not that God needs 
to have his affection stirred up by any thing that we can say ; but thus we must 
express our desire of his favour. The Son of David spake it with assurance and 
pleasure, Jno. xi. 41, 42, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me ; and I 
know that thou nearest me alway." 

2. He begs that God would take him under his special protection, and so be 
the author of his salvation} ver.' 2 "Preserve my soul, save thy servant." It 



PSALM LXXXVI. 415 

was David's soul that was God's servant, for those only serve God acceptably 
that serve him with their spirits. David's concern is about his soul. If w« 
understand it of his natural life, it teaches us that the best self-preservation is 
to commit ourselves to God's keeping, and by faith and prayer to make o'jr 
Creator our Preserver. But it may be understood of his spiritual life ; the Ufe 
of the soul as distinct from the body ; Preserve my soul from that one evil and 
dangerous thing to souls, and that is sin. Preserve my soul, and so save me. 
All those whom God will save he doth preserve, and will preserve them to his 
heavenly kingdom. 

3. He begs that God would look upon him with an eye of pity and compassion ; 
ver. 3, "Be merciful to me, O Lord." It is mercy in God to pardon our sins, 
and to help us out of our distresses ; both these are included in this prayer, 
God be merciful to me. Men shew no mercy, we ourselves deserve no mercy; 
but, Lord, for mercy's sake, be merciful unto me. 

4. He begs that God would fill him with inward comfort; ver. 4, "Rejoice 
the soul of thy servant." It is God only that can put gladness into the heart, 
and make the soul to rejoice; and then and not till then the joy is full. And 
those that are God's servants, as it is their duty to serve him with gladness, so 
it is their privilege to be filled with joy and peace in believing ; and they may in 
faith pray not only that God will preserve their souls, but that he will rejoice 
their souls, and the joy of the Lord will be their strength. Observe, When he 
prays, Rejoice my soul, he adds, " For unto thee do I lift up my soul." Then 
we may expect comfort from God when we take care to keep up our com- 
munion with God. Prayer is the nurse of spiritual joy. 

Secondly. The pleas with which he enforceth these petitions. 

1. He pleads his relation to God and interest in him. Thou art my God, to 
whom 1 have devoted myself, and on whom I depend, and I am thy servant, 
(ver. 2,) in subjection to thee, and therefore looking for protection from thee. 

2. He pleads distress ; "Hear me, for I am poor and needy," therefore I want 
thy help, therefore none else will hear me. God is the poor man's King, whose 
glory it is to save the souls of the needy. They that are poor in spirit, that 
see themselves empty and necessitous, are most welcome to the God of all 
grace. 

3. He pleads God's good will towards all thai, seek him, ver. 5. "To thee do 
I lift up my soul" in desire and expectation; "for thou, Lord, art good," and 
whither should beggars go, but to the door of the good housekeeper ? The 
goodness of God's nature is a great encouragement to us in all our addresses to 
him. His goodness appears in two things, giving, and forgiving. 1st. He is a 
sin-pardoning God; not only he can forgive, but he is "ready to forgive;" 
more ready to forgive than we are to repent: "I said, I will confess, and thou 
forgavest," Ps. xxxii. 5. 2nd. He is a prayer-hearing God. He is plenteous in 
mercy, very full, and very free, both rich and liberal unto all them that call 
upon him. He has wherewithal to supply all their needs, and is open-handed 
in granting that supply. 

4. He pieads God's good work in himself, by which he had qualified him for 
the tokens of his favour. Three things were wrought in him by Divine grace, 
which he looked upon as earnests of all good : 

1st. A conformity to God ; ver. 2, " I am holy," therefore "preserve my soul}" 
for those whom the Spirit sanctifies he will preserve. He doth not say this in 
pride and vainglory, but with humble thankfulness to God ; 4 1 am one whom 
thou favourest,' so the margin reads it, whom thou hast set apart for^ thyself. 
If God has begun a good work of grace in us, we must own that the time was 
a time of love ; " Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour." And whom 
God hath taken into his favour he will take under his protection; "All his 
saints are in thy hand," Deu. xxxiii. 3. Observe, " I am needy," ver. 1, yet " I 
am holy," ver. 2. Holy and yet needy ; poor in the world, but rich in faith. 
And those who preserve their purity in their greatest poverty, may assure 
themselves that God will preserve their comforts, will preserve their souls. 

2nd. A confidence in God; "Save thy servant that trusteth in thee." They 
j that are holy yet must not trust in themselves, or in their own righteousness, 
but only in God and his grace. They that trust in God may expect salvation 
from him. 

3rd. A disposition to communion with God. He hopes God will answer his 
prayers, because he had inclined him to pray. First. To be constant in prayer; 
| I cry unto thee daily," and "all the day," ver. 3. It is thus our duty to pray 
always, without ceasing, and to continue instant in prayer; and then we may 
hope to have our prayers heard which we make in time of trouble, if we have 
I made conscience of the duty at other times, at all times. It is comfortable if an 
affliction finds the wheels of prayer agoing, and that they are not then to be set 
I agoing. Secondly. To be inward with God in prayer; to lift up his soul to 
f him, ver. 4. Then we may hope that God will meet us with his mercies when 
P we in our prayers send forth our souls as it were to meet him. Thirdly. To bo 
ij in a special manner earnest with God in prayer when he was in affliction .j 



m PSALM LXXXVI. 

vsr. 7, "In the day of my trouble," whatever others do, "I will call upon thee," 
commit my case to thee, for thou wilt hear and answer me, and I shall not 
s-isk in vain, as those did who cried, " O Baal, hear us ; but there was no voice, 
l:t any that regarded," 1 Kin. xviii. 29. 

8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, 0 Lord; 
Neither are there any works like unto thy works. 

9 All nations whom thou hast made 

Shall come and worship before thee, 0 Lord ; 
And shall glorify thy name. 

1 0 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things : 
Thou art God alone. 

1 1 Teach me thy way, 0 Lord ; 
I will walk in thy truth : 

Unite my heart to fear thy name. 

12 I will praise thee, 0 Lord my God, with all my heart t 
And I will glorify thy name for evermore. 

13 For great is thy mercy toward me : 

And thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 

14 0 Gocl, the proud are risen against me, 

And the assemblies of violent men have sought after my 
And have not set thee before them. [soul ; 

15 But thou, 0 Lord, art a God full of compassion, and 

gracious, 

Long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. 

16 0 turn unto me, and have mercy upon me ; 
Give thy strength unto thy servant, 

And save the son of thine handmaid. 

1 7 Shew me a token for good ; 

That they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed : 
Because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me. 

David is here going on in his prayer : 

First. He gives glory to God; for we ought in our prayers to praise him, 
ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him, with the most humble and reverent 

adorations. 

1. As a Being of unparalleled perfection, such an one as there is none like 
him, nor any to be compared with him; ver. 8, "Among the gods," the false 
gods, whom the heathens worshipped, the angels, the kings of the earth, among 
them all, "there is none like unto thee, O Lord;" none so wise, so mighty, so 
good; " neither are there any works like unto thy works," which is an unde- 
niable proof that there is none like him. His own works praise him, and the 
best way we have of praising him is by acknowledging that there is none 
like him. 

2. As the fountain of all being, and the centre of all praise ; ver. 9, '* Thou 
hast made all nations," made them all of one blood; they all derive their being 
from thee, and have a constant dependence on thee, and therefore "they shall 
come and worship before thee, and glorify thy name." This was in part fulfilled 
in the multitude of proselytes to the Jewish religion in the days of David and 
Solomon, but was to have its full accomplishment in the days of the Messiah, 
when some out of every kingdom and nation should be effectually brought in to 
praise God, Rev. vii. 9. It was by Christ that God made all nations, for without 
him was not any thing made that was made, and therefore through Christ, and 
by the power of his Gospel and grace, all nations shall be brought to worship 
before God, Is a. lxvi. 23. 



PSALM LXXXVI. 



417 



X As a Being infinitely great, ver. 10. Therefore all nations shall worship 
before thee, because as King of nations thou art great, thy sovereignty absolute, 
and incontestable, thy majesty terrible and insupportable, thy power universal 
and irresistible, thy riches vast and inexhaustible, thy dominion boundless and 
unquestionable; and for the proof of this, '* thou doest wondrous things," which 
all nations admire, and from whence they might easily infer that " thou art God 
alone," not only none like thee, but none beside thee. Let us always entertain 
great thoughts of this great God, and be filled with holy admirings of this God 
that doeth wonders ; and let him alone have our hearts who is God alone. 

4. As a Being infinitely good. Man is bad, very wicked and vile, ver. 14; no 
mercy is to be expected from him ; "But thou, O Lord, art a God full of com- 
passion and gracious," ver. 15. This is that attribute by which he proclaims his 
name, and by which we are therefore to proclaim it, Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. It is his 
goodness that is over all his works, and therefore should fill all our praises; 
and this is our comfort, in reference to the wickedness of the world we live in, 
that, however it be, God is good. Men are barbarous, but God is gracious; 
men are false, but God is faithful. God is not only compassionate, but full of 
■Compassion, and in him mercy rejoiceth against judgment. He is long suffering 
towards us, though we forfeit his favour, and provoke him to anger ; and he 
is plenteous in mercy and truth, as faithful in performing as he was free in 
promising. 

5. As a kind friend and bountiful benefactor to him. "We ought to praise God 
as good in himself, but we do it most feelingly when w r e observe how good he 
has been to us. This therefore the psalmist harps upon with most pleasure, 
ver. 12, 13. He had said, ver. 9 ; " All nations shall praise thee, O Lord, and 
glorify thy name." It is some satisfaction to a good man to think that others shall 
praise and glorify God, but it is his greatest care and pleasure to do it himself. 
Whatever others do, saith David, "I will praise thee, O Lord my God," not 
only as the Lord, but as my God ; and I will do it with all mine heart, — that is, 

1 will be ready to do it, and cordial in it ; 1 will do it with cheerfulness and live- 
liness, with a sincere regard to thy honour; for " I will glorify thy name," not 
for a time, but "for evermore." I will do it as long as I live, and hope to be doing 
it to eternity. And with good reason does he resolve to be thus particular in 
praising God, because God had shewed him particular favours. "For great 
is thy mercy toward me." The fountain of mercy is inexhaustibly full; the 
streams of mercy are inestimably rich. When we speak of God's mercy to us, 
it becomes us to magnify it; " Great is thy mercy toward me." Of the great- 
ness of God's mercy, he gives this instance, " Thou hast delivered my soul 
from the lowest hell;" from death, from so great a death, as St. Paul, 

2 Cor. i. 10. From eternal death ; so even some of the Jewish writers under- 
stood it. David knew he deserved to have been cast off for ever into the lowest 
hell, for his sin in the matter of Uriah ; but Nathan assured him, the Lord had 
taken away his sin, and by that word he was delivered from the lowest hell ; 
and herein God's mercy was great toward him. Even the best saints owe it 
not to their own merit, but to the mercy of God, that they are saved from the 
lowest hell; and the consideration of that should greatly enlarge their hearts in 
praising the mercy of God, which they are obliged to glorify for evermore. So 
glorious, so gracious a rescue from everlasting misery justly requires the 
return of everlasting praise. 

Secondly. He prays earnestly for mercy and grace from God. He complains 
of the restless and implacable malice of his enemies against him, ver. 14 ; Lord, 
be thou for me, for there are many against me ; then takes notice of their 
character : they are proud men, that looked with disdain upon poor David. 
Many are made persecutors by their pride. They are violent men, that will 
carry all before them by force, right or wrong ; they are terrible, formidable 
men, so some, that do what they can to frighten all about them. Their number: 
there are assemblies of them, they were men in authority, and met in councils 
and courts ; or men for conversation, and met in clubs; but being assembled 
they were the more capable of doing mischief. Their enmity to David : they 
rise up against me in open rebellion ; they not only plot, but they put their plots 
in execution as far as they can; and the design is not only to depose David, but 
to destroy him. They seek after my life, to slay me ; after my soul, to damn 
me, if it lay in their power. And, lastly, here is their distance and estrange- 
ment from God, which was at the bottom of their enmity to David, they have 
not set thee before them ; and what good can be expected from those that have 
no fear of God before their eyes ? Lord, appear against them, for they are 
thine enemies as well as mine. His petitions are, 

1. For the operations of God's grace in him, ver. 11. He prays that God 
would give him, 1st. An understanding heart, that he would inform and 
instruct him concerning his duty ; " Teach me thy way, O Lord," the way that 
thou hast appointed me to walk in, and when I am in doubt concerning it make 
it plain to me what I should do ; let me hear the voice, saying, " This is the 

2P 



m PSALM LXXXYIL 

way," Isa. xxx. 21. David was a very knowing man in the things of God, and yet 
was sensible he needed farther instruction, and many a time could not trust his 
own judgment. "Teach me thy way, I will walk in thy truth." One would 
think it should be, * Teach me thy truth, and I will walk in thy way,' but it 
comes all to one. It is the way of truth that God teacheth, and that we must 
choose, and walk in. Ps. cxix. 30. Christ is the way and the truth, and we must 
both learn Christ, and walk in him. We cannot walk in God's way and truth 
unless he teach us; and if we expect he should teach us we must resolve to 
be governed by his teachings, Isa. ii. 3. 2nd. An upright heart ; " Unite my 
heart to fear thy name ; " that is. maka me sincere in religion. A hypocrite has 
a double heart, let mine be single, and entire for God ; not divided by him and 
the world, not straggling from him. Our hearts are apt to wander and hang 
loose; their powers and faculties scatter after a thousand foreign things, we 
have therefore need of God's grace to unite them, that we may serve G( d with 
all that is within us, and all little enough to be employed in his service. Let 
my heart be fixed for God, and firm and faithful to him, and fervent in serving 
him : that is a united heart. 

2. For the tokens of God's favour to him, ver. 16, 17. Three things he here 
prays for : 1st. That God would speak peace and comfort to him. " O turn 
unto me," as to one thou lovest, and hast a kind and tender concern for. My 
enemies turn against me, my friends turn from me, Lord, do thou turn to me, 
" and have mercy upon me." It will be a comfort to me to know that thou 
pitiest me. 2nd. Tiiat God would work deliverance for him, and set him in 
safety. Give me thy strength,— that is, put strength into me, that I may help 
myself, and put forth thy strength for me, that I may be saved out of the hands 
of those that seek my ruin. He pleads relation : " I am thy servant," I am so by 
birth, as "the son of thine handmaid," born in thy house; and therefore thou 
art my rightful owner and proprietor, from whom I may expect protection. "I 
am thine, save me." The children of godly parents, who were betimes dedi- 
cated to the Lord, may plead it with him ; if they come under the discipline of 
his family, they are entitled to the privileges of it. 3rd. That God would put 
reputation on him. " Shew me a token lor good,"— that is, make it to appear to 
others as well as to myself, that thou art doing me good, and designing farther 
good for me. Let me have some unquestionable illustrious instances of thy 
favour to me, " that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed " of their 
enmity to me, as they will have reason to be when they perceive "thou, Lord, 
hast holpen me, and comforted me," and that therefore they have been striving 
against God, opposing one whom he owns, and that they have been striving in 
vain to ruin and vex one whom God himself has undertaken to help and 
comfort. The joy of the saints shall be the shame of their persecutors. 



PSALM LXXXYIL 

The foregoing psalm was very plain and easy, but in this are things dark and hard to 
be understood. It is an encomium of Zion, as a type and figure of the gospel church, 
to which what is here spoken is very applicable. Zion, for the temple's sake, is here 
preferred, I. Before the rest of the land of Canaan, as being crowned with special 
tokens of God's favour, ver. 1—3. II. Before any other place or country whatsoever, 
as being replenished with more eminent men, and with a greater plenty of Divine 
blessings, ver. 4 — 7. Some think it was penned to express the joy of God's people when 
Zion was in a nourishing state ; others think it was penned to encourage their faith and 
hope when Zion was in ruins, and was to be rebuilt after the captivity. Though no 
man cared for her, Jer. xxx. 17, " This is Zion whom no man seeketh after," yet God 
had done great things for her, and spoken glorious things of her, which should all have 
their perfection and accomplishment in the gospel church ; to that therefore we must 
have an eye in singing this psalm. 

A Psalm or Song for the sons of Koran. 

HIS foundation is in the holy mountains. 
2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion 
More than all the dwellings of Jacob. 
3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, 
0 city of God. Selah. 

Some make the first words of the psalm to be part of the title. It is a psalm 
or song, whose subject is the holy mountains, — that is, the temple built in Zion 
upon mount Moriah. That is the foundation of the argument, or beginning of 
the psalm. Or we may suppose the psalmist had now the tabernacle or temple 
in view, and was in his thoughts contemplating the glories of it, and at length 



PSALM LXXXVII. 419 

he breaks out into this expression, which has reference, though not to what he 
had written before, yet to what he had thought of. Every one knew what 
he meant when he said thus abruptly, "Its foundations :s in the holy moun- 
tains." Three things are here observed in the praise of the temple : 

First. That it was founded on the holy mountains, ver. 1. The church has a 
foundation, so that it cannot sink or totter. Christ himself is the foundation of 
it, which God hath laid. The Jerusalem above is a city that has foundations. 
The foundation is upon the mountains, it is built high. " The mountain of the 
Lord's house is established upon the top of the mountains," Isa. ii. 2. It is built 
firm, the mountains are rocky, and on a rock the church is built. The world is 
founded upon the seas, Ps. xxiv. 2, which are continually ebbing and flowing, 
and are a very weak foundation ; Babel was built in a plain, where the ground 
was rotten ; but the church is built upon the everlasting mountains, and the 
perpetual hills; for sooner shall the mountains depart, and the hills be re- 
moved, than the covenant of God's peace shall be disannulled, and on that 
the church is built, Isa. liv. 10. The foundation is upon " the holy mountains." 
Holiness is the strength and stability of the church, that is it which will sup- 
port it, and keep it from sinking ; not so much that it is built upon mountains, 
as that it is built upon holy mountains ; upon the promise of God, for the con- 
firming of which he hath sworn by his holiness; upon the sanctification of the 
Spirit, which will secure the happiness of all the saints. > 

Secondly. That God had expressed a particular affection for it ; ver. 2, " The 
Lord loveth the gates of Zion," of the temple, of the houses of doctrine, so the 
Chaldee, "more than all the dwellings of Jacob," whether in Jerusalem, or any 
where else in the country. God had said concerning Zion, " This is my rest 
for ever, here will I dwell;" there he met his people, and conversed with 
them, received their homage, and shewed them the tokens of his favour, and 
therefore we may conclude how well he loves those pates. Note, 1. God has 
a love for the dwellings of Jacob, has a gracious regard to religious families, 
and accepts their family worship. 2. Yet he loves the gates of Zion better, not 
only better than any, but better than all the dwellings of Jacob. God was 
worshipped in the dwellings of Jacob, and family worship is family duty, which 
must by no means be neglected; yet when they come in competition, public 
worship (cceteris paribus,— other things being equal,') is to be preferred before 
private. 

Thirdly. That there was much said concerning it in the word of God ; ver. 3, 
fi Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." We are to judge of things 
and persons by the figure they make and the estimate put upon them in and by 
the Scripture. Many base and ill things were spoken of the city of God by the 
enemies of it, to render it mean and odious, but by him whose judgment we are 
sure is according to truth, glorious things are spoken of it. God said of the 
temple, "Mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually; 1 have sanctified 
this house that my name may be there for ever," 2 Chr. vii. 16 ) " Beautiful for 
situation is mount Zion," Ps. xlviii. 2. These are glorious things. Yet more 
glorious things are spoken of the gospel church ; it is the spouse of Christ, the 
purchase of his blood; it is "a peculiar people, a holy nation, a roynl priest- 
hood," and " the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Let us not be 
ashamed of the church of Christ in its meanest condition, nor of any that belong 
to it, nor disown our relation to it, though it be turned never so much to our 
reproach, since such glorious things are spoken of it, and not one iota or tittle 
of what is said shall fall to the ground. 

4 I will make mention of Kahab and Babylon to them that 

know me : 

Behold Philistia. and Tyre, with Ethiopia ; 
This man was born there. 

5 And of Zion it shall be said, 

This and that man was born in her : 

And the highest himself shall establish her. 

6 The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, 
That this man was born there. Selah. {there : 

7 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall he 
All my springs are in thee. 

Zion is here compared with other places, and preferred before them. The 
church of Christ i3 more glorious and excellent than the nations of the earth. 



420 PSALM LXXXYXX. 

First. It is owned that other places have their glories; ver. 4, "I will make 
mention of Rahab,*' that is, Egypt, " and Babylon, to them that know me," 
and are about me, and with whom 1 discourse about public affairs. "Behoid 
Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia," or rather Arabia, we will observe that " this 
man was born there;" here and there one famous man, eminent for knowledge 
and virtue, may be produced, that was a native of these countries; here and 
there one that becomes a proselyte, and a worshipper of the true God. But 
some give another sense of it; that it is a prophecy or promise of bringing the 
Gentiles into the church, and uniting of them in one body with the Jews. God 
saith, 'I will reckon Egypt and Babylon with them that know me,' that is, I 
will reckon them my people, as much as Israel s when they shall receive the 
Gospel of Christ, and own them as born in Zion, that is, born again there, and 
admitted to the privileges of Zion as freely as a trueborn Israelite. They 
that were strangers and foreigners became fellow-citizens with the saints, 
Mph. ii. 17. A Gentile convert shall stand upon a level with a native Jew 
Compare Isa. xix. 23, 25, " The Lord shall say, Blessed be Egypt my people, and 
Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance." 

Secondly. It is proved that the glory of Zion outshines them all upon many 
accounts; for, 

1. Zion shall produce many great and good men, that shall be famous in their 
generation ; ver. 5. " Of Zion it shall be said" by all her neighbours, that ''this 
and that man was born in her;" many men of renown for wisdom and piety, 
and especially for acquaintance with the words of God and the visions of the 
Almighty. Many prophets and kings that should be greater favourites of 
Heaven, and greater blessings to the earth than ever were bred in Egypt or 
Babylon. The worthies of the church far exceed those of heathen nations, 
and their names will shine brighter than in perpetual records. 4 A man, a man 
was born in her;' by which some understand Christ, that man, that Son of 
man, who is fairer than the children of men; he was born at Bethlehem, near 
Zion, and was the glory of his people Israel. The greatest honour that ever 
was put upon the Jewish nation was, that of them, as concerning the flesh, 
Christ came, Rom. ix. 5. Or this also may be applied to the conversion of the 
Gentiles; of Zion it shall be said, that the law which went forth out of Zion, 
the Gospel of Christ, shall be an instrument to beget many souls to God, and the 
Jerusalem that is from above shall be acknowledged the mother of them all. 

2. Zion's interest shall be strengthened and settled by an almighty power. 
" The highest himself shall " undertake to " establish her," who can do it effec- 
tually ; the accession of proselytes out of divers nations shall be so far from 
occasioning discord and division, that it shall contribute greatly to Zion's 
strength ; for God himself, having founded her upon an everlasting foundation, 
whatever convulsions and revolutions there are of states and kingdoms, and 
however heaven and earth may be shaken, these are things which cannot be 
shaken, but must remain. 

3. Zion's sons shall be registered with honour; ver. 6, "The Lord shall count 
when he writes up the people," and takes a catalogue of his subjects, "that 
this man was born there," and so is a subject by birth, by the first birth, being 
born in his house, by the second birth, being born again of his Spirit. When 
God comes to reckon with the children of men, that he may render to every 
man according to his works, he shall observe who was born in Zion, and conse- 
quently enjoyed the privileges of God's sanctuary, to whom pertained the 
adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the service of God, Rom. ix. 4; 
iii. 1, 2 ; for to them much was given, and therefore of them much will be re- 
quired, and the account will be accordingly; five talents must be improved by 
those that were intrusted with five. "I know thy works and where thou 
dwellest," and where thou wast born. " Selah/' Let those that dwell in Zion 
mark this, and live up to their profession. 

4. Zion's songs shall be sung with joy and triumph. " As well the singers as 
the players on instruments shall be there" to praise God, ver. 7. It was much 
the honour of Zion, and is the honour of the gospel church, that there Goi is 
served and worshipped with rejoicing ; his work is done, and done cheerfully, 
see Ps. lxviii. 25. " All my springs are in thee," O Zion: so God saith he hath 
deposited treasures of grace in his holy ordinances ; there are the springs 
from which those streams take rise, "which make glad the city of our God," 
Ps. xlvi. 4. So the Psalmist saith, reckoning the springs from which his dry 
soul must be watered to lie in the sanctuary, in the word and ordinances, and in 
the communion of saints. The springs of the joy of a carnal worldling lie in 
wealth and pleasure, but the springs of the joy of a gracious soul lie in the 
word of God and prayer. Christ is the true temple; all our springs are in him, 
and from him all our streams flow ; " it pleased the Father," and all believers 
are well pleased with it too, " that in him should all fulness dwell." 



PSALM LXXXVIII. 



m 



This psalm is a lamentation, one of the most melancholy of all the psalms; and it doth 
not conclude as usually the melancholy psalms do, with any the least intimation oi 
comfort or joy, but from lirst to last, it is mourning and woe. It is not upon a public 
account that the psalmist here complains ; here i* no mention of the afflictions of th2 
church, but only upon a personal account, especially trouble of mind, and the grief 
impressed upon his spirits, both by his outward afflictions, and by the remembrance 
of his sins, and the fear of God's wrath. It is reckoned among the penitential psalms, 
and it is well when our fears are thus turned into the right channel , and we take occa- 
sion from our worldly grievances to sorrow after a godly sort. In this psalm we have, 
I. The great pressure of spirit that the psalmist was under, ver. 3 — 6. II. The wrath 
of God, which was the cause of that pressure, ver. 7, 15 — 17. III. The wickedness of 
his friends, ver. 8, 18. IV. The application he made to God by prayer, ver. 1, 2, 9, 13. 
V. His humble expostulations and pleadings with God, ver. 10, 12, 14. Those who 
are in trouble of mind may sing this psalm feelingly; those that are not ought to sing 
it thankfully, blessing God that it is not their case. 

A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalata 
Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. 

OLOED God of my salvation, 
I have cried day and night before thee: 

2 Let my prayer come before thee : 
Incline thine ear unto my cry ; 

3 For my soul is full of troubles : 

And my life draweth nigh unto the grave. 

4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: 
I am as a man that hath no strength ; 

5 Free among the dead, 

Like the slain that lie in the grave, 
Whom thou rememberest no more : 
And they are cut off' from thy hand. 

6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, 
In darkness, in the deeps. 

7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, 

And thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah. 

8 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me ; 
Thou hast made me an abomination unto them: 

I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. 

9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction : 
Lord, I have called daily upon thee, 

I have stretched out my hands unto thee. 

It should seem by the titles of this and the following psalm, that Heman was 
the penman of the one, and Ethan of the other. There were two, of these 
names, that were sons of Zerah the son of Judah, 1 Ckr. ii. 4, 6. There were 
two others famed for wisdom, 1 Kin. iv. 31, where, to magnify Solomon's wis- 
dom, he is said to be wiser than Heman and Ethan. Whether the Heman and 
Ethan that were Levites and precentors in the songs of Zion were the same, 
we are not sure, nor which of these, nor whether any of these were the penmen 
of these psalms. There was a Heman that was one of the chief singers, who 
is called the king's seer, or prophet, in the words of God, 1 Ckr. xxv. 5; it is 
probable this too was a seer, and yet could see no comfort for himself — an 
instructor and comforter of others, and yet himself putting comfort away from 
him. The very first words of the psalm are the only words of comfort and 
support in all the psalm. There is nothing about him but clouds and darkness ; 
but before he begins his complaint he calls God the God of his salvation, which 



422 PSALM LXXXVIII. 

intimates both that he looked for salvation, as bad as things were, and that he 
looked up to God for the salvation, and depended upon him to be the author of 
it. Now here we have the psalmist, 

First. A man of prayer ; one that gave himself to prayer at all times, but 
especially now he was in affliction ; for " is any afflicted ? let him pray." It is his 
comfort that he had prayed ; it is his complaint, that notwithstanding his prayer, 
he was still in affliction. He was, 1. Very earnest in prayer, " I have cried unto 
thee," ver. 1 ; and "have stretched out my hands unto thee," ver. 9, as one that 
would take hold on thee, and even catch at the mercy, with a holy fear of 
coming short and missing of it. 2. He was very frequent and constant in prayer. 
" 1 have called upon thee daily," ver. 9; nay, day and night, ver. 1: for thus 
" Men ought always to pray, and not to faint ;" God's own elect cry day and night 
to him; not only morning and evening, beginning every day and every night 
with prayer, but spending the day and night in prayer. This is indeed praying 
always, and then we shall speed in prayer when we continue instant in prayer. 
3. He directed his prayer to God, and from him expected and desired an 
answer; ver. 2, "Let my prayer come before thee," to be accepted of thee, not 
before men, to be seen of them, as the Pharisees' prayers. He doth not desire 
that men should hear them, but " Lord, incline thou thine ear unto my cry." for 
to that I refer myself; give what answer to it thou pleasest. 

Secondly. He was a man of sorrows, and therefore some make him in this 
psalm a type of Christ, whose complaints on the cross, and sometimes before, 
were much to the same tune with this psalm. He cries out, ver. 3, " My soul is 
full of troubles ;" so Christ said, "Now is my soul troubled ;" and in his agony, 
"My soul is exceeding sorrowful;" like the psalmist's here, "even unto death, 
for he saith, "My life draweth nigh unto the grave." Heman was a very wise 
man, and a good man, a man of God, and a singer, too, and one may therefore 
suppose him to be a man of a cheerful spirit, and yet now a man of a sorrowful 
spirit, troubled in mind, and upon the brink of despair. Inward trouble is the 
sorest trouble, and that which sometimes the best of God's saints and servants 
have been severely exercised with. The spirit of man, of the greatest of men, 
will not always sustain the infirmity, but will droop and sink under it ; who, 
then, can bear a wounded spirit? 

Thirdly. He looked upon himself as a dying man. whose heart was ready to 
break with sorrow ; ver. 5. "Free among the dead, one of that ghastly corpo- 
ration ; "Like the slain that lie in the grave," whose rotting and perishing 
nobody takes notice of, or is concerned for; nay, *' Whom thou rememberest 
no more," to protect or provide for the dead bodies, but they become an easy 
prey to corruption and the worms ; " they are cut off from thy hand," which used 
to be employed in supporting them, and reaching out to them ; but now there 
is no more occasion for it, they are cut off from it, and cut off by it ; for " God 
will not stretch out his hand to the grave," Job xxx. 24. " Thou hast laid me in 
the lowest pit," as low as possible, my condition low, my spirits low, "in dark- 
ness, in the deeps," ver. 6; sinking, and seeing no way open of escape, brought 
to the last extremity, and ready to give up all for gone. Thus greatly may 
good men be afflicted, and such dismal apprehensions may they have concern- 
ing their afflictions, and such dark conclusions may they sometimes be ready 
to make concerning the issue of them, through the power of melancholy and 
the weakness of faith. 

Fourthly. He complained most of God's displeasure against him, which in- 
fused the wormwood and the gall into the affliction and the misery ; ver. 7, 
"Thy wrath lies hard upon me." Could he have discerned the favour and love 
of God in his affliction, it had lain light upon him; but it lay hard, very hard 
upon him, so that he was ready to sink and faint under it. The impressions 
of this wrath upon his spirits, were God's waves, with which he afflicted him. 
which rolled upon him, one on the neck of another, so that he scarce recovered 
from one dark thought but he was oppressed with another; these waves beat 
against him with noise and fury ; not some, but all God's waves were made use 
of in afflicting him, and bearing him down. Even the children of God's love 
may sometimes apprehend themselves children of wrath, and no outward 
trouble can lie so hard upon them as that apprehension. 

Fifthly. It added to his affliction that his friends deserted him, and made 
themselves strange to him. When we are in trouble, it is some comfort to have 
those about us that love us, and sympathize with us, but this good man had 
none such, which gives him occasion not to accuse them, or charge them with 
treachery, ingratitude, and inhumanity, but to complain to God, with an eye 
to his hand in this part of the affliction ; ver. 8, " Thou hast put away mine 
acquaintance far from me." Providence had removed them, or rendered them 
incapable of being serviceable to him, or alienated their affections from him, for 
every creature is that to us and no more than God makes it to be. If our old 
acquaintance be shy of us, and those we expect kindness from prove unkind, 
we must bear that with the same patient submission to the Divine will that 
we do other afflictions, Job xix. \Z. Nay, his friends were not only strange to 
him, but even hated him, because he was poor and in distress; " thou hast made 



PSALM LXXXVIII. 423 

me an abomination to them they are not only shy of me, but sick of me, and 

I am looked upon by them not only with contempt, but with abhorrence. Let 
none think it strange concerning such a trial as this, when He man, that was so 
famed for wisdom, yet when the world frowned upon him was neglected, as a 
vessel in which is no pleasure. 

Lastly. He looked upon his case as helpless and deplorable : "I am shut up, 
and I cannot come forth," a close prisoner under the arrests of Divine wrath, 
and no way open of escape. He therefore lies down and sinks under his 
troubles, because he sees not any probability of getting out of them. For thus 
he bemoaneth himself, ver. 9, "Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction;" 
and sometimes giving vent to grief by weeping gives some ease to a troubled 
spirit. Yet weeping must not hinder praying ; we must sow in tears ; " Mine eye 
mourns, but I cry unto thee daily let prayer and tears go together, and they 
shall be accepted together; *'I have heard thy prayers, 1 have seen thy tears," 

10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead ? 

Shall the dead arise and praise thee ? Selah. 

I I Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave ? 
Or thy faithfulness in destruction ? 

12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark ? 

And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness ? 

13 But unto thee have I cried, 0 Lord ; 

And in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. 

14 Lord, why castest thou off my soul ? 
Why hidest thou thy face from me ? 

15 1 am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up : 
While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. 

16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me ; 
Thy terrors have cut me off. 

1 7 They came round about me daily like water ; 
They compassed me about together. 

18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, 
And mine acquaintance into darkness. 

In these verses, 

First. The psalmist expostulates with God concerning the present deplorable 
condition he was in, ver. 10 — 12, Wilt thou do a miraculous work to the dead, 
and raise them to life again ? Shall those that are dead and buried rise up to 
praise thee? No, they leave it to their children to rise up in their rooms to 
praise God; none expects that they should do it; and wherefore should they 
rise? Wherefore should they live, but to praise God? The life we are born 
to at first, and the life we hope to rise to at last, must thus be spent. But 
"shall thy lovingkindness 5 * to thy people "be declared in the grave," either by 
those or to those that lie buried there? and thy faithfulness to thy promise, shall 
that be told in destruction ? Shall thy wonders be wrought in the dark or 
known there, and thy righteousness in the grave, which is the land of forget- 
fulness, where men remember nothing, nor are themselves remembered? 
Departed souls may indeed know God's wonders, and declare his faithfulness, 
justice, and lovingkindness, but deceased bodies cannot; they can neither receive 
God's favours in comfort, nor return them in praise. Now we will not suppose 
these expostulations to be the language of despair, as if he thought God could 
not help him, or would not, much less do they speak any disbelief of the resur- 
rection of the dead at the last day ; but he thus pleads with God for speedy 
relief. Lord, thou art good, thou art faithful, thou art righteous ; these attri- 
butes of thine will be made known in my deliverance, but if it be not hastened, 
it will come too late, for I shall be dead and past relief; dead, and not capable 
of receiving any comfort very shortly. Job often pleaded this, Job vii. 8 ; x. 21. 

Secondly. He resolves to continue instant in prayer, and the more so because 
the deliverance was deferred ; ver. 13, "Unto thee have I cried" many a time, 
and found comfort in it, and therefore I will continue to do so; "In the morn- 
ing shall my prayer prevent thee." Note, Though our prayers be not answered 



424 



PSALM LXXXVIII. 



presently, yet we must not therefore give over praying, because "the vision is 
for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak and not lie." And God, 
therefore, delays the answer, that he may try our patience and perseverance in 
prayer. He resolves to seek God early in the morning, when his spirits were 
lively, and before the business of the day began to crowd in ; in the morning, 
after he had been tossed with cares and sorrowful thoughts in the silence and 
solitude of the night. But how doth he say, "My prayer shall prevent thee?" 
Not as if he could wake sooner to pray than God to hear and answer, for he 
neither slumbers nor sleeps : but it intimates that he would be up earlier than 
ordinary to pray : would prevent his usual hour of prayer. The greater our 
afflictions are, the more solicitous and serious we should be in prayer. My 
prayer shall present itself before thee, and be betimes with thee, and shall not 
stay for the encouragement of the beginning of mercy, but reach out towards 
it with faith and expectation, even before the day dawns. God often prevents 
our prayers and expectations with his mercies ; let us prevent his mercies with 
our prayers and expectations. 
Thirdly. He sets down what he will say to God in prayer. 

1. He will humbly reason with God concerning the abject afflicted condition 
he was now in ; ver. 14, " Lord, why castest thou off my soul?" What is it that 
provokes thee to treat me as one abandoned? " Shew me wherefore thou con- 
tendest with me." He speaks it with wonder that God should cast off an old 
servant; should cast off one that was resolved not to cast him off; no wonder 
men cast me off, but, Lord, why dost thou, whose gifts and callings are without 
repentance? "Why hidest thou thy face," as one angry at me, that either 
hast no favour for me, or wilt not let me know it? Nothing grieves a child of 
God so much as God's hiding his face from him, nor is there any thing he so 
much dreads as God's casting off his soul. If the sun be clouded, that darkens 
the earth, but if the sun should abandon the earth, and quite cast it off, what a 
dungeon would it be ! 

2. He will humbly repeat the same complaints he had before made, until that 
God have mercy on him. Two things he represents to God as his grievances : 

1st. That God was a terror to him; "I suffer thy terrors," ver. 15. He had 
continual frightful apprehensions of the wrath of God against him for his sins,, 
and the consequences of that wrath. It terrified him to think of God, and oi 
falling into his hands, and appearing before him to receive his doom from him. 
He sweat and trembled at the apprehension of God's displeasure against him, 
and the terror of his majesty. Note, Even those that are designed for God's 
favours may yet for a time suffer his terrors. The spirit of adoption is first a 
spirit of bondage to fear. Poor Job complained of the terrors of God setting 
themselves iu array against him, Job vi. 4. The psalmist here explains himself, 
and tells us what Fie means by God's terrors, even his fierce wrath. Let us see 
wiiat dreadful impressions those terrors made upon him, and how deep they 
wounded him. First. They had almost taken away his life : "1 am so afflicted 
with them, that I am ready to die," and, as the word is, to give up the ghost; 
"Thy terrors have cut me off," ver. 16. What is hell, that eternal excision, 
by which damned sinners are for ever cut off from God and all happiness, but 
God's terrors fastening and preying upon their guilty consciences ? Secondly. 
They had almost taken away the use of his reason ; " When I suffer thy terrors 
I am distracted ;" that sad effect the terrors of the Lord have had upon many, 
and some good men, who have thereby been put quite out of the possession of 
their own souls ; a most piteous case, and which ought to be looked upon with 
great compassion. Thirdly. This had continued long; " .From my youth up I 
suffer thy terrors;" he had been from his childhood afflicted with melancholy, 
and trained up in sorrow, under the discipline of that school. If we begin our 
days with trouble, and the days of our mourning have been prolonged a great 
while, let us not think it strange, but let tribulation work patience. It is 
observable that Heman, who became eminently wise and good, was afflicted 
and ready to die from his youth up, and suffered God's terrors. Thus many 
have found it was good for them to bear the yoke in their youth ; that sorrow 
has been much better for them than laughter would have been; and that being 
much afflicted, and often ready to die when they were young, they have, by the 
grace of God, got such an habitual seriousness and weanedness from the world 
ds had been of great use to them all their days. And sometimes those whom 
God designs for eminent services are prepared for them by exercises of this 
kind. Fourthly. His affliction was now in extremity, and worse than ever. 
God's terrors now came round about him, so that from all sides he was 
assaulted with varieties of troubles, and he had no comfortable gale from 
any point of the compass. They broke in upon him together, like an inunda- 
tion of water, and this daily and all the day ; so that he had no rest, no 
respite, not the least breathing time, no lucid intervals, nor any gleam of hope, 
Such was the calamitous state of a very wise and good man : he was so sur- 
rounded with terrors that he could find no place of shelter, nor lie any where 
under the wind. 



PSALM LXXXIX. 



425 



2nd. That no friend he had in the world was a comfort to him; ver. 18, 
"Lover and friend hast thou put far from me;" some are dead, others at a 
distance, and perhaps many unkind. Next to the comforts of religion are 
those of friendship and society ; therefore to be friendless is (as to this life) 
almost to be comfortless; and to those who have had friends, but have lost 
them, the calamity is the more grievous. With this the psalmist here 
closeth his complaint, as if this were it that completed his woe, and gave the 
finishing stroke to this melancholy piece. If our friends are put far from 
us by scattering providences, nay, if by death our acquaintance are removed 
into darkness, we have reason to look upon it as a sore affliction, but must 
acknowledge and submit to the hand of God in it. 



PSALM LXXXIX. 

Many psalms that begin with complaint and prayer end with joy and praise, but this 
begins with joy and praise, and ends with sad complaints and petitions ; for the 
psalmist first recounts God's former favours, and then with the consideration of them 
aggravates the present grievances. It is uncertain when it was penned, only in general 
that it was at a time when the house of David was wofuliy eclipsed ; some think it was 
at the time of the captivity of Babylon, when king Zedekiah was insulted over and 
abused by Nebuchadnezzar; and then they make the title to signify no more but that 
the psalm was set to the tune of a song of Ethan, the son of Zerah, called Maschil; 
others suppose it to be penned by Ethan, who is mentioned in the story of Solomon,, 
who, outliving that glorious prince, thus lamented the great disgrace done to the house 
of David in the next reign by the revolt of the ten tribes. I. The psalmist in the 
joyful, pleasant part of the psalm gives glory to God, and takes comfort to himself and 
his friends ; and this he doth more briefly, mentioning God's mercy and truth, ver. 1, 
and his covenant, ver. 2 — 4 ; but more largely in the following verses, wherein, 
1. He adores the glory and perfection of God, ver. 5 — 14. 2. He pleaseth himself in 
the happiness of those that are admitted into communion with him, ver. 15 — 18. 
3. He builds all his hope upon God's covenant with David, as a type of Christ, 
ver. 19 — 37. II. In the melancholy part of the psalm he laments the present calamitous 
state of the prince and royal family, ver. 38 — 15 ; expostulates with God upon it, 
ver. 46 — 49; and then concludes with prayer for redress, ver. 50, 51. In singing this 
psalm Ave must have high thoughts of God, a lively faith in his covenant with the 
Redeemer, and a sympathy with the afflicted parts of the church. 

Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite. 

I WILL sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever : 
With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to 
all generations. 

2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: 

Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens, 

3 I have made a covenant with my chosen, 
I have sworn unto David my servant, 

4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, 

And build up thy throne to all generations. Selah. 

The psalmist has a very sad complaint to make, of the deplorable condition 
of the family of David at this time, and yet he begins the psalm with songs of 
praise; for we must in everything, in every state, give thanks; thus we must 
glorify the Lord in the fire. We tnink when we are in trouble we get ease by 
complaining; but we do more— we get joy, by praising. Let our complaints 
therefore be turned into thanksgiving ; and in these verses we find that which 
will be matter of praise and thanksgiving for us in the worst of times, whether 
upon a personal or public account. 

First. However it be, the everlasting God is good and true, ver. 1. Though 
we may find it hard to reconcile present dark providences with the goodness 
and truth of God, yet we must abide by this principle, that God's mercies are 
inexhaustible, and his truth inviolable ; and these must be the matter of our 
joy and praise. "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever;'' sing a 
praising song to God's honour, a pleasant song for my own solace: and Mas- 
chil, an instructing song for the edification of others. We may be for ever 
singing of God's mercies, and yet the subject will not be drawn dry. We must 
sing of God's mercies as long as we live, train up others to sing of them when 
we are gone, and hope to be singing of them in heaven world without end ; 
and this is singing of the mercies of the Lord for ever. " With my mouth. 



426 PSALM LXXXIX. 

and my pen, (for by that also we speak,) " will I make known thy faithfulness 
to all generations ;" assuring posterity from my own observation and experience, 
that God is true to every word that he hath spoken, that they may learn to put 
their trust in God, Ps. lxxviii. 6. 

Secondly. However it be, the everlasting covenant is firm and sure, ver. 2 4. 

Here we have, 

1. The psalmist's faith and hope. Things now look black, and threaten the 
utter extirpation of the house of David ; but " 1 have said," and I have warrant 
from the word of God to say it, that " Mercy shall be built up for ever." As 
the goodness of God's nature is to be the matter of our song, ver. 1, so much 
more the mercy that is built up for us in the covenant. It is still increasing like 
a house in the buil.iing up, and shall still continue our rest for ever, like a house 
built up. It shall be built up for ever; for the everlasting habitations we hope 
for in the new Jerusalem are of this building. If mercy shall be built for ever, 
then the tabernacle of David which is fallen down shall be raised out of its 
ruins, and built up as in the days of old, Am. ix. 11. Therefore, mercy shall be 
built up for ever, because " thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very 
heavens." Though our expectations are in some particular instances disap- 
pointed, yet God's promises are not disannulled. They are established in the 
very heavens, that is, in his eternal counsels ; they are above the changes of this 
lower region, and out of the reach of the opposition of hell and earth. And 
the stability of the material heavens is an emblem of the truth of God's word ; 
the heavens may be clouded by vapours arising out of the earth, but they 
cannot be touched, — they cannot be changed. 

2. An abstract of the covenant upon which this faith and hope is built. I have 
said it, saith the psalmist, for God hath sworn it, that the heirs of promise 
might be entirely satisfied of the immutability of his counsel. He brings in 
God speaking, ver. 3, owning to the comfort of his people, " I have made a 
covenant," and thereforewill make it good. The covenant is made with David ; 
the covenant of royalty is made with him, as the father of his family, and with 
his seed through him, and for his sake ; representing the covenant of grace 
made with Christ as head of the church, and with all believers as his spiritual 
seed. David is here called God's chosen, and his servant : and, as God is not 
changeable to recede from his own choice, so he is not unrighteous to cast off 
one that served him. Two things encourage the psalmist to build his faith on 
this covenant : 1st. The ratification of it. It was confirmed with an oath. ''The 
Lord has sworn, and he will not repent." 2nd. The perpetuity of it. The 
blessings of the covenant were not only secured to David himself, but were 
entailed on his family. It was promised that his family should continue; 
u Thy seed will I establish for ever," so that " David shall not want a son to 
reign," Jer. xxiii. 20, 21. And that it should continue a royal family; "I will 
build up thy throne to all generations," to all the generations of time. This has 
its accomplishment only in Christ, of the seed of David, who lives for ever, 
to whom God has given the throne of his lather David, and of the increase 
of whose government and peace there shall be no end. Of this covenant the 
psalmist will return to speak more largely, ver. 19, &c. 

5 And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord : 
Thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. 

6 For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord ? 
Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto 

the Lord ? 

7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, 
And to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. 

8 0 Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto 
Or to thy faithfulness round about thee ? [thee ? 

9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea : 

When the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. 

10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain ; 
Thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm. 

1 1 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine : 

As for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast 
founded them. 



PSALM LXXXIX. 427 
12 The north and the south thou hast created then: 
Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. 




MOUNT TAB OB,.— -id Borde. 



13 Thou hast a mighty arm : 

Strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. 

14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: 
Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. 

These verses are full of the praises of God. Observe, 
First. Where and by whom God is to be praised. 

1. God is praised by the angels above; " The heavens shall praise thy won- 
ders, O Lord," ver. 5; that is, The glorious inhabitants of the upper world 
continually celebrate thy praises. " Bless the Lord, ye his angels," Ps. ciii. 20. 
The works of God are wonders even to them that are best acquainted, and 
most intimately conversant with them. God's works the more they are known 
the more they are admired and praised. This should make us love heaven, and 
long to be there, that there we shall have nothing else to do but to praise God 
and his wonders. 

2. God is praised by the assemblies of his saints on earth. Praise waits for 
him in Zion, and though they fall so far short of the praises of angels, yet God 
is pleased to take notice of them, and accept them, and reckons himself 
honoured by them. Thy faithfulness and the truth of thy promise, that rock 
on which the church is built, this shall be praised in the congregation of the 
saints, who owe their all to that faithfulness, and whose constant comfort it is 
that there is a promise, and that " He is faithful that has promised." It is 
expected from God's saints on earth, that they praise him. Who should 
if they do not? Let every saint praise him, but especially the congregation 
of saints; when they come together, let them join in praising God; the more 
the better, it is liker heaven. Of the honour done to God by the assembly 
of the saints, he speaks again, ver. 7, " God is greatly to be feared in the 
assembly of the saints." Saints should assemble for religious worship, that 
they may publicly own. their relation to God, and may stir up one another to 
give honour to him, and in keeping up communion with God, may likewise 
maintain the communion of saints. In religious assemblies God has promised 
the presence of his grace, but we must also in them have an eye to his glorious 
presence, that the familiarity we are admitted to may not breed the least con- 
tempt ; tor he is terrible in his holy places, and therefore greatly to be feared. 
A holy awe of God must fall upon us, and fill us, in all our approaches to God, 
even in secret, to which something may very well be added by the solemnity 
of public assemblies. God must be had in reverence of all that are about him 
that attend him continually as his servants, or approach him uDon any par- 
ticular errand : see Lev. x. 3. Those only serve God acceptably who serve him 
with reverence and godly fear, Heb. xii. 28. 

Secondly. What it is to praise God. It is to acknowledge him to be a b?ing 



428 



PSALM LXXXIX. 



of unparalleled perfection, such an one as there is none like hira, nor any to be 
compared with him, ver. 6. If there be any beings that can pretend to vie w ith 
God, sure they must be found among the angels; but th'ey are all infinitely 
short of him ; " Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord?" so as to 
challenge any share of that adoration and reverence which is due to him only, 
or to set up in rivalship with him for the homage of the children of men? 
They are sons of the mighty, but which of them can be likened unto the Lord? 
Nobies are prince's peers ; some parity there is between them ; but none 
between God and the angels : they are not his peers ; " To whom will ye liken 
me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One," Is a. xl. 25. This is insisted on 
again, ver. 8, "Who is a strong Lord like unto thee?" No angel, no earthly 
potentate whatsoever, is comparable to God, or has an arm like him, or can 
thunder with a voice like him. "Thy faithfulness is round about thee," that is, 
thine angels that are round about thee, attending thee with their praises, and 
ready to go on thine errands, are all faithful. Or rather, in every thing thou 
dost, on all sides, thon approvest thyself faithful to thy word, above whatever 
prince or potentate was. Among men it is often found, that those who are 
most able to break their word are least careful to keep it ; but God is both 
strong and faithful ; he can do every thing, and yet will never do an unjust 
thing. 

Thirdly. What we ought in our praises to give God the glory of. Several 
things are here mentioned. 

1. The command God has of the most ungovernable creatures ; ver. 9, " Thou 
rulest the raging of the sea." than which nothing is more frightful or threaten- 
ing, nor more out of the power of man to give check to ; yet it can swell no 
higher, no farther, beat no harder, continue no longer, nor do any more hurt 
than God suffers it; "When the waves thereof arise," thou canst presently 
hush them asleep,— still them, and make them quiet, and turn the storm into 
a calm. This coming in here as an act of Omnipotence, what manner of man 
then was the Lord Jesus, whom the winds and seas obeyed? 

2. The victories God has obtained over the enemies of his church. His ruling 
the raging of the sea, and quelling its billows, was an emblem of this; ver. 10, 
" Thou hast broken Rahab," many a proud enemy, so it sign.nes, Egypt in par- 
ticular, which, is sometimes called Rahab, broken it "in pieces, as one that is 
slain," and utterly unable to make head again. The head being broken, thou 
hast scattered the remainder with the arm of thy strength. God has more 
ways than one to deal with his and his church's enemies ; we think he should 
slay them presently but sometimes he scatters them, that he may send them 
abroad to be monuments of his justice, Ps. li. 11. The remembrance of the 
breaking of Egypt in pieces, is a comfort to the church in reference to the 
present power of Babylon ; for God is still the same. 

3. The incontestable property he has in all the creatures of the upper and 
lower world, ver. 11, 12. Men are honoured for their large possessions, but 
"the heavens are thine, O Lord, the earth also is thine," therefore, we praise 
thee; therefore we trust in thee; therefore we will not fear what man can do 
against us. "The world and the fulness thereof," all the riches contained in it, 
all the inhabitants of it, both the tenements and the tenants, they are all thine; 
for thou hast founded them ; and the founder may justly claim to be the owner 
He instanceth, 1st. In the remotest parts of the world, the north and south, 
the countries that lie under the two poles, which are uninhabited, and little 
known, yet thou hast created them, and therefore knowest them, takest care 
of them, and hast tributes of praise from them. The north is said to be hung 
over the empty place, yet what fulness there is there God is the owner cf it. 
2nd. In the highest parts of the world. He instanceth in the two highest hills 
in Canaan, " Tabor and Hermon," one lying to the west, the other to the east ; 
these " shall rejoice in thy name ;" for they are under the care of thy providence, 
and they produce offerings for thine altar ; the little hills are said to rejoice in 
their own fruitfulness, Ps. lxv. 12. Tabor is commonly supposed to be that high 
mountain in Galilee on the top of which Christ was trausfigured ; and then 
indeed, it might be said to rejoice in that voice which was there heard, " This 
is my beloved Son." 

I 'That power and justice, that mercy and truth, with which he governs the 
world, and rules in the affairs of the children of men, ver. 13, 14. 1st. God is 
able to do every thing; for lie is the Lord God Almighty. His arm, his hand, 
is mighty and strong^ both to save his people, and to destroy his and their 
enemies ; none can either resist his force, or bear the weight of his mighty 
hand. High is his right hand to reach the highest, even those that set their 
nest among the stars, Am. ix. 2, 3 ; Obad. 4 ; his right hand is exalted in what 
he hath done, for in thousands of instances he hath signalized his power, 
Ps. cxviii. 16. 2nd. He never did nor ever will do any thing that is either 
unjust or unwise: for " righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his. 
throne." None of all his dictates or decrees ever varied from the rules of 
equity and wisdom, nor could ever any charge God with unrighteousness or 



PSALM LXXXIX. 429 

folly. Justice and judgment are the preparing of his throne, so some; trie 
establishment of it, so others. The preparations for his government in his 
counsels from eternity, and the establishment of it in its consequences to 
eternity, are all justice and judgment. :ird. He always doth that which is 
kind to his people, and consonant to the word which he hath spoken. Mercy 
and truth shall go before thy face to prepare thy way, as harbingers to make 
room for thee; mercy in promising, truth in performing; truth in being as 
good as thy word, mercy in being better. How praiseworthy are these in great 
men, much more in the great God, in whom they are in perfection ! 

15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound : 

They shall walk, 0 Lord, in the light of thy countenance. 

J 6 In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: 
And in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. 

17 For thou art the glory of their strength : 
And in thy favour our horn shall be exalted. 

18 For the Lord is our defence ; 

And the Holy One of Israel is our king. 

The psalmist having largely shewed the blessedness of the God of Israel, here 
shews the blessedness of the Israel of God. As " there is none like unto the 
God of Jeshurun," so, "Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O 
people? " especially as a type of the gospel Israel, consisting of all true believers, 
whose happiness is here described. 

First. Glorious discoveries are made to them, and glad tidings of good 
brought to them. They hear, they "know the joyful sound," ver. 15. This 
alludes either, 1. To the shout of a victorious army, the shout of a kingj 
Num. xxiii. 21. Israel has the tokens of God's presence with them in their 
wars. The sound of the going in the top of the mulberry trees was indeed 
a joyful sound, 2 Sam. v. 24, and they often returned, making the earth ring 
with their songs of triumph : these were joyful sounds. Or, 2. To the sound 
that was made over the sacrifices, and on the solemn feast-day, Ps. lxxxi. 1—3. 
This was the happiness of Israel, that they had among them the free and open 
profession of God's holy religion, and abundance of joy in their sacrifices. Or, 
3. To the sound of the jubilee trumpet. A joyful sound it was to servants and 
debtors, to whom it proclaimed release. The Gospel is indeed a joyful sound ; 
a sound of victory, of liberty, of communion with God, and the sound of abun- 
dance of rain. Blessed is the people that hear it, and know it, and bid it 
welcome. 

Secondly. Special tokens of God's favour are granted them. "They shall 
walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance;*' they shall govern themselves 
by thy conduct, be guided by thine eye. And they shall delight themselves in thy 
consolations ; they shall have the favour of God, they shall know that they have 
it, and it shall be continual matter of joy and rejoicing to them. They shall go 
through all the exercises of a holy life under the powerful influences of God's 
lovingkindness, which shall make their duty pleasant to them, and make them 
sincere in it, aiming at this as their end, to be accepted of the Lord. We 
then walk in the light of the Lord, when we fetch all our comforts from 
God's favour, and are very careful to keep ourselves in his love. 

Thirdly. They never want matter for joy. Blessed are God"s people, for in 
his name, in all that whereby he has made himself known, if it be not their own 
fault, "they shall rejoice all the day." They that rejoice in Christ Jesus, and 
make God their exceeding joy, have enough to balance their grievances, and 
silence their griefs ; and therefore their joy is full, 1 Jno. i. 4, and constant. It 
is their duty to rejoice evermore. 

Fourthly. Their relation to God is their honour and dignity. They are 
happy, for they are high. " Surely in the Lord," the Lord Christ, " they 
have righteousness and strength," and so are recommended by him to the 
Divine acceptance ; and therefore " in him shall all the seed of Israel glory," 
Isa. xlv. 24, 25. And so it is here, ver. 16, 17: 1. "In thy righteousness shall 
they be exalted," and not in any righteousness of their own. We are exalted 
out of danger, and into honour, purely by the righteousness of Christ, which 
is a clothing both for dignity and for defence. 2. " Thou art the glory of their 
i strength ; " that is, thou art their strength, and it is their glory that thou art 
I so, and what they glory in. " Thanks be to God, who always causeth us to 
, triumph." 3. "In thy favour," which through Christ we hope for, "our horn 
shall be exalted." The horn notes beauty, plenty, and power, these they have 
who are made accepted in the Beloved. What greater preferment are men 
capable of in this world, than to b« God's favourites ? 



430 PSALM LXXXIX. 

Fifthly. Their relation to God is their protection and safety; ver. 18, 'For 
our shield is of the Lord,' (so the margin) ' and our king is from the Holy One 
of Israel.' If God be our ruler, he will be our defender, and who is he then 
that can harm us? It was the happiness of Israel, that God himself had the 
erecting of their bulwarks, and the nominating of their king ; so some take it. 
Or rather, that he was himself a wall of fire round about them, and as a holy 
one, the author and centre of their holy religion. He was their king, and so 
their glory in the midst of them. Christ is the holy one of Israel, tnat holy 
thing ; and in nothing was that peculiar people more blessed than in this, that 
he was born king of the Jews. Now this account of the blessedness of God's 
Israel comes in here as that to which it was hard to reconcile their present 
calamitous state. 

1 9 Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, 

And saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty ; 
I have exalted one chosen out of the people. 

20 I have found David my servant ; 
With my holy oil have I anointed him : 




anointing. — From Rosellini. 



21 With whom my hand shall be established : 
Mine arm also shall strengthen him. 

22 The enemy shall not exact upon him ; 
Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. 

23 And I will beat down his foes before his face, 
And plague them that hate him. 

24 But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him : 
And in my name shall his horn be exalted. 

25 I will set his hand also in the sea, 
And his right hand in the rivers. 

26 He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, 
My God, and the rock of my salvation. 

27 Also I will make him my firstborn, 
Higher than the kings of the earth. 



PSALM LXXXIX. 



431 



28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, 
And my covenant shall stand fast with him. 

29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, 
And his throne as the days of heaven. 

30 If his children forsake my law, 
And walk not in my judgments; 

31 If they break my statutes, 

And keep not my commandments ; 

32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, 

And their iniquity with stripes. [from him, 

33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take 
Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. 

34 My covenant will I not break. 

Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 

35 Once have I sworn by my holiness 
That I will not lie unto David. 

36 His seed shall endure for ever, 

And his throne as the sun before me. 

37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, 
And as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. 

The covenant God made with David and his seed was mentioned before, 
ver. 3, 4; but in these verses it is enlarged upon, and pleaded with God for 
favour to the royal family, now almost sunk and ruined : yet certainly it looks 
at Christ, and has its accomplishment in him much more than in David ; nay, 
some passages here are scarce applicable at all to David, but must be under- 
stood of Christ only, who is therefore called David our king, Bus. iii. 5. And 
very great and precious promises they are which are here made to the Re- 
deemer, which are strong foundations for the faith and hope of the redeemed 
to build upon. The comforts of our redemption flow from the covenant of 
redemption, all our springs are in that ; Isa. lv. 3, " I will make an everlasting 
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David," Acts xiii. 34. Now here 
we have an account of those sure mercies. Observe, 

First. What assurance we have of the truth of the promise, which may 
encourage us to build upon it. W r e are here told, 1. How it was spoken; 
ver. 19, " Thou spakest in vision to thy holy ope."' God's promise to David, 
which is especially referred to here, was spoken in vision to Nathan the prophet, 
2 Sam. vii. 12—17. Then when the holy one of Israel was their king, ver. 18, 
then he appointed David to be his viceroy. But to all the prophets, those holy 
ones, he spake in vision concerning Christ, and to him himself especially, who 
had lain in his bosom from eternity, and was made perfectly acquainted with 
the whole design of redemption, Mat. xi. 27. 2. How it was sworn to and 
ratified; ver. 35, " Once have I sworn by my holiness," that darling attribute. 
In swearing by his holiness, he sware by himself ; for as soon will he cease to 
be, as be otherwise than noly. His swearing once is enough, he needs not 
swear again as David did, 1 Sam. xx. 17, for his word and oath are two immu- 
table things. As Christ was made a priest, so he was made a king by an oath, 
Heb. vii. 21 ; for his kingdom and priesthood are both unchangeable. 

Secondly. The choice made of the person to whom the promise is given, 
ver. 19, 20.' David was a king of God's own choosing, so is Christ ; and there- 
fore both are called God's kings, Ps. ii. 6. David was mighty, a man of 
courage, and fit for business; he was chosen out of the people; not out of the 
princes, but the shepherds ; God found him out, exalted him, and laid help 
upon him, and ordered Samuel to anoint him. But this is especially to be 
applied to Christ. 1. He is one that is mighty, every way qualified for the 
great work he was to undertake, able to save' to the uttermost. Mighty in 
strength, for he is the Son of God; mighty in love, for he is able experimentally 
to compassionate those that are tempted. He is the mighty God, Isa. ix. 6. 
2. He is chosen out of the people* one of us, bone of our bone, that takes part 

I 



432 



PSAIuM LXXXIX, 



with us of flesh and blood. Being ordained for men, he is taken from anions 
men. that his terror might not make us afraid. 3. God has found him. He is 
a Saviour of God's own providing, for the salvation from first to last is purely 
the Lord's doing. He has found the ransom, Job xxxiii. 24 ; for we could never 
have found a person fit to undertake this great work, Rev. v. 3, 4. 4. God has 
laid help upon him. Not only helped him, but treasured up help in him for us ; 
laid it as a charge upon him to help fallen man up again, to help the chosen 
remnant to heaven ; " In me is thy help," Hos. xiii. 9. 5. He has exalted him by 
constituting him the prophet, priest, and king of his church ; clothing him with 
power, raising him from the dead, and setting him at his own right hand. 
Whom God ehooseth and useth he will exalt. 6. He has anointed him, has 
qualified him for his office, and so confirmed him in it, by giving him the Spirit, 
not by measure, but without measure, infinitely above his fellows. He is called 
Messiah, or Christ, the Anointed. 7. In all this he designed him to be his own 
servant, for the accomplishing of his eternal purpose, and the advancement of 
the interests of his kingdom among men. 

Thirdly. The promises made to this chosen one, to David in the type, and the 
Son of David in the antitype; in which not only gracious, but glorious things 
are spoken of him. 

I. With reference to himself, as king and God's servant. And what makes 
for him makes for all his loving subjects. It is here promised, 

1st. That God would stand by him and strengthen him in his undertaking; 
ver. 21, '' With him my hand " not only shall be, but " shall be established " by 
promise, shall be so established, as that he shall by it be established and con- 
firmed in all his offices, so as that none of them shall be undermined and over- 
thrown, though by tne man of sin they should all be usurped and fought 
against. Christ had a great deal of hard work to do. and hard usage to go 
through, but he that gave him commission gave him forces sufficient for the 
execution of his commission. "Mine arm also shall strengthen him "to break 
through and bear up under all his difficulties. Ivo good work can miscarry in 
the hand of those whom God himself undertakes to strengthen. 

2nd. That he should be victorious over his enemies. That he should not 
encroach upon them ; ver. 22, "The son of wickedness shall not exact upon 
him," nor afflict him. He that at first broke the peace would set himself 
against him that undertook to make peace, and do what he could to blast his 
design ; but he could only reach to bruise his heel, farther he could not exact 
upon him or afflict him. Christ became a surety for our debt, and thereby 
Satan and death thought to have gained advantage against him; but he satisfied 
the demands of God's justice, and then they could not exact upon him: "'the 
prince of this world cometh, but he has nothing in me," Jno. xiv. 30. Nay, they 
not only shall not prevail against him, but they shall fall before him ; ver. 23, 
" I will beat down his foes before his face ; " the prince of this world shall be 
cast out, principalities and powers spoiled, and he shall be the death of deaths 
itself, and the destruction of the grave, Hos. xiii. 14. Some apply this to the 
ruin which God brought upon the Jewish nation that persecuted Christ, and 
put him to death. Nay, and all Christ's enemies that hate him, and will not 
have him to reign over them, shall be brought forth and slain before him, 
Lu. xix. 27. 

3rd. That he should be the great trustee of the covenant between God and men. 
That God would be gracious and true to him, and in him be gracious and true 
to us ; ver. 24, " My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him." It was with 
David: God continued merciful to him, and so approved himself faithful. It 
was with Christ ; God made good all his promises to him. But that is not all, 
God's mercy to us, and his faithfulness to us, are with Christ : he is not only 
pleased with him, but with us in him; and it is in him that all' the promises o"f 
God are yea and amen. So that if any poor sinners hope for benefit by the 
faithfulness and mercy of God, let them know it is with Christ, it is lodged in 
his hand, and to him they must apply themselves for it; ver. 28, "My mercy 
will I keep for him," to be disposed of by him " for evermore." In the channel 
of Christ's mediation all the streams of Divine goodness will for ever run ; and 
therefore it is the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ which we look for unto 
eternal life, Jude 21 ; Jno. xvii. 2. And as the mercy of God flows to us through 
him, so the promise of God is through him firm to us : "My covenant shall stand 
fast with him," both the covenant of redemption made with him, and the covenant 
of grace made with us in him. The new_ covenant is therefore always new, and 
firmly established, because it is lodged in the hands of a mediator. Heb. vih\ 6. 
The covenant stands fast, because it stands upon this basis. And tnis redounds 
to the everlasting honour of the Lord Jesus, that to him the great cause between 
God and man is entirely referred, and the rather has committed all judgment, 
to him that all men might honour him, Jno. v. 22, 23 ; therefore it is here said, 
" In my name shall his horn be exalted." This shall be his glory, that_God ; s 
name is in him, Ex. xxiii. 21, and that he acts in God's name. "As the rather 
gave me commandment, so I do." 

4 



PSALM LXXXIX. 433 

4th. That his kingdom should be greatly enlarged ; ver. 25, " 1 will set his hand 
in the sea,"' that is, he shall have the dominion of the seas ? and the isles of the 
seas ; "and his right hand in the rivers,*' the inland countries that are watered 
■with rivers. David's kingdom extended itself to the Great sea. and the Red 
sea, to the river of Egypt, and the river Euphrates. But it is in the kingdom of 
the Messiah that this has its full accomplishment; and shall have more and 
more when "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of the 
Lord and of his Christ," Rev. xi. 15 ; and " the isles shall wait for his law." 

5th. That he should own God as his Father ; and God would own him as his 
son, his firstborn, ver. 26, 27. This is a comment upon these words in Nathan's 
message concerning Solomon, for he also was a type of Christ as well as 
David; 2 Sam. vii. 14, "I will be his father, and he shall be my son;" and the 
relation shall be owned on both sides. First. "He shall cry unto me, Thou art 
my Father." It is likely Solomon did so, but we are sure Christ did so, in the 
days of his flesh, when lie offered up strong cries to God, and called him, "Holy 
Father : " " Righteous Father," and taught us to address ourselves to him as 
" Our father m heaven." Christ in his agony cried unto God, " Thou art my 
Father," Mat. xxvi. 39, 42, " O my Father;" and upon the cross, " Father, for- 
give them," " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." He looked upon him 
likewise as his God; and therefore he perfectly obeyed him, and submitted to 
his will in his whole undertaking; he is "my God and your God," Jno. xx. 17. 
And as the rock of his salvation, who would bear him up, and bear him out 
in his undertaking, and make him more than a conqueror, even a complete 
Saviour; and, therefore, with an undaunted resolution he endured the cross, 
despising the shame, for he knew he should be both justified and glorified. 
Secondly. " I will make him my firstborn." I see not how this can be applied to 
David \ it is Christ's prerogative to be firstborn of every creature, and as such 
the heir of all things, Col. i. 15; Heb. i. 2, 6. "When all power was given to 
Christ, both in heaven and in earth, and all things were delivered unto him 
by the Father, then God made him his Firstborn ; and far higher, more great 
and honourable, than the kings of the earth, for he is the King of kings, " angels, 
authorities, and powers being made subject to him," 1 Pet. iii. 22. 

2. With reference to his seed. God's covenants always took in the seed of 
the covenanters, this doth so ; ver. 29, 36, " His seed shall endure for ever," and 
with it his throne; now this will be differently understood according as we 
apply it to Christ or David. 

1st. If we apply it to David, by his seed we are to understand his successors, 
Solomon and the following kings of Judah that descended from the loins of 
David. It is supposed that they might degenerate, and not walk in the spirit 
and steps of their father David ; in such a case they must expect to come under 
Divine rebukes, such as the house of David was at this time under, ver. 38. 
But let this encourage them, that though they were corrected, they should not 
be abandoned or disinherited. This refers to that part of Nathan's message, 
2 Sam. vii. 14, 15, " If he commit iniquity I will chasten him, but my mercy shall 
not depart from him." Thus far David's seed and throne did endure for ever ; 
that notwithstanding the wickedness of many of his posterity, who were the 
scandals of his house, yet his family continued, and continued in the imperial 
dignity a very long time. That as long as Judah continued a kingdom, David's 
posterity were kings of it ; and the royalty of that kingdom was never in any 
other family, as that of the ten tribes was in Jeroboam's first, then in Baasha's, 
&c. And that the family of David continued a family of distinction, till that 
Son of David came whose throne should endure for ever : see Lu. i. 27, 32 ; 
ii. 4, 11. If David's posterity in after times should forsake God and their duty, 
and revolt to the ways of sin, God would bring desolating judgments upon 
them, and ruin the family ; and yet he would not take away his lovingkindness 
from David, nor break his covenant with him, for in the Messiah who should 
come out of his loins all these promises should have their accomplishment to 
the full. Thus, when the Jews were rejected, yet the apostle makes it out that 
God's covenant with Abraham was not broken, because it was fulfilled in his 
spiritual seed, the heirs of the righteousness of faith, Rom. xi. 7. 

2nd. If we apply it to Christ, by his seed we are to understand his subjects; 
all believers, his spiritual seed, the children which God hath given him, Beb. ii. 13. 
This is that seed which shall be made to endure for ever, and his throne in the 
midst of them, in the church, in the heart, as the days of heaven. To the end 
Christ shall have a people in the world to serve and honour him, " he shall see 
his seed, he shall prolong his days." And this holy seed shall endure for ever 
in a glorified state, when time and days shall be no more. And thus Christ's 
throne and kingdom shall be perpetuated; the kingdom of his grace shall con- 
tinue through all the ages of time, and the kingdom of his glory to the endless 
ages of eternity. 

First. The continuance of Christ's kingdom is here made doubtful by the 
sins and afflictions of his subjects, their iniquities and calamities threaten the 

2E 



434 



PSALM LXXXIX. 



ruin of it. This case is here put that we may not be offended when it comes 
to be a case in fact, but that we may reconcile it with the stability of the cove- 
nant, and be assured of that notwithstanding. 1st. It is here supposed that 
there will be much amiss in the subjects of Christ's kingdom. It is possible 
his children may forsake God's law, ver. 30, by omissions, and break his 
statutes, ver. 31, by commissions. There are spots that are the spots of God's 
children, Dm. xxxii. 5. Many corruptions there are in the bowels of the 
church, as well as in the hearts of those that are the members of it, and these 
corruptions break out. 2nd. They are here told that they must smart for it, 
ver. 32. " I will visit their transgression with the rod." their transgression sooner 
than that of others ; "you only have I known, and therefore I will punish you," 
Am. hi. 2. Their being related to Christ shall not excuse them from being 
called to an account. But observe what affliction is to God's people. (1.) It is 
but a rod, not an axe, not a sword ; it is for correction, not for destruction. 
This notes gentleness in the affliction ; it is the rod of men, such a rod as men 
use in correcting their children ; and it notes a design of good in and by the 
affliction, such a rod as yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. (2.) It is a 
rod in the hand of God. I will visit them; he that is wise and knows what 
he doth, gracious and will do what is best. (3.) It is a rod which they shall 
never feel the smart of but when tnere is great need. If they break my law, 
then I will visit their transgression with the rod, but not else. Then it is 
requisite that God's honour be vindicated, and that they be humbled and 
reduced. 

Secondly. The continuance of Christ's kingdom is made certain, by the 
inviolable promise and oath of God, notwithstanding all this ; ver. 33, "Never- 
theless, my kindness w r ill I not" totally and finally "take from him." Not- 
withstanding their provocations, yet my covenant shall not be broken. Note, 
Afflictions are not only consistent wdth covenant love, but to the people of God 
they flow from it. Though David's seed be chastened, it doth not follow that 
they are disinherited ; they may be cast down, but they are not cast off. God's 
favour is continued to his people. 1st. For Christ's sake ; in him the mercy is 
laid up for us, and God saith, I will not take it from him, ver. 33. I will not lie 
unto David, ver. 35; we are unworthy, but he is worthy. 2nd. For the covenant 
sake ; " My faithfulness shall not fail, my covenant will I not break." It was 
supposed that they had broken God's statutes, profaned and polluted them, so 
the word signifies; but, saith God, I will not break, I will not profane and 
pollute my covenant, — it is the same word. That which is said and sworn is, 
that God will have a church in the world as long as sun and moon endure, 
ver. 36, 37. The sun and moon are faithful witnesses in heaven of the wisdom, 
power, and goodness of the Creator, and shall continue while time lasts, which 
they are the measures of ; but the seed of Christ shall be established for 
ever, as lights of the world while the world stands, to shine in it, and, when 
it is at an end, they shall be established lights, shining in the firmament of the 
Father. 

38 But thou hast cast off and abhorred, 
Thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. 

39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant : 
Thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. 

40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; 
Thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. 

41 All that pass by the way spoil him : 
He is a reproach to his neighbours. 

42 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries ; 
Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. 

43 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, 
And hast not made him to stand in the battle. 

44 Thou hast made his glory to cease, 
And cast his throne down to the ground. 

45 The days of his youth hast thou shortened : 
Thou hast covered him with shame. Selah. 

46 How long, Lord ? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? 



PSALM LXXXIX. 435 

Shall thy wrath burn like fire ? 

47 Eemember how short my time is : 
Wherefore hast thou made all men m vain ? 

48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death ? 
Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? 

Selah. 

49 Lord, where are thy former lovingkindn esses, 
Which thou swarest unto David in thy truth ? 

50 Eemember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants ; 

How I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the 
mighty people ; 

51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, 0 Lord; 
Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine 

anointed. 

52 Blessed be the Lord for evermore. Amen, and Amen, 

In these verses we have, 

First. A very melancholy complaint of the present deplorable state of 
David's family, which the psalmist thinks hard to be reconciled to the cove- 
nant God made with David. Thou saidst thou wouldst not take away thy 
lovingkindness, "but thou hast cast off." Sometimes it is no easy thing to 
reconcile God's providences with his promises ; and yet we are sure they are 
reconcilable, for God's works fulfil his word ana never contradict it. 

1. David's house seemed to have lost its interest in God, which was the 

§reatest strength and beauty of it. God had been pleased with his anointed, 
ut now he was wroth with him, ver. 38; had entered into covenant with the 
family, but now for aught he could perceive he had made void the covenant, 
not broken some of the articles of it, but cancelled it, ver. 39. We misconstrue 
the rebukes of providence if we think they make void the covenant. When 
the great Anointed One, Christ himself, was upon the cross, God seemed to 
have cast him off, and was wroth with him; and yet did not make void his 
covenant with him, for that was established for ever. 

2. The honour of the house of David was lost and laid in the dust ; " thou 
hast profaned his crown," which was always looked upon as sacred, "by casting 
it to the ground," to be trampled on ; ver. 39, " Thou hast made his glory to 
cease," so uncertain is all earthly glory, and so soon doth it wither, and " thou 
hast cast his throne down to the ground," not only dethroned the king, but put 
a period to the kingdom, ver. 44. If it were penned in Rehoboam's time it was 
true, as to the greatest part of the kingdom, five parts of six; if in Zedekiah's 
time, it was more remarkably true of the poor remainder. Note, Thrones 
and crowns are tottering things, and are often laid in the dust; but there is 
a crown of glory, reserved for Christ's spiritual seed, which fadeth not away. 

3. It was exposed and made a prey to all the neighbours, who insulted over 
that ancient and honourable family ; ver. 40, " Thou hast broken down all his 
hedges," all those things that were a defence to them, and particularly that 
hedge of protection, which they thought God's covenant and promise had made 
about them, and thou " hast made even his strongholds a ruin," so that they 
were rather a reproach to them than any shelter. And then, ver. 41, " All that 
pass by the way spoil him." and make an easy prey of him : see Ps. lxxx. 12, 13. 
The enemies talk insolently ; " he is a reproach to his neighbours," who triumph 
in his fall from so great a degree of honour. Nay, every one helps forward the 
calamity ; ver. 42, " Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries," not 
only given them power, but inclined them to turn their power this way. If the 
enemies of the church lift up their hand against it, we must see God setting up 
their hand, for they could have no power unless it were given them from above. 
But when God doth permit them to do mischief to his church it pleaseth them ; 
"thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice," and this for thy glory, that those 
who hate thee should have the pleasure to see the tears and troubles of those 
that love thee. 

4. It was disabled to help itself; ver. 43, "Thou hast turned the edge of his 
sword," rebated it, and made it blunt, that it cannot do execution as it has 
done ; and, which is worse, thou hast turned the edge of his spirit, and taken 
off his courage, and "hast not made him to stand" as he used to do "in the 



436 



PSALM LXXXIX. 



battle." The spirit of men is what the Father and former of spirits makes 
them ; nor can we stand with any strength or resolution, farther than God 
is pleased to uphold us. If men's hearts fail them, it is God that dispirits 
them ; but it is sad with the church when those cannot stand that should stand 
up for it. 

5. It was upon the brink of an inglorious exit; ver. 45, "The days of his 
youth hast thou shortened,'* that is. it is ready to be cut off like a young man 
in the flower of his age. This should intimate that it was penned in Rehobam's 
time, when the house of David was but in the days of its youth, and yet waxed 
old, and began to decay already. And thus it was covered with shame, and 
it was turned very much to its reproach, that a family which in the first and 
second reign looked so great, and made such a figure, should in the third 
dwindle and look so little as the house of David did in Rehoboam's time. But 
it may be applied to the captivity in Babylon, which in comparison with what 
was expected, were but the days of the youth of that kingdom. However, the 
kings then had remarkably the days of their youth shortened, for it was in 
the days of their youth, when they were about thirty years old, that Jehoiachin 
and Zedekiah were carried captives to Babylon. 

From all this complaint let us learn, 1st. What work sin makes with 
families, noble royal families, with families in which religion has been upper- 
most ; when posterity degenerates, it falls into disgrace, and iniquity stains 
their glory. 2nd. How apt we are to place the promised honour and happiness 
of the church in something external, and to think the promise fails, and the 
covenant made void, if we be disappointed of that ; a mistake which we now 
are inexcusable if we fall into, since our Master hath so expressly told us that 
his kingdom is not of this world. 

Secondly. A very pathetical expostulation with God upon this. Four things 
they plead with God for mercy : 

1. The long continuance of the trouble; ver. 46, " How long, O Lord? wilt 
thou hide thyself for ever?" That which grieved them most was, that God 
hid himself as one displeased, did not appear to them by his prophets to com- 
fort them, did not appear for them by his providences to deliver them, and that 
he had kept them long in the dark; it seemed an eternal night when God was 
withdrawn ; thou hidest thyself for ever. Nay, God not only hid himself from 
them, but seemed to set himself against them ; " shall thy wrath burn like fire," 
that is, how long shall it burn ? shall it never be put out? What is hell, but the 
wrath of God burning for ever? And is that the lot of thine anointed? 

2. The shortness of life, and the certainty of death ; Lord, let thine anger 
cease, and return in mercy to us ; remembering how short my time is, and huw 
sure the period of my time. Lord, since my life is so transitory, and will ere 
long be at an end, let it not be always so miserable as that I should rather 
choose no being at all, than such a being. Job pleads thus, ch. x. 20, 21; and, 
probably the psalmist here urgeth it in the name of the house of David, and the 
present prince of that house, the days of whose youth were shortened, ver. 45. 

1st. He pleads the shortness and vanity of life; ver. 47, "Remember how 
short my time is ;" 'how transitory I am/ say some; therefore unable to bear 
the power of thy wrath, and therefore a proper object of thy pity. " Wherefore 
hast thou made all men in vain ?" Or, * unto what vanity hast thou created all 
the sons of Adam?' Now this may be understood either, First. As speaking 
a great truth. If the ancient lovingkindnesses spoken of ver. 49, be forgotten, 
(those relating to another life,) man is indeed made in vain. Considering man 
as mortal, it' there were not a future state on the other side of death, we might 
be ready to think man was made in vain, and was in vain endued with the 
noble powers and faculties of reason, and filled with such vast designs and 
desires ; but God would not make man in vain ; therefore, Lord, remember 
those lovingkindnesses. Or, Secondly. As speaking a strong temptation that 
the psalmist was in. It is certain God has not made all men, nor any man 
in vain, Isa. xlv. 18. For, 1st. If we think that God hath made men in vain, 
because so many have short lives, and long afflictions in this world ; it is true 
that God has made them so, but it is not true that therefore they are made in 
vain. For those whose days are few and full of trouble, yet may glorify God, 
and do some good ; may keep their communion with God, and get to heaven, 
and then they are not made in vain. 2nd. If we think that God has made men 
in vain because the most of men neither serve him, nor enjoy him, it is true 
that as to themselves they were made in vain ; better for them they had not 
been born than not to be born again. But it was not long of God that they 
were made in vain, it was long of themselves, nor are they made in vain as to 
him; for he has "made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of 
evil," and those whom he is not glorified by he will be gloritied upon. 

2nd. He pleads the universality- and unavoidableness of death; ver. 48, " What 
man," (what strong man, so the word is,) "is he that liveth, and shall not see 
death?" The king himself, of the house of David, is not exempted from the 
sentence, from the stroke. Lord, since he is under a fatal necessity of dying, 



PSALM XC. 437 

let not his whole life be made thus miserable. " Shall he deliver his soul from 
the hand of the grave ?" No, he shall not when his time is come. Let him not, 
therefore, be delivered into the hand of the grave by the miseries of a dying 
life, till his time is come. We must learn here, that death is the end of all men; 
our eyes must shortly be closed to see death ; there is no discharge from that 
war, nor will any bail be taken to save us from the prison of the grave. It 
concerns us, therefore, to make sure a happiness on the other side of deatli 
and the grave, that "when we fail, we may be received into everlasting habi- 
tations." 

3. The next plea is taken from the kindness God had for, and the covenant 
he made with, his servant David; ver. 49, "Lord, where are thy former loving- 
kindnesses," which thou shewedst, nay, "which thou swarest to David in thy 
truth." Wilt thou fail of doing what thou hast promised? Wilt thou undo 
what thou hast done? Art not thou still the same? Why then may not we 
have the benefit of the former sure mercies of David? God's unchangeableness 
and faithfulness assure us that God will not cast off those whom he hath 
chosen and covenanted with. 

4. The last plea is taken from the insolence of the enemies, and the indignity 
done to God's anointed: ver. 50, 51, "Remember, Lord, the reproach," and let 
it be rolled away from us, and returned upon our enemies. 1st. They were 
God's servants that were reproached ? and the abuses done to them reflected 
upon their Master, especially since it was for serving him that they were 
reproached. 2nd. The reproach cast upon God's servants was a very grievous 
burthen to all that were concerned for the honour of God. " I bear in my bosom 
the reproach of all, the mighty people," and am even overwhelmed with it; it 
is what I lay much to heart, and can scarce keep up my spirits under the weight 
of. 3rd. They are thine enemies who do thus reproach us, and wilt thou not 
appear against them as such? 4th. " They have reproached the footsteps of 
thine anointed." They rerlested upon all tne steps which the king had taken 
in the course of his administration, tracked him in all his motions, that they^ 
might make invidious remarks upon every thing he had said and done. Or ; if 
we may apply it to Christ, the Lord's Messiah, they reproached the Jews with 
his footsteps, the slowness of his coming. ' They have reproached the delays 
of the Messiah,' so Dr. Hammond. They called Mm, " He that should come ; " 
but because he was not yet come, because he did not now come to deliver them 
out of the hands of their enemies, when they had none to deliver them, they told 
them, He would never come, they must give over looking for him. The scoffers 
of the latter days do in like manner reproach the footsteps of the Messiah when 
they ask, " Where is the promise of his coming?" 2 Pet. hi. 3, 4. The reproach- 
ing of the footsteps of the Anointed, some refer to the serpent's bruising of the 
heel of the seed of the woman, or to the sufferings of Christ's followers, that 
tread in his footsteps, and are reproached for his name's sake. 

Lastly. The psalm concludes with praise, even after this sad complaint ; 
ver. 52, " Blessed be the Lord for evermore, Amen and Amen." Thus he con- 
fronts the reproaches of his enemies. The more others blaspheme God, the 
more we should bless him. Thus he corrects his own complaints, chiding himself 
for quarrelling with God's providences, and questioning his promises. Let both 
these sinful passions be silenced with the praises of God. However it be, yet 
God is good, and we will never think hardly of him; God is true, and we will 
never distrust him. Though the glory of David's house be stained and sullied, 
this shall be our comfort, — that God is blessed for ever, and his glory cannot 
be eclipsed. If we would have the comfort of the stability of God's promise, 
we must give him the praise of it ; in blessing God we encourage ourselves. 
Here is a double Amen, according to the double signification. Amen, — 'so it is,' 
God is blessed for ever ; Amen, — ' be it so,' let God be blessed for ever. He 
began the psalm with thanksgiving, before he made his complaint, ver. 1 ; and 
now he concludes it with a doxology. They that give God thanks for what he 
has done, may give him thanks also for what he will do. God will follow those 
with his mercies that in a right manner follow him with their praises. 



PSALM XC. 

The foregoing psalm was supposed to be penned as late as the captivity in Babylon ; 
this, it is plain, was penned as early as the deliverance out of Egypt, and yet they are 
put close together in this collection of Divine songs. This psalm was penned by 
Moses, as appears by the title, the most ancient penman of Sacred Writ ; we have 
upon record a praising song of his, Ex. xv., which is alluded to, Rev. xv. 3 ; and an 
instructing song of his, Deu. xxxii. But this is of a different nature from both, for 
it is called a prayer, it is supposed that this psalm was penned upon occasion of the 
sentence passed upon Israel in the wilderness for their unbelief, murmuring, and 
rebellion, that their carcases should fall in the wilderness, that they should be wasted 
away by a series of miseries for thirty-eight years together, and none of them that 



438 



PSALM XC. 



were then of age should enter Canaan. This was calculated for their wanderings in 
the wilderness, as that other song of Moses, Deu. xxxi. 19, 21, was for their settle- 
ment in Canaan. We have the story to which this psalm seems to refer, Num. xiv. 
Probably Moses penned this prayer to be daily used, either by the people in their 
tents, or at least by the priests in the tabernacle service during that tedious fatigue 
of theirs in the wilderness. In it, I. Moses comforts himself and his people with the 
eternity of God, and their interest in him however, ver. 1, 2. II. He humbles himself 
and his people with the consideration of the frailty of man, ver. 3 — 6. III. He sub- 
mits himself and his people to the righteous sentence of God passed upon them, 
ver. 7 — 11. IV. He commits himself and his people to God by prayer for Divine 
mercy and grace, and the return of God's favour, ver. 12 — 17. Though it seems to 
have been penned upon this particular occasion, yet it is very applicable to the frailty 
of human life in general ; and in singing of it we may easily apply it to the years of 
our passage through the wilderness of this world, and it furnisheth us with meditations 
and prayers very suitable to the solemnity of a funeral. 

A Prayer of Moses the man of God. 

LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, 
Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, 
Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 

3 Thou turnest man to destruction ; 
And sayest, Return, ye children of men. 

4 For a thousand years in thy sight 
Are but as yesterday when it is past, 
And as a watch in the night. 

5 Thou earnest them away as with a flood ; 
They are as a sleep : 

In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 

6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up ; 
In the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 

This psalm is entitled " a prayer of Moses." Where, and in what volume, it 
was preserved from Moses' time till the collection of psalms begun to be made 
is uncertain ; but, being Divinely inspired, it was under a special protection. 
Perhaps it was written in the book of Jasher, or the book of the wars of the 
Lord. Moses taught the people of Israel to pray, and put words into their 
mouths which they might make use of in turning to the Lord. Moses is here 
called the man of God, because he was a prophet, the father of the prophets, 
and an eminent type of the great Prophet. In these verses we are taught, 

first. To give God the praise of his care concerning his people at ail times ; 
and concerning us in our days ; ver. 1, " Lord, thou hast been to us a habitation, 
or dwelling-place." a refuge or help, "in all generations." ISow they were fallen 
under God's displeasure, and he threatened to abandon them, they plead his 
former kindness to their ancestors. Canaan was a land of pilgrimage to their 
fathers the patriarchs, who dwelt there in tabernacles; but then God was their 
habitation, and wherever they went they were at home, at rest in him. Egypt 
had been a land of bondage to them tor many years; but even then God was 
their refuge, and in him that poor oppressed people lived, and were kept in 
being. Note, True believers are at home in God. and that is their comfort 
in reference to all the toils and tosses they meet with in this world. In Him we 
may repose and shelter ourselves as in our dwelling-place. 

Secondly. To give God the glory of his eternity ; ver. 2, M Before the moun- 
tains were brought forth, before he made the highest part of the dust of the 
world," as it is expressed, Pr. viii. 26, ki before the earth fell in travail," or as 
we may read it, 4t before thou hadst formed the earth and the world : " that is, 
before the beginning of time thou hadst a being, even "from everlasting to ever- 
lasting thou art God." An eternal God, whose existence hath neither its com- 
mencement nor its period with time, nor is measured by the successions and 
revolutions of it, but who art the same yesterday, to day, and for ever, without 
beginning of days, or end of life, or change of time. Note, Against ail the 
grievances that arise from our own mortality, and the mortality of our friends, 
we may take comfort from God's immortality ; we a,re dying creatures, and all 



PSALM XC. 439 

our comforts in the world are dying comforts. But God is an ever-living God; 
and they shall find him so that have him for theirs. 

Thirdly. To own God's absolute sovereign dominion over man, and his irre- 
sistible incontestable power to dispose ot him as he pleaseth ; ver. 3, " Thou 
turnest man to destruction," with a word's speaking, when thou pleasest, to the 
destruction of the body, of the earthly house, " and thou sayest, Return, ye 
children of men." L. When God is, by sickness or other afflictions, turning 
men to destruction, he doth thereby call men to return unto him, that is, to 
repent of their sins, and live a new life. This God speaketh once, yea twice, 
"Return unto me, from whom ye have revolted," Jer. iv. J. 2. When God is 
threatening to turn men to destruction, to bring them to death, and they have 
received a sentence of death within themselves, sometimes he wonderfully 
recovers them, and saith, or as the old translation reads it, ' Again thou sayest, 
Return,' to life and health again. For God kills, and makes alive again, brings 
down to the grave, and brings up. 3. When God turns men to destruction, it 
is according to the general sentence passed upon all, which is this, " Return, ye 
children of men," one as well as another ; Keturn to your first principles, let 
the body return to the earth as it was, (" Dust to dust,"' Gen. hi. 19,] and let 4i the 
soul return to God who gave it," EccL xii. 7. 4. Though God turns ail men 
to destruction, yet he will again say, "Return, ye children of men" namely, 
at the general resurrection, when " though a man dies, yet he shall live again; 
and then shalt thou call, and I will answer," Job xiv. 14, 15; thou shalt bid 
me return, and I shall return. The body, the soul, shall both return, and unite 
again. 

fourthly. To acknowledge the infinite disproportion there is between God 
and men, ver. 4. The patriarchs, some of them, lived near a thousand years; 
Moses knew it very well, and had recorded it. But what is their long life to 
God's eternal life? "A thousand years" to us is a great deal, it is what we 
cannot expect to come near to, or if we could, it is what we could not retain the 
remembrance of. But it is "in thy sight as yesterday," as one day, as that which 
is freshest in mind; nay, it is but "'as a watch ot the night," which was but 
three hours. 1. A thousand years are nothing to God's eternity, they are less 
than a day, than an hour, to a thousand years. Betwixt a minute and a million 
of years there is some proportion ; but betwixt time and eternity tiiere is none. 
The long lives of the patriarchs were nothing to God, not so much as the life 
of a child, that is born and dies the same day, is to theirs. 2. All the events 
of a thousand years, whether past or to come, are as present to the Eternal 
Mind as what was done yesterday, or the last hour, is to us, and more so. God 
will say at the great day, to those whom he has turned to destruction, Return, 
arise, ye dead. But it might be objected against the doctrine of the resurrection, 
that it is a long time since it was expected, and it is not yet come. Let that 
be no difficulty, for a thousand years in God's sight are but as one day. Nullum 
tempus occurri regi,— To the king all periods are alike.' To this purpose these 
words are quoted 2 Pet. iii. 8. 

Fifthly. To see the frailty of men, and his vanity, even at his best estate, 
ver. 5, 6. Look upon ail the children of men, and we shall see, 1. That their 
life is a dying life. " Thou carriest them away as with a flood ; " that is, they 
are continually gliding down the stream of time into the ocean of eternity. The 
flood is continually flowing, and they are carried away with it. As soon as we 
are born we begin to die, and every day of our life carries us so much nearer 
death. Or, we are carried away violently and irresistibly as with a flood of 
waters, as with an inundation which sweeps away all before it. Or, as the old 
world was carried away with Noah's flood. Though God promised, not so to 
drown the world again, yet death is a constant deluge. 2. That it is a dreaming 
life. Men are carried away as with a flood, and yet "they are as a sleep ;" they 
consider not their own frailty, nor are aware how near they approach to an 
awful eternity. Like men asleep, they imagine great things to themselves, till 
death wakes them, and puts an end to the pleasing dream. Time passeth 
unobserved by us, as it doth with men asleep; and when it is over it is as 
nothing. 3. That it is a short and transient life, like that of the grass which grows 
up and flourisheth ; in the morning looks green and pleasant, but in the evening 
the mowers cut it down, and it withers presently; changes its colour, and loses 
all its beauty. Death will change us shortly^ perhaps suddenly ; and it is a great 
change that death will make with us in a little time. Man, in his prime, doth 
but flourish as the grass, which is weak, and low, and tender, and exposed; and 
which, when the winter of old age comes, will wither of itself. But it may be 
mown down by disease or disaster, as the grass is in the midst of summer. 
" All flesh is as grass." 

7 For we are consumed by thine anger, 
And by thy wrath are we troubled. 



440 



PSALM XC. 



8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee. 

Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. 

9 For all our clays are passed away in thy wrath : 
We spend our years as a tale that is told. 

10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; 
And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, 
Yet is their strength labour and sorrow ; 

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 

11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger ? 
Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. 

Moses had, in the foregoing verses, lamented the frailty of human life in 
general; the children of men are as a sleep, and as the grass. But here he 
teacheth the people of Israel to confess before God that righteous sentence of 
death which they were under in a special manner, and which by their sins they 
had brought upon themselves. Their share in the common lot of mortality was 
not enough, but they are, and must live and die, under peculiar tokens of God's 
displeasure. Here they speak of^ themselves : We Israelites are consumed and 
troubled, and our days are passed away. 

First. They are here taught to acknowledge the wrath of God to be the cause 
of all their miseries. We are consumed, we are troubled, and it is by thine anger, 
by thy wrath, ver. 7; "our days are passed away in thy wrath," ver. 9. The 
afflictions of the saints often come purely from God's love, as Jobs; but the 
rebukes of sinners and of good men for their sins, must be seen coming from the 
anger of God, who takes notice of, and is much displeased with, the sins of 
Israel. We are too apt to look upon death as no more but a debt owing to 
nature ; whereas it is not so : if the nature of man had continued in its primitive 
purity and rectitude, there nad been no such debt owing to it : it is a debt to 
the justice of God, a debt to the law. Sin entered into the world, and death 
by sin. Are we consumed by decays of nature, the infirmities of age, or any 
chronical disease ? We must ascribe it to God's anger. Are we troubled by 
any sudden, surprising stroke? That also is the fruit of God's wrath, which 
is thus revealed from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of 
men. 

Secondly. They are taught to confess their sins, which had provoked the 
wrath of God against them; ver. 8, "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,^ 
even "our secret sins." It was not without cause that God was angry with 
them; he had said, "Provoke me not, and I will do you no hurt;" but they 
had provoked him, and will own that in passing this severe sentence upon them 
he justly punished them. 1. For their open contempts of him, and the daring 
affronts they had given him. " Thou hast set our iniquities before thee." God 
had herein an eye to their unbelief and murmuring, their distrusting his power, 
and their despising the pleasant land. These he set before him, when he 
passed that sentence on them. These kindled the fire of God's wrath against 
them, and kept good things from them. 2. For their more close departures 
from him : " Thou hast set our secret sins," those that go no farther than the 
heart, and which are at the bottom of all the overt acts, thou hast set these "in 
the light of thy countenance ;" that is, thou hast discovered these, and brought 
these also to the account, and made us to see them, who before overlooked 
them. Secret sins are known to God, and shall be reckoned for. Those that in 
heart return into Egypt, that set up idols in their heart, shall be dealt with as 
revolters or idolaters. See the folly of those that go about to cover their sins, 
for they cannot cover them. 

Thirdly. They are taught to look upon themselves as dying and passing away, 
and not to think either of a long life, or of a pleasant one ; for the decree gone 
forth against them was irreversible; ver. 9. "All our days are" like to be 
"passed away in thy wrath,'" that is, under the tokens of thy displeasure; and 
though we are not quite deprived of the residue of our years, yet we are likely 
to "spend them as a tale that is told." The thirty-eight years which after this 
they wore away in the wilderness, were not the subject of the sacred history, 
for little or nothing is recorded of that which happened to them from the second 
year to the fortieth after they came out of Egypt. Their time was perfectly 
trifled away, and was not worthy to be the subject of a history, but only of "a 
tale that is told;" for it was only to pass away time like telling stories, that they 
spent those years in the wilderness, all that while they were in the consuming, 
and another generation was in the raising. When they came out of Egypt 



PSALM XC. 441 

"there was not one feeble person among their tribes," Ps. cv. 37; but now they 
were all feeble. Their joyful prospect of a prosperous glorious life in Canaan, 
was turned into the melancholy prospect of a tedious inglorious death in the 
wilderness, so that their whole life was now as impertinent a thing as ever any 
winter tale was. This is applicable to the state of every one of us in the wilder- 
ness of this world; "we spend our years," we bring them to an end each year, 
and all at last, "as a tale that is told." As the breath of our mouth in winter, 
(so some) which soon disappears. As a thought, (so some) than which nothing 
more quick ; as a word which is soon spoken, and then vanisheth into air. Or, 
" as a tale that is told." The spending of our years is like the telling of a tale. 
A year when it is passed is like a tale when it is told. _ Some of our years are 
as a pleasant story, others as a tragical one; most mixed, but all short and 
transient; that which was long in the doing, may be told in a short time. Our 
years, when they are gone, can no more be recalled than the word that we have 
spoken can. The loss and waste of our time, which is our fault and folly, may 
be thus complained of. We should spend our years like the despatch of business, 
with care and industry; but, alas! we do spend them like the telling of a 
tale, — idly, and to little purpose, — mindlessly, and without regard. Every year 
passed " as a tale that is told;" but what was the number of them? As they 
were vain, so they were few ; ver. 10, seventy or eighty at most, which may be 
understood either, 

1. Of the lives of the Israelites in the wilderness. All those that were num- 
bered when they came out of Egypt, above twenty years old, were to die 
within thirty-eight years ; they numbered those only that were able to go forth 
to war, most of whom we may suppose were between twenty and forty, who 
therefore must all die before eighty years old, and many before sixty ; and per- 
haps much sooner, which was far short of the years of the lives of their fathers ; 
and those that lived to seventy or eighty, yet being under a sentence of con- 
sumption and a melancholy despair of ever seeing through this wilderness-state, 
their strength, their life, was nothing but labour and sorrow, which otherwise 
would have been made a new life by the joys of Canaan. See what work sin 
made. Or, 

2. Of the lives of men in general, ever since the days of Moses. Before Moses, 
it was ordinary for men to live about one hundred years, or near one hundred 
and fifty ; but since, seventy or eighty is the common stint, which few exceed 
and multitudes never come near. We reckon those to have lived to the age of 
man, and to have had as lar^e a share of life as they had reason to expect, who 
kve to be seventy years old ; and how short a time is that compared with 
eternity ! Moses was the first that committed Divine revelation to writing, 
which before had been transmitted by tradition. Now also both the world and 
the church were pretty well peopled ; and therefore there w r ere not now the 
same reasons for men's living long that there had been. If by reason of a strong 
constitution some reach to eighty years, yet their strength then is what they 
have little joy of, it doth but serve to prolong their misery, and make their 
death the more tedious, for even " their strength then is labour and sorrow," 
much more their weakness ; for the years are come which they have no pleasure 
in, Or, it may be taken thus : ' Our years are seventy, and the years of some, 
by reason of strength are eighty, but the breadth of our years,' (for so the latter 
word signifies rather than strength,) the whole extent of them from infancy to 
old age, 'is but labour and sorrow.' In the sweat of our face we must eat bread, 
our whole life is toilsome and troublesome ; and perhaps in the midst of the 
years we count upon 4 'it is soon cut off, and we fly away," and do not live out 
naif our days. 

Fourthly. They are taught by all this to stand in awe of the wrath of God; 
ver. 11, " Who knows the power of thine anger ?" 1. None can perfectly com- 
prehend it. The psalmist speaks as one afraid of God's anger, and amazed at 
the greatness of the power of it; who knows how far the power of God's anger 
can reach, and how deep it can wound ? The angels that sinned, know experi- 
mentally the power of God's anger ; damned sinners in hell know it ; but 
which of us can fully comprehend or describe it ? 2. Few do seriously consider 
it as they ought. Who knows it so as to improve the knowledge of it? Those 
that make a mock at sin, and make light of Christ, surely do not know the power 
of God's anger. For " according to thy fear, so is thy wrath," that is, God's 
wrath is equal to the apprehensions which the most thoughtful serious people 
have of it. Let men have never so great a dread upon them of the wrath of 
God, it is not greater than there is cause for, and than the nature of the thing 
deserves. God has not in his word represented his wrath more terrible than 
really it is : nay, what is felt in the other world, is infinitely worse than what is 
feared in tnis world. " Who among us can dwell with that devouring fire?" 

12 So teach us to number our days, 

That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 



442 



PSALM XC. 



13 Return, 0 Lord, how long ? 

And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. 

14 0 satisfy us early with thy mercy ; 

That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 

15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast 

afflicted us, 
And the years wherein we have seen evil. 

1 6 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, 
And thy glory unto their children. 

17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: 
And establish thou the work of our hands upon us ; 
Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. 

These are the petitions of this prayer, grounded upon the furegoing medita- 
tions and acknowledgments. Is any afflicted? let him learn thus to pray. Four 
things they are here directed to pray for : 

First. For a sanctified use of the sad dispensation they were now under. 
Being condemned to have our days shortened, " Lord, teach us to number our 
days/' ver. 12 ; that is, Lord, give us grace duly to consider how few they are, 
and how little a while we have to live in this world. Note, 1. It is an excellent 
art rightly to number our days ; so as not to be out in our calculation, as he 
was who counted upon many years to come, when that night his soul was 
required of him. We must live under a constant apprehension of the shortness 
and uncertainty of life, and the near approach of death and eternity. We must 
so number our days as to compare our w r ork with them, and mind it accordingly 
with a double diligence, as those that have no time to trifle. 2. Those that 
would learn this Divine arithmetic must pray for Divine instruction, must go 
to God, and beg of him to teach them by his Spirit, to put them upon consider- 
ing and to give them a good understanding. 3. We then number our days to 
good purpose, when thereby our hearts are inclined and engaged to true wis- 
dom, that is, to the practice of serious godliness. To be religious is to be wise ; 
this is a thing to which it is necessary that we apply our hearts, and the matter 
requires and deserves a close application, to which frequent thoughts of the 
uncertainty of our continuance here, and the certainty of our removal hence, 
will very much contribute. 

Secondly. For the turning away of God's anger from them. That though the 
decree was gone forth, and was passed revocation, there was no remedy but they 
must die in the wilderness, yet " Return, O Lord," be thou reconciled to us, " and 
let it repent thee concerning thy servants," ver. 13; send us tidings of peace 
to comfort us again after these heavy tidings. How long must we look upon 
ourselves as under thy wrath; and when shall we have some token given us of 
our restoration to thy favour ? We are thy servants, thy people, isa. lxiv. 9. 
When wilt thou change thy way towards us? In answer to this prayer, and 
upon their profession of repentance, (Num. xiv. 39, 40,) God in the next chapter 
proceeded with the laws concerning sacrifices, Num. xv. 1, &c, which was a 
token that it repented him concerning his servants, for if the Lord had been 
pleased to kill them, he would not have shewed them such things as these. 

Thirdly. For comfort and joy in the returns of God's favour to them, ver. 14, 15. 
They pray for the mercy of God, for they pretend not to plead any merit of 
their own ; " Have mercy upon us, O God," is a prayer we are all concerned to 
say Amen to. Let us pray for early mercy, the seasonable communications of 
Divine mercy. That God's tender mercies may speedily prevent us, early in 
the morning of our days, when we are young and flourishing, ver. 6. Let us 
pray for that true satisfaction and happiness, which is to be had only in the 
favour and mercy of God, Ps. iv. 6, 7. A gracious soul, if it may but be satisfied 
of God's lovingkindness, will be satisfied with it, abundantly satisfied; will 
take up with that, and will take up with nothing short of it. Two things 
are pleaded to enforce this petition for God's mercy: I. That it would be a 
full fountain of future joys ; " O satisfy us with thy mercy," not only that we 
may be easy and at rest within ourselves, which we can never be while we 
lie under thy wrath ; but, " that we may rejoice and be glad," not only for 
a time upon the first indications of thy favour, but " all our days," though 
we are to spend them in the wilderness. Those that make God their chief 
joy, as their joy may be full, 1 Jno. i. 4 — so it may be constant, even in this 
vale of tears. It is their own fault if they are not glad all their days, for his 
mercy will furnish them with joy in tribulation, and nothing can separate them 



PSALM XCI. 443 

from it. 2. That it would be a sufficient balance to their former griefs ; " Make 
us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us." Let the days of 
our joy in thy favour be as many as the days of our pain for thy displeasure have 
been, and as pleasant as those have been gloomy. Lord, thou usest to set the 
one over against the other, Eccl. vii. 14 ; do so in our case. Let it suffice that 
we have drunk so long of the cup of trembling, now put into our hand? the cup 
of salvation. God's people reckon the returns of God's lovingkmdness a 
sufficient recompence for ail their troubles. 

Fourthly. For the progress of the work of God among them notwithstand- 
ing, ver. 16, 17. 1. That he would manifest himself in carrying it on. "Let 
thy work appear upon thy servants," let it appear that thou hast wrought 
upon us, to bring us home to thyself, and to fit us for thyself. m God's servants 
cannot work for him unless he work upon them, and work in them both to 
will and to do ; and then we may hope the operations of God's providence 
will be apparent for us, when the operations of his grace are apparent upon 
us. " Let thy work appear," and in it thy glory will appear to us, and those 
that shall come after us. In praying for God's grace, God's glory must be 
our end ; and we must therein have an eye to our children as well as to our - 
selves, that they also may experience God's glory appearing upon them, so 
as to change them into the same image, from glory to glory. Perhaps in this 
prayer they distinguish between themselves and their children, for so God 
distinguished in his late message to them; Num. xiv. 31, "Your carcases shall 
fall in this wilderness, but your little ones will I bring into Canaan." Lord, say 
they, let thy work appear upon us to reform us and bring us to a better temper, 
and then let thy glory appear to our children, in performing the promise to 
them which we have forfeited the benefit of. 2. That he would countenance 
and strengthen them in carrying it on. in doing their part towards it. 1st. 
That he would smile upon them in it. Let the beauty of the Lord our God 
be upon us," that is, let it appear that God favours us. Let us have God's 
ordinances kept up among us, and the tokens of God's presence with his ordi- 
nance ; so some. We may apply this petition both to our sanctification, and to 
our consolation. Holiness is the beauty of the Lord our God, let that be upon 
us in all we say and do ; let the grace of God in us make our faces to shine, and 
the light of our good works, (that is the comeliness God puts upon us, and those 
are comely indeed who are so beautified ;) and then let Divine consolations put 
gladness into our hearts, and a lustre upon our countenances, and that also 
will be the beauty of the Lord upon us as our God. 2nd. That he would suc- 
ceed them in it, " establish thou the work of our hands upon us." God's work- 
ing upon us ? (ver. 16,) doth not discharge us from using our utmost endeavours 
in serving him, and working out our salvation. But when we have done all, we 
must wait upon God for the success, and beg of him to prosper our handy 
works, to give us to compass that we aim at for his glory. We are so unworthy 
of Divine assistance, and yet so utterly insufficient to bring any thing to pass 
without it, that we have need to be earnest for it, and to repeat the request ; 
" Yea ? the work of our hands establish thou it," and in order to that establish 
us in it. 

PSALM XCI. 

Some of the ancients were of opinion that Moses was the penman, not only of the 
foregoing Psalm, which is expressly said to be his, but also of the eight that next follow 
it; but that cannot be, for Ps. xcv. is expressly said to be penned by David, and long 
after Moses, Heb. iv. 7. And it is probable this Psalm also was penned by David : it is 
a writ of protection for all true believers, not in the name of king David, or under his 
broad-seal ; he needed it himself, especially if the psalm was penned, as some conjecture 
it was, at the time of the pestilence which was sent for his numbering the people; but 
in the name of the King of kings, and under the broad-seal of Heaven. Observe, I. 
The psalmist's own resolution to take God for his keeper, ver. 2, from which he gives 
both direction and encouragement to others, ver. 9. II. The promises which are here 
made in God's name to all those that do so in sincerity : 1. They shall be taken under 
the peculiar care of Heaven, ver. 1, 4. 2. They shall be delivered from the malice of 
the powers of darkness, ver. 3, 5, 6, and that by a distinguishing preservation, ver. 7, 8. 
3. They shall be the charge of the holy angels, ver. 10, 11. 4. They shall triumph over 
their enemies, ver. 13. 5. They shall be the special favourites of God himself, ver. 14—16. 
In singing this, we must shelter ourselves under, and then solace ourselves in, the 
Divine protection. Many think that to Christ, as Mediator, these promises do 
primarily belong, Isa. xlix. 2, not because to him the devil applied one of these 
promises, Mat. iv. 6, but because to him they are very applicable, and, coming through 
him, they are more sweet and sure to all believers. 

HE that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High 
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 



444 



PSALM XCI. 



2 I will say of the Lord, 

He is my refuge and my fortress : 
My God ; in him will I trust. 

3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, 
And from the noisome pestilence. 

4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings 

shalt thou trust : 
His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. 

5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night ; 
Nor for the arrow that flieth by day ; 

6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness ; 
Nor for the destruction that waste th at noonday. 

7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy 
But it shall not come nigh thee. [right hand; 

8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold 
And see the reward of the wicked. 

In these verses we have, 

First. A great truth laid down in general, that all those who live a life of 
communion with God are constantly safe under his protection, and may, there- 
fore, preserve a holy serenity and security of mind at all times; ver. 1, "He that 
dwells," that sits down "in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under 
the shadow of the Almighty ;" that is, he that by faith chooseth God for his 
guardian, shall find all that in him which he needs or can desire. Note, 1. It 
is the character of a true believer that "he dwells in the secret place of 
the Most High," that is, he is at home in God, returns to God, and reposeth in 
him as his rest; he acquaints himself with inside religion, and makes heart- 
work of the service of God ; worships him within the veil, and loves to be alone 
with God, to converse with him in solitude. 2. It is the privilege and comfort 
of those that do so, that they "abide under the shadow of the Almighty," that 
is, he shelters them and comes between them and every thing that would annoy 
them, whether storm or sunshine. They shall not only have an admittance, 
but a residence under God's protection; he will be their rest and refuge 
for ever. 

Secondly. The psalmist's comfortable application of this to himself ; ver. 2, 
"I will say of the Lord," whatever others say of him, "He is my refuge;" I 
choose him so, and confide in him. Others make idols their refuge, but I will 
say of Jehovah, the true and living God, he is my refuge: any other is a refuge 
of lies. And he is a refuge that will not fail me, for he is my fortress and 
stronghold. Idolaters called their idols Mahuzzim, their most stronghold, 
Dan. xi. 19, but therein they deceived themselves ; those only secure themselves 
that make the Lord their God, their fortress. And, having no reason to question 
his sufficiency, fitly doth it follow, "In him will I trust." If Jehovah be our 
God, our refuge, and our fortress, what can we desire which we may not be 
sure to find in him? He is neither fickle, nor false, nor weak, nor mortal; he 
is God, and not man, and therefore there is no danger of being disappointed in 
him. We know whom we have trusted. 

Thirdly. The great encouragement he gives to others to do likewise ; not 
only from his own experience of the comfort of it (for in that it was possible 
there might be a fallacy,) but from the truth of God's promise, in which there 
neither is nor can be any deceit, ver. 3, &c, " Surely lie shall deliver thee." 
Those who have themselves found the comfort of making God their refuge, 
cannot but desire that others may do so too. Now here it is promised, 

1. That believers shall be kept from those mischiefs which they are in immi- 
nent danger of, and which would be fatal to them ; ver. 3, " From the snare of 
the fowler," which is laid unseen, and catches the unwary prey on a sudden; 
"and from the noisome pestilence," which seizeth men unawares, and against 
which there is no guard. This promise protects, 1st. The natural life, and is 
often fulfilled in our preservation from those dangers which are very threat- 
ening and very near, and yet we ourselves are not apprehensive of them, no 
more than the bird is of " the snare of the fowler." We owe it, more than we 
are sensible, to the care of the Divine providence that we have been kept from 



PSALM XCI. 



445 



infectious diseases, and out of the hands of the wicked and unreasonable. 2nd. 
The spiritual life, which is protected by Divine grace from the temptations of 
Satan, which are as the snares of the fowler, and from the contagion of sin, 
which is the noisome pestilence. He that has given grace to be the glory of the 
soul will create a defence upon all that glory. 

2. That God himself will be their protector; they must needs be safe that 
have him for their keeper, and in a good bottom for whom he undertakes ; 
ver. 4, " He shall cover thee," shall keep thee secret, Ps. xxxi. 20, and so keep 
thee safe, Ps. xxvii. 5. God protects believers, 1st. With the greatest tenderness 
and affection, which is intimated in that, " He shall cover thee with his feathers, 
under his wings," which alludes to the hen gathering her chickens under her 
wings, Mat. xxiii. 37. By natural instinct she not only protects them, but calls 
them under that protection, when she sees them in danger; not only keeps 
them safe, but cherisheth them and keeps them warm. To this the great God 
is pleased to compare his care of his people, which are helpless as the chickens, 
and easily made a prey of, but are invited to trust under the wings of the 
Divine promise and providence, which is the periphrasis of a proselyte to the 
true religion, that 'he is come to trust under the wings of the God of Israel, 
ifa.ii. 12. 2nd. With the greatest power and efficacy ; wings and feathers, though 
spread with the greatest tenderness, yet are weak and easily broken through, 
and therefore it is added, "His truth shall be thy shield and buckler," a strong 
defence. God is as willing to guard his people as the hen is to guard the 
chickens, and as able as a man of war in armour. 

3. That he will not only keep them from evil, but from the fear of evil, ver. 5, 6. 
Here is, 1st. Great danger supposed; the mention of it is enough to frighten 
us ; night and day we lie exposed, and those that are disposed to be timorous will 
not think themselves safe either night or day. When we are retired into our 
chambers, our beds, and made all as safe as we can about us, yet there is terror 
by night, from thieves and robbers, winds and storms, besides those things that 
are the creatures of fancy and imagination, which are often most frightful of 
all ; we read of fear in the night, Cant. iii. 8. There is also a pestilence that 
walketh in darkness, as that was which slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, 
and the army of the Assyrians; no locks or bars can shut out diseases, while 
we carry about with us in our own bodies the seeds of them. But sure, in the 
daytime, when we can 190k about us, we are not so much in danger. Yes, 
there is an arrow 7 that flieth by day too. and yet flies unseen ; there is a de- 
struction that wasteth at high noon, when we are awake, and have all our 
friends about us ; even then we cannot secure ourselves, nor can they secure 
us. It was in the daytime that that pestilence wasted which was sent to 
chastise David for numbering the people, on occasion of which some think this 
psalm was penned. But 2nd. Here is great security promised to believers in 
the midst of this danger: " Thou shalt not be afraid," that is, God, by his grace 
will keep thee from disquieting distrustful fear, that fear which hath torment, 
in the midst of the greatest dangers. Wisdom shall keep thee from being 
causelessly afraid, and faith shall keep thee from being inordinately afraid. 
Thou shalt not be afraid of the arrow, as knowing that though it may hit thee, 
it cannot hurt thee: if it take away trie naturallife, yet it shall be so far from 
doing any prejudice to the spiritual life, that it shall be its perfection. A 
believer needs not fear, and therefore should not fear, any arrow, because the 
point is off, the poison is out, " O death, where is thy sting?" and because it 
is under Divine direction, and will hit where God appoints, and not otherwise. 
Every bullet has its commission. Whatever is done, our heavenly Father's 
will is done, and we have no reason to be afraid of that. 

4. That they shall be preserved in common calamities in a distinguishing way, 
ver. 6. When death rides in triumph, and diseases rage, so that thousands and 
ten thousands fall, fall by sickness, or fall by the sword in battle, fall at thy 
side, at thy right hand, and the sight of their fall is enough to frighten thee ; 
and if they fall by the pestilence, their falling so near thee may be likely to 
infect thee ; yet " it shall not come nigh thee," the death shall not, the fear of 
death shall not. Those that preserve their purity in times of general corrup- 
tion, may trust God with their safety in times of general desolation. When 
multitudes die round about us, though thereby we must be awakened to pre- 
pare for our own death, yet we must not be afraid with any amazement, nor 
make ourselves subject to bondage, as many do all their lifetime through fear 
of death, Heb. ii. 15. The sprinkling of blood secured the firstborn of Israel, 
when thousands fell. Nay, it is promised to God's people that they shall have 
the satisfaction of seeing, not only God's promises fulfilled to them, but his 
threatenings fulfilled upon those that hate them; ver. 8, " Only with thine eyes 
shalt thou behold and see the just reward of the wicked," which perhaps refers 
to the destruction of the firstborn of Egypt by the pestilence, w 7 hich was both 
the punishment of the oppressors and the enlargement of the oppressed; this 
Israel saw when they saw themselves unhurt, untouched. As it will aggra- 
vate the damnation of sinners, that with their eyes they shall behold and see the 



446 



PSALM XCL 



reward of the righteous, Lu. xiii. 28, so it will magnify the salvation of the 
saints, that with their eyes they shall behold and see the destruction of the 
wicked, Isa. lxvi. 24; Ps. lviii. 10. 

9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, 
Even the most High, thy habitation ; 

1 0 There shall no evil befall thee, 

Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. 

1 1 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, 
To keep thee in all thy ways. 

12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, 
Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. 

13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder : 

The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under 

14 Because he hath set his love upon me, [feet. 
Therefore will I deliver him : 

I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. 

1 5 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him : 
I will be with him in trouble ; 

I will deliver him, and honour him. 

1 6 With long life will I satisfy him, 
And shew him my salvation. 

Here are more promises to the same purpose with those in the foregoing 
verses, and they are exceeding great and precious, and sure to all the seed. 

First. The psalmist assures believers of Divine protection from his own 
experience, and that which he saith is the word of God, and what we may 
rely upon. 

Observe, 1. The character of those that shall have the benefit and comfort of 
these promises, it is much the same with that, ver. 1. They are such as make 
the Most High their habitation, ver. 9, that are continually with God, and rest 
in him ; that make his name both their temple and their strong tower ; that 
dwell in love, and so dwell in God. It is our duty to be at home in God; to 
make our choice of him, and then to live our life in him as our habitation; to 
converse with him and delight jn him, and depend upon him; and then it shall 
be our privilege to be at home in God ; that is, we shall be welcome to him, as 
a man to his own habitation, without any let, hindrance, or molestation from 
the arrests of the law or the clamours of conscience ; and then we shall be safe 
in him, shall be kept in perfect peace, Isa. xxvi. 3. To encourage us to make 
the Lord our habitation, and to hope for safety and satisfaction in him, the 
psalmist intimates the comfort he had had in doing so ; he whom thou makest 
thy habitation is my refuge, and I have found him firm and faithful, and in 
him there is room enough and shelter enough both for thee and me. "In my 
Father's house there are many mansions," one needs not crowd another, much 
less crowd out another. 

2. The promises that are sure to all those who have thus made the Most High 
their habitation. 

1st. That, whatever happens to them, nothing shall hurt them ; ver. 10, 
" There shall no evil befall thee." Though trouble and affliction befall thee, 
yet there shall be no real evil in it, for it shall come from the love of God, and 
shall be sanctified ; it shall not come for thy hurt, but for thy good; and though 
for the present it be not joyous, but grievous, yet in the end it shall yield so 
well, that thou thyself shalt own no evil befell thee. It is not an evil, an only 
evil, but there is a mixture of good in it, and a product of good by it. Nay, not 
thy person only, but thy dwelling shall be taken under the Divine protection; 
there shall no plague come nigh that: nothing to do thee or thine any damage. 
Nihil accidere bono vivo mali potest — No evil can befall a good man.' — Senec. 
de Provid. 

2nd. That the angels of light shall be serviceable to them, ver. 11, 12. This is 
a precious promise, and speaks a great deal both of honour and comfort to the 
saints ; and it is never the worse for its being quoted and abused by the devil 



PSALM XCI. 



447 



in tempting Christ, Mat. iv. 6. Observe, First. The charge given to the angeis 
concerning the saints. He who is the Lord of the angeis, who gave them their 
being, and gives laws to them, whose they are, and whom they were made to 
serve, " He shall give his angels a charge over thee;" not only over the church 
in general, but over every particular believer. The angels keep the charge 
of the Lord their God, and this is the charge they receive from him. It notes 
the great care God takes of the saints, in that the angels themselves shall be 
charged with them and employed for them. The charge is, " To keep thee in 
all thy ways;" here is a limitation of the promise, they shall " keep thee in thy 
ways," that is, as long as thou keepest in the way of thy duty. They that go 
out of that way put themselves out of God's protection. Tnis word the devil 
left out when he quoted it to enforce a temptation, knowir\£ how much it made 
against him. But observe the extent of the promise ; it is " to keep thee in all 
thy ways." Even where there is no apparent danger, yet we need it, and where 
there is the most imminent danger we shall have it. Wherever the saints go, 
the angels are charged with them, as the servants are with the children. 
Secondly. The care which the angels take of the saints pursuant to this 
charge; "They shall bear thee up in their hands," which notes both their 
great ability and their great affection; they are able to bear up the saints out 
of the reach of danger, and they do it with all the tenderness and affection 
wherewith the nurse carries the little child about in her arms. It speaks us 
helpless, and them helpful. They are descending in their ministrations, they 
" keep the feet of the saints," lest they dash them against a stone, lest they 
stumble and fall into sin and into trouble. 

3rd. That the powers of darkness shall be triumphed over by them; ver. 13, 
* Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder." The devil is called a roaring lion, 
the old serpent, the red dragon ; so that to this promise the apostle seems to 
refer in that, Rom. xvi. 20, "The God of peace shall tread Satan under your 
feet." Christ has broken the serpent's head, spoiled our spiritual enemies, 
Col. ii. 15, and through him we are more than conquerors ; for Christ calls us, as 
Joshua called the captains of Israel, to come and set their feet on the necks of 
these vanquished enemies. Some think this promise had its full accomplishment 
in Christ, and the miraculous power which he had over the whole creation, 
healing the sick, casting out devils, and particularly putting it into his dis- 
ciples' commission, that they should take up serpents, Mar. xvi. 18. It may be 
applied to that care of the Divine providence by which we are preserved from 
ravenous, noxious creatures; "The wild beasts of the field shall be at peace 
with thee," Job v. 23 ; nay, and have ways and means of taming them, Jas. iii. 7. 

Secondly. He brings in God himself speaking words of comfort to the saints, 
and declaring the mercy he hath in store for them, ver. 14 — 16. Some make 
this to be spoken to the angels, as the reason of the charge given them con- 
cerning the saints; that is to say, Take care of them, for they are dear to me, 
and I have a tender concern for them. And now, as before, we must observe, 

1. To whom these promises do belong ; they are described by three cha- 
racters : 1st. They are such as know God's name ; his nature we cannot fully 
know, but by his name he has made himself known, and with that we must 
acquaint ourselves. 2nd. They are such as have set their love upon him, and 
they who rightly know him will love him, will place their love upon him, as the 
only adequate object of it, will let out their love towards him with pleasure 
and enlargement, and will fix their love upon him with a resolution never to 
remove it to any rival. 3rd. They are such as call upon him, that by prayer 
keep up a constant correspondence with him, and in every difficult case refer 
themselves to him. 

2. What the promises are which God makes to the saints. 

1st. That he will in due time deliver them out of trouble j " I will deliver 
him," ver. 14; and again, ver. 15, noting a double deliverance, living and dying ; 
a deliverance in trouble and a deliverance out of trouble. If God proportions 
the degree and continuance of our troubles to our strength ; if he keeps us 
from offending him in our troubles, and makes our death our discharge at 
length from all our troubles, then this promise is fulfilled: see Ps. xxxiv. 19; 
2 Tim. iii. 11; iv. 18. 

2nd. That he will in the meantime "be with them in trouble," ver. 15. If he 
doth not presently Dut a period to their afflictions, yet they shall have his 
gracious presence with them in their troubles; he will take notice of their 
sorrows, and know their souls in adversity; will visit them graciously by his 
word and Spirit, and converse with them, will take their part, will support and 
comfort them, and sanctify their afflictions to them, which will be the surest 
token of his presence with them in their troubles. 

3rd. That herein he will answer their prayers; "He shall call upon me," that 
is, I will pour upon him the spirit of prayer, "and then I will answer," answer 
by promises, Ps. lxxxv. 8 : answer by providences bringing in seasonable relief : 
and answer by graces "strengthening them with strength in their souls, 
Ps. cxxxviii. 3; thus he answered Paul with grace sufficient, 2 Cor. xii. 9. 



448 PSALM XCII. 

4th. That he will exalt and dignify them; "I will set him on high," out of 
the reach of trouble, above the stormy region, on a rock above the waves, 
Isa. xxxiii. 16. They shall be enabled, by the grace of God, to look down upon 
the things of this world with a holy contempt and indifference, and to look up to 
the things of the other world wit!) a holy ambition and concern, and then they 
are set on high. " I will honour him," and those are truly honourable whom 
God puts honour upon, by taking them into covenant and communion with 
himself, and designing them for his kingdom and glory, Jno. xii. 26. 

5th. That they shall have a sufficiency of life in this world; ver. 16, "With 
length of days will I satisfy him." That is, First. They shall livelong enough ; 
they shall be continued in this world till they have done the work they were 
sent into this world for, and are ready for heaven, and that is long enough. 
Who would wish to live a day longer than God has some work to do, either by 
him or upon him? Secondly. They shall think it long enough, for God by his 
grace shall wean them from the world, and make them willing to leave it. A 
man may die young, and yet die full of days ; satur dierum — 'satisfied with 
living.' A wicked worldly man is not satisfied, no, not with long life; he still 
cries, Give, give. But he that has his treasure and heart in another world has 
soon enough of this; he would not live always. 

6th. That they shall have an eternal life in the other world. This crowns 
the blessedness; "I will shew him my salvation ;" shew him the Messiah, so 
some. Good old Simeon was then satisfied with long life v/hen he could say, 
"Mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Nor was there any greacer joy to the Old 
Testament saints than to see Christ's day, though at a distance. Or, rather, the 
better country, that is, the heavenly, which the patriarchs desired and sought. 
He will shew him that, that is, bring him to that blessed state, the felicity of 
which consists so much in seeing that face to face which here we see through 
a glass darkly, and in the meantime give him a prospect of it. All these promises 
some think point primarily at Christ, and had their accomplishment in his 
resurrection and exaltation. 

PSALM XCII. 

It is a groundless opinion of some of the Jewish writers, who are usually free of their 
conjectures, that this Psalm was penned and sung by Adam in innocency, on the first 
sabbath. It is inconsistent with the Psalm itself, which speaks of the workers of 
iniquity, when as yet sin had not entered. It is probable it was penned by David, and 
being calculated for the sabbath day, I. Praise, the business of the sabbath, is here 
recommended, ver. 1 — 3. II. God's works, which gave occasion for the sabbath, are here 
celebrated as great and unsearchable in general, ver. 4 — 6. In particular, with reference 
to the works both of providence and redemption, the Psalmist sings unto God both of 
mercy and judgment, the ruin of sinners and the joy of saints, three times counter- 
changed. 1. The wicked shall perish, ver. 7, but God is eternal, ver. 8. 2. God's enemies 
shall be cut off, but David shall be exalted, ver. 9, 10. 3. David's enemies shall be 
confounded, ver. 11, but all the righteous shall be fruitful and flourishing, ver. 12 — 15. 
In singing this psalm we must take pleasure in giving to God the glory due to his 
name, and triumph in his works. 

A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day. 

TT is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, 
And to sing praises unto thy name, 0 most High : 

2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, 
And thy faithfulness every night, 

3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; 
Upon the harp with a solemn sound. 

4 For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: 
I will triumph in the works of thy hands. 

5 O Lord, how great are thy works ! 
And thy thoughts are very deep. 

6 A brutish man knoweth not ; 
Neither doth a fool understand this. 



This psalm was appointed, or at least accustomed, to be sung in the house of 
the sanctuary on the sabbath day, that day of rest, which was an instituted 



PSALM XCIL 



449 



memorial of the work of creation, of God's rest from that work, and the con- 
tinuance of it in his providence; for "the Father worketh hitherto." Note, 
1. The sabbath day must be a day not only of holy rest, but of holy work, 
and the rest is in order to the work. 2. The proper work of the sabbath is 
praising God; every sabbath day must be a thanksgiving day, and the other 
services of the day must be in order to this, and^ therefore must by no means 
thrust this into a corner. One of the Jewish writers refers it to the kingdom 
of the Messiah, and calls it * A psalm or song for the age to come, which shall 
be all sabbath. Believers through Christ enjoy that sabbatism which remains 
for the people of God, Heb. iv. 9, the beginning of the everlasting sabbath. In 
these verses, 

First. We are called upon and encouraged to praise God ; ver. 1—3, " It is 
a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. ' Praising God is good work; it is 
good in itself, and good for us. It is our duty, — the rent, the tribute, we are 
to pay to our great Lord ; we are unjust if we withhold it. It is our privilege 
that we are admitted to praise God, and have hope to be accepted in it. It is 
good ; for it is pleasant and profitable, work that is its own wages. It is the work 
of angels,— the work of heaven. It is good to give thanks for the mercies we 
have received, for that is the way of fetching in farther mercy. It is fit to 
sing to his name who is Most High, exalted above all blessing and praise. 
Now observe here, 

1. How we must praise God. We must do it by shewing forth his loving- 
kindness and his faithfulness. Being convinced of his glorious attributes and 
perfections, we must shew them forth, as those that are greatly affected with 
them ourselves, and desire to affect others with them likewise. We must shew 
forth not only his greatness and majesty, his holiness^ and justice, which 
magnify him, and strike an awe upon us; but his lovingkindness and his 
faithfulness, for his goodness is his glory, Ex. xxxiii. 18, 19, and by these he pro- 
claims his name. His mercy and truth are the great supports of our faith and 
hope, and the great encouragements of our love and obedience ; these there- 
fore we must shew forth as our pleas in prayer, and the matter of our joy. 
This was then done not only by singing, but by music joined with it; "upon 
an instrument of ten strings," ver. 3; but then itwas to be "with a solemn 
sound/ not with that which was gay and apt to dissipate the spirits, but that 
which was grave and apt to fix them. 

2. When we must praise God. > " In the morning, and every night ;" not only 
on sabbath days, but every day ; it is that which the duty of every day requires. 
We must praise God, not only in public assemblies, but in secret, and in our 
families ; shewing forth to ourselves and those about us his lovingkindness and 
faithfulness. We must begin and end every day with praising God : must give 
him thanks every morning, when we are fresh, and before the business of the 
day comes in upon us, and every night, when we are again composed and retired 
and are recollecting ourselves. Give him thanks every morning for the mercies 
of the night, and every night for the mercies of the day. Going out and coming 
in we must bless God. 

Secondly. We have an example set before us in the psalmist himself, both to 
move us to and to direct us in this work; ver. 4, " Thou, Lord, hast made me 
glad through thy work." Note, 1. Those can best recommend to others the 
duty of praise that have themselves experienced the pleasantness of it. God's 
works are to be praised, for they have many a time rejoiced my heart, and 
therefore, whatever others think of them, I must think well and speak well 
of them. 2. If God has given us the joy of his works, there is all the reason 
in the world we should give him the honour of them. Has he made our hearts 
glad? Let us then make his praises glorious. Has God made us glad through 
the works of his providence for us, and of his grace in us, and both through the 
great work of redemption? — 

1. Let us then thence fetch encouragement for our faith and hope. So the 
psalmist doth; "I will triumph in the works of thy hands." From a joyful 
remembrance of what God has done for us we may raise a joyful prospect of 
what he will do, and triumph in the assurance of it,— triumph over all opposi- 
tion, 2 Th.es. ii. 14. 

2. Let us thence fetch matter for holy adorings and admirings of God ; ver. 5, 
** O Lord, how great are thy works,"— great beyond conception, beyond ex- 
pression ! The products of great power and wisdom, of great consequence 
and importance; men's works are nothing to them. We cannot comprehend 
the greatness of God's works, and therefore must reverently and awfully 
wonder at them, and even stand amazed at the magnificence of them. Men's 
works are little and trifling, for their thoughts are shallow; but, Lord, thy 
works are great, and such as cannot be measured; for "thy thoughts are very 
deep," and such as cannot be fathomed. God's counsels as much exceed the 
contrivances of our wisdom as his works do the efforts of our power; "His 
thoughts are above our thoughts, as his ways are above our ways, - ' Isa. lv. 9; 
O the depth of God's designs! Rom, xi. 33. The greatness of God's works 

2 F 



450 PSALM XCII. 

should lead us to consider the depth of his thoughts, that counsel of his own 
will according to which he doth all things, — what a compass his thoughts fetch, 
and to what a length they reach ! 

Thirdly. "We are admonished not to neglect the works of God, by the 
character of those that do, ver. 6. They are fools, — they are brutish,— who 
do not know, who do not understand, how great God's works are ; who will 
not acquaint themselves with them, or give him the glory of them; "they 
regard not the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of his hands,*' 
Ps. xxviii. 5. Particularly they understand not the meaning of their own pros- 
perity, which is spoken of ver. 7. They take it as a pledge of their happiness, 
whereas it is a preparative for their ruin. If there are so many who know 
not the designs of Providence, nor care to know them, those that through 
grace are acquainted with them, and love to be so, have the more reason to be 
thankful. 

7 When the wicked spring as the grass, 

And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish ; 
It is that they shall be destroyed for ever : 

8 But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore. 

9 For, lo, thine enemies, 0 Lord, 
For, lo, thine enemies shall perish ; 

All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. 

10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the hor?i of an unicorn: 
I shall be anointed with fresh oil. 

1 1 Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, 
And mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that 

rise up against me. 

12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree : 
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 




BATE AND DOUM-PALM 



PSALM XCIL 



451 



1 3 Those that be planted in the house of tne Lord 
Shall flourish in the courts of our God. 

14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age ; 
They shall be fat and flourishing ; 

15 To shew that the Lord is upright: 

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. 

The psalmist had said, ver. 4, that from the works of God he would take 
occasion to triumph ; and here he doth so. 

First. He triumphs over God's enemies, ver. 7, 9, 11; triumphs in the fore- 
sight of their destruction ; not as it would be the misery of his fellow-creatures, 
but as it would redound, to the honour of God's justice and holiness. He is 
confident of the ruin of sinners,, 

1. Though they are flourishing, ver. 7. " When the wicked spring as the 
grass " in spring, so numerous, so thick-sown, so green, and growing so fast ; 
" and all the workers of iniquity do flourish " in pomp, and power, and all the 
instances of outward prosperity, are easy and many, and succeed in their enter- 
prises, one would think all this was in order to their being happy, that it 
was a certain evidence of God's favour, and an earnest of something as good 
or better in reserve; but it is quite otherwise; "It is that they shall be 
destroyed for ever." The very prosperity of fools shall slay them, Pr. i. 32. 
The sheep that are designed for the slaughter are put into the fattest pasture. 

2. Though they are daring, ver. 9. They are thine enemies, and impudently 
avow themselves to be so. They are contrary to God, and tney fight against 
God; they are in rebellion against his crown and dignity, and therefore it is 
easy to foresee that they shall perish; for " whoever hardened his heart against 
God and prospered?" Note, All the impenitent workers of iniquity shall be 
deemed and taken as God's enemies; and as such they shall perish and be 
scattered. Christ reckons those his enemies that will not have him to reign 
over them ; and they shall be brought forth and slain before him. The workers 
of iniquity are now associated, and closely linked together, in a combination 
against God and religion ; but they shall be scattered, and disabled to help one 
another against the just judgment of God. 'In the world to come they shall 
be separated from the congregation of the righteous,' so the Chaldee. Ps. i. 5. 

3. Though they had a particular malice against the psalmist,, and upon that 
account he might be tempted to fear them, yet he triumphs over them: ver. 1 1, 
" Mine eyes shall see my desire on mine enemies that rise up against me," that is. 
I shall see them not only disabled to do me any farther mischief, but reckoned 
with for the mischief they have done me, ana brought either to repentance 
or ruin ; and this was his desire concerning them. In the Hebrew it is no more 
but thus, i Mine eye shall look on mine enemies, and mine ear shall hear of the 
wicked.' He doth not say what he shall see, or what he shall hear, but he shall 
see and hear that in which God will be glorified, and in which he will there- 
fore be satisfied. This perhaps has reference to Christ, to his victory over 
Satan, death, and hell, the destruction of those that persecuted and crucified 
him, and opposed his Gospel, and to the final ruin of the impenitent at the last 
day. They that rise up against Christ will fall before him and be made his 
footstool. 

Secondly. He triumphs in God, and his glory and grace. 

1. in the glory of God.; ver. 8, " But thou, O Lord, art most high for ever- 
more.'^ The workers of iniquity that fight against us, may be high for a time, 
and think to carry all before them with a high hand, but thou art high, most 
high for evermore. Their height will be humbled and brought down, but thine 
is everlasting. Let us not therefore fear the pride and power of evil men, nor 
be discouraged by their impotent menaces, for the moth shall eat them up as 
a garment, but God's righteousness shall be for ever, Isa. lvi. 7, 8. 

2. In the grace of God, his favour and the fruits of it. 

1st. To himself, ver. 20. Thou, O Lord, that art thyself most high, shalt 
exalt my horn. _ The great God is the fountain of honour, and he being high 
for evermore, himself will exalt his people for ever; for he "is the praise of 
all his saints," Ps. cxliii. 14. The wicked are forbidden to lift up the horn, 
Ps. lxxv. 4, 5, but those that serve God and the interests of his kingdom with 
their honour and power, and commit it to him to keep it, to raise it, to use 
it, and to dispose of it as he pleaseth, may hope that he will exalt their horn as 
the horn of a unicorn, to the greatest height, either in this world or the other ; 
* My horn shalt thou exalt " when thine enemies perish ; for then shall the 
righteous shine forth as the sun, when the wicked shall be doomed to shame 
and everlasting contempt. He adds, "I shall be anointed with fresh oil," which 
speaks a fresh confirmation in his office, to which he had been anointed, or 
aoundance of plenty, so that he should have fresh oil as often as he pleased, 



452 PSALM XCII 

or renewed comforts to revive him when his spirits drooped. Grace is the 
anointing of the Spirit, which, when it is given to help in the time of need, and 
is received, as there is occasion, from the tulness that is in Jesus Christ, we are 
then anointed with fresh oil. Some read it, 'when I grow old, thou shalt anoint 
me with fresh oil ;' * My old age shalt thou exalt with rich mercy/ so the Seventy. 
Compare ver. 14, "They shall bring forth fruit in old age." The comforts of 
God's Spirit, and the joys of his salvation, shall be a refreshing oil to the hoary 
heads that are found in the way of righteousness. 

2nd. To all the saints. They are here represented as trees of righteousness, 
Isa. lxi. 3 ; Ps. i. 3. Observe, 

First. The good place they are fixed in. They are "planted in the house of the 
Lord," ver. 13. The trees of righteousness do not grow of themselves ; they are 
planted, not in common soil, but in Paradise, in the house of the Lord. Trees 
do not use to be planted in a^ house, but God's trees are said to be planted in 
his house, because it is from his grace, by his Word and Spirit, that they receive 
all the sap and virtue that keeps them alive, and makes them fruitful. They 
fix themselves to holy ordinances, take root in them, abide by them,, put them- 
selves under the Divine protection, and bring forth all their fruits to God's 
honour and glory. 

Secondly. The good plight they shall be kept in. It is here promised, 1st. 
That they shall grow, ver. 11. Where God gives true grace he will give 
more grace. God's trees shall grow higher, like the cedars, the tall cedars, 
in Lebanon; they shall grow nearer heaven, and with a holy ambition shall 
aspire towards the upper world. They shall grow stronger, like the cedars, 
and fitter for use. " He that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." 
2nd. That they shall flourish, both in the credit of their profession, and in 
the comfort and joy of their own souls. They shall be cheerful themselves, 
and respected by all about them ; " They shall flourish like the palm-tree, 
which has a stately body, Cant. vii. 7, large boughs, Lev. xxiii. 40; Jud. iv. 5. 
Dates, the fruit of it, are very pleasant, but it is especially alluded to here, as 
being evergreen. The wicked flourish as the grass, ver. 7, which is soon 
withered; the righteous as the palm-tree, which is long-lived, and which the 
winter doth not change. It has been said of the palm-tree, that 'the more it is 
pressed down, the more it grows,' — sub pondere crescit, so the righteous flourish 
under their burthens ; " the more they are afflicted, the more they multiply." 
Being " planted in the house of the Lord," there their root is; "they flourish 
in the courts of our God," there their branches spread. Their "life is hid 
with Christ in God;" but their light also shines before men. It is very desirable 
that those that have a place should have a name in God's house, and within his 
walls, Isa. Ivi. 5. Let good Christians aim to excel, that they may be eminent, 
and may flourish, and so may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, as 
flourishing trees adorn the courts of a house. And let those that flourish 
in God's courts give him the glory of it ; it is by virtue of this promise, " They 
shall be fat and flourishing." Their flourishing without is from a fatness 
within, from the root and fatness of the good olive, Rom. xi. 17. Without a 
living principle of grace in the heart the profession will not be long flourish- 
ing, but where that is " the leaf also shall not wither," Ps. i. 3. " The trees 
of the Lord are full of sap." Ps. civ. 16 : see Bos. xiv. 5, 6. 3rd. That they 
shall be fruitful. Were tnere nothing but leaves upon them, they would 
not be trees of any value ; but " they shall bring forth fruit." The products 
of sanctification, all the instances of a lively devotion and a useful conver- 
sation, good works, by which God is glorified, and others edified, these are the 
fruits of righteousness, in which it is the privilege as well as the duty of the 
righteous to abound ; and it is the matter of a promise as well as the matter 
of a command. It is promised they shall bring forth fruit in old age : other 
trees when they are old leave off bearing, but in God's trees the strength of 
grace doth not fail with the strength of nature. The last days of the saints are 
sometimes their best days, and their last work their best work. This indeed 
shews that they are upright ; perseverance is the surest evidence of sincerity. 
But it is here said " to shew that the Lord is upright," ver. 15, that he is true 
to his promises, and faithful to every word that he hath spoken, and that he 
is constant to the work which he has begun. As it is by the promises that 
believers first partake of a Divine nature, so it is by the promises that that 
Divine nature is preserved and kept up, and therefore the power it exerts is an 
evidence that the Lord is upright, and so he will shew himself with an upright 
man, Ps. xviii. 25. This the psalmist triumphs in; "He is my rock, and there 
is no unrighteousness in him." I have chosen him for my rock on which to 
build, in the clefts of which to take shelter, on the top of which to set my feet ; 
I have found him a rock, strong and stedfast, and his word as firm as a rock ; 
1 have found (and let every one speak as they find) that there is no unrighte- 
ousness in him. He is as able, and will be as kind, as his Word makes him to 
be Ail that ever trusted in God found him faithful and all- sufficient ; and 
none were ever made ashamed of their hope in him. 



PSALM XCIII. 



4o 3 



This short psalm sets forth the honour of the kingdom of God among men, to his giory, 
the terror of his enemies, and the comfort of all his loving subjects. And it relates both 
to the kingdom of his providence, by which he upholds and governs the world, and 
especially to the kingdom of his grace, by which he secures the church, sanctifies and 
preserves it. The administration of both these kingdoms is put into the hands of the 
Messiah, and to him doubtless the prophet here bears witness, and to his kingdom, 
speaking of it as present, because sure ; and because, as the Eternal Word, even before 
his incarnation, he was Lord of all. Concerning God's kingdom glorious things are 
here spoken : I. Have other kings their royal robes ? so has he, ver. 1. II. Have they 
their throne? so has he, ver. 2. III. Have they their enemies whom they subdue and 
triumph over? so has he, ver. 3, 4. IV. Is it their honour to be faithful and holy ? so 
is it his, ver. 5. In singing this psalm we forget ourselves if we forget Christ, to whom 
the Father hath given all power both in heaven and in earth. 

THE Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty ; 
The Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath 

girded himself : 
The world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. 

2 Thy throne is established of old : 
Thou art from everlasting. 

3 The floods have lifted up, 0 Lord^ 
The floods have lifted up their voice ; 
The floods lift up their waves. 

4 The Lord on high 

Is mightier than the noise of many waters, 
Yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. 

5 Thy testimonies are very sure : 

Holiness becometh thine house, 0 Lord, for ever. 

Next to the being of God, there is nothing that we are more concerned to 
believe and consider than God's dominion ; that Jehovah is God, and that this 
God reigns, ver. 1 ; not only that he is King of right, and is the owner and pro- 
prietor of all persons and things, but that he is King in fact, and doth direct 
and dispose of all the creatures and all their actions, according to the counsel 
of his own will. This is celebrated here, and in many other psalms ;" The 
Lord reigns." It is the song of the gospel church, of the glorified church ; 
Rev. xix. 6, "Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigns." And here we are 
told how he reigns. 

First. The Lord reigns gloriously; "He is clothed with majesty." The 
majesty of earthly princes, compared with God's terrible majesty, is but like 
the glimmerings of a glowworm, compared with the brightness of the sun 
when he goes forth in his strength. Are the enemies of God"s kingdom great 
and formidable ? yet let us not fear them, for God's majesty will eclipse theirs. 

Secondly. He reigns powerfully. " He is" not only " clothed with majesty," as 
a prince in his court, but he " is clothed with strength," as a general in the camp. 
He has wherewithal to support his greatness, and to make it truly formidable. 
See him not only clad in robes, but clad in armour ; both strength and honour 
are his clothing. He can do every thing, and with him nothing is impossible. 
I. With this power "he hath girded himself." It is not derived from any 
other, nor doth the executing of it depend upon any other, but he has it of 
himself, and with it doth whatsoever he pleaseth. Let us not fear the power 
of man, which is borrowed and bounded, but fear him who has power to kill 
and cast into hell. 2. To this power it is owing that the world stands to this 
day: " The world also is established." It was so at first, by the creating power 
of God, when " he founded it upon the seas." It is so still, by that providence 
which upholds all things, and is a continued creation. It is so established, that 
though " he hath hanged the earth upon nothing," Job xxvi. 7, yet " it cannot 
be moved;" " All things continue to this day according to his ordinance." Note, 
The preserving of the powers of nature, and the course of nature, is what the 
God of nature must have the glory of: and we that have the benefit thereof 
daily are very careless and ungrateful, if we give him not the glory of it. 
Though God clothes himself with majesty, yet he condescends to take care 
of this lower world, and to settle the affairs of that. And if he established 
the world, much more will he establish his church, that it cannot be moved. 



m PSALM XCIV. 

Thirdly. He reigns eternally ; ver. 2, " Thy throne is established of old. 
1. God's right to rule the world is founded m his making it. He that gave 
being to it, no doubt, may give law it. and so his title to the government is 
incontestable. " Thy throne is established ; " it is a title without a flaw in it ; 
and it is ancient, — it is established of old, from the beginning of time, before any 
other rule, principality, or power was erected, as it will continue when all other 
rule, principality, and power shall be put down, 1 Cor. xv. 24. The whole 
administration of his government was settled in his eternal counsels before 
all worlds; for he doth all according to the purpose which he purposed in 
himself. The chariots of providence came down from between the mountains 
of brass, from those decrees which are fixed as the everlasting mountains, 
Zee. vi. 1. " Thou art from everlasting," and therefore "thy throne is established 
of old;" because God himself was from everlasting, his throne, and all the 
determinations of it, were so too ; for in an eternal mind there could not but 
be eternal thoughts. 

Fourthly. He reigns triumphantly, ver. 3, 4. "We have here, 1 A threatening 
storm supposed The floods have lifted up, O Lord/' (to God himself the 
remonstrance is made,) "the floods have lifted up their voice," which speaks 
terror; nay, they have lifted up their waves, which speaks real danger. It 
alludes to a tempestuous sea, such as the wicked are compared to, Isa. lvii. 20. 
The heathen rage, Ps. ii. 1, and think to ruin the church, — to overwhelm it like 
a deluge, to sink it like a ship at sea. The church is said to be tossed with 
tempests, Isa. liv. 11, and the floods of ungodly men make the saints afraid, 
Ps. xviii. 4. We may apply it to the tumults that are sometimes in our own 
bosoms, through prevailing passions and frights, which put the soul into dis- 
order, and are ready to overthrow its graces and comforts. _ But if the Lord 
reigns there, even the winds and seas shall obey him. 2. An immovable anchor 
cast in this storm; ver. 4, " The Lord himself is mightier." Let this keep our 
minds fixed, 1st. That God is on high, above them, which notes his safety, 
they cannot reach him, Ps. xxix. 10, and his sovereignty; they are ruled by 
him, — they are overruled, and wherein they rebel overcome, Ex. xviii. 11. 2nd. 
That he is mightier, doth more wondrous things than the noise of many waters. 
They cannot disturb his rest or rule; they cannot defeat his designs and pur- 
poses. Observe, The power of the church's enemies is but as the noise of many 
waters; there is more of sound than substance in it; Pharaoh king of Egypt 
is but a noise, Jer. xlvi. 17. The church's friends are commonly worse frightened 
than hurt. God is mightier than this noise ; he is mighty to preserve his peo- 
ple's interests from being ruined by these many waters, and his people's spirits 
from being terrified by the noise of them. < He can, when he pleaseth, command 
peace to the church, Ps. lxv. 7,— peace in the soul, Isa. xxvi. 3. Note, The 
unlimited sovereignty and irresistible power of the great Jehovah is very 
encouraging to the people of God, in reference to all the noises and hurries 
they meet with in this world, Ps. xivi. 1, 2. 

Fifthly. He reigns in truth and holiness, ver. 5. 1. All his promises are 
inviolably faithful ; " Thy testimonies are very sure." As God is able to pro- 
tect his church, so he is true to his promises he has made of its safety and 
victory. His word is past, and all the saints may rely upon it. Whatever was 
foretold concerning the kingdom of the JVlessiah, would certainly have its 
accomplishment in due time. Those testimonies, upon which the faith and 
hope of the Old Testament saints was built, were very sure, and would not fail 
them-. 2. All his people ought to be conscientiously pure ; " Holiness becomes 
thy house, O Lord, for ever." God's church is his house; it is a holy house 
cleansed from sin, consecrated by God, and employed in his service. The 
holiness of it is its beauty; nothing better becomes the saints than conformity 
to God's image, and an entire devotedness to his honour ; and it is its strength 
and safety. It is the holiness of God's house that secures it against the many 
waters, and their noise. Where there is purity there shall be peace. Fashions 
change, and that that is becoming at onetime is not at another; but^ holiness 
always becomes God's house and family, and those that belong to it. It is 
perpetually decent ; and nothing so ill becomes the worshippers of the holy 
God as unholiness. 

PSALM XCIV. 

This psalm was penned when the church of God was under hatches, oppressed and perse- 
cuted ; and is an appeal to God, as the judge of heaven and earth, and an address to him, 
to appear for his people against his and their enemies. Two things this psalm speaks, 
I. Conviction and terror to the persecutors, ver. 1 — 11, shewing them their danger and 
folly, and arguing with them. II. Comfort and peace to the persecuted, ver. 12 — 23, 
assuring them, both from God's promise and from the psalmist's own experience, that 
their troubles would end well, and God would in due time appear to their joy and the 
confusion of those that set themselves against them. In singing this psalm we must 



PSALM XCIV. 



455 



look abroad upon the pride of oppressors with a holy indignation, and the tears of the 
oppressed with a holy compassion ; but at the same time look upwards to the righteous 
Judge with an entire satisfaction, and look forward, to the end of all those things, with 
a pleasing hope. 

OLORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth ; 
0 God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. 

2 Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: 
Render a reward to the proud. 

3 Lord, how long shall the wicked, 
How long shall the wicked triumph ? 

4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things ? 
And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves ? 

5 They break in pieces thy people, 0 Lord, 
And afflict thine heritage. 

6 They slay the widow and the stranger, 
And murder the fatherless. 

7 Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, 
Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. 

8 Understand, ye brutish among the people : 
And ye fools, when will ye be wise ? 

9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? 
He that formed the eye, shall he not see ? 

1 0 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct ? 
He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ? 

11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, 
That they are vanity. 

In these verses we have, 

First. A solemn appeal to God against the cruel oppressors of his people, 
ver. 1, 2. And this speaks terror enough to them, that they have the prayers 
of God's people against them, who cry day and night to him to avenge them 
of their adversaries; and shall he not avenge them speedily? Lu. xviii. 3, 7. 
Observe here, 

1. The titles they give to God for the encouraging of their faith in this 
appeal; " O God, to whom vengeance belongeth," and "thou judge of the earth." 
We may with boldness appeal to him; for, 1st. He is judge, supreme judge, — . 
judge alone, — from whom every man's judgment proceeds. He that gives law, 
gives sentence upon every man according to his works, by the rule of that law. 
He hath prepared his throne for judgment. He hath indeed appointed magis- 
trates to be avengers under him, Rom. xiii. 4 ; but he is the avenger in chief, 
to whom even magistrates themselves are accountable. His throne is the last 
refuge (the dernier ressort, as the law speaks,) of oppressed innocency. He is 
universal judge, not of this city or country only, but judge of the earth, of the 
whole earth. None are exempt from his jurisdiction; nor can it be alleged 
against an appeal to him in any court, that it is coram non judice, — * before 
a person not judicially qualified. ' 2nd. He is just. As he has authority to 
revenge wrong, so it is his nature, and property, and honour. And this also 
is implied in the title here given to him, and repeated with such an emphasis ; 
" O God, to whom vengeance belongs," who will not suffer might always to 
prevail against right. .This is a good reason why we must not avenge ourselves, 
because God hath said, u Vengeance is mine ; " and it is daring presumption 
to usurp his prerogative, and step into his throne, Rom. xii. 19. Let this frighten 
those who do wrong, whether with a close hand, so as not to be discovered, or 
with a high hand, so as not to be controlled, There is a God to whom vengeance 
belongs, who will certainly call them to an account. And let it encourage 
those who suffer wrong to bear it with silence ; committing themselves to him 
that udgeth righteously. 



456 PSALM XCIV. 

2. What it is they ask of God. 1st. That he would glorify himself, and get 
honour to his own name. Wicked persecutors thought God was withdrawn, 
and had forsaken the earth. Lord, say they, shew thyself ; make them know 
that thou art, and that thou art ready to " shew thyself strong, on the behalf 
of those whose hearts are upright with thee." The enemies thought God was 
conquered, because his people were. Lord, say they, " Lift up thyself, be thou 
exalted in thy own strength ;" lift up thyself to be seen, to be feared, and sutler 
not thy name to be trampled upon and run down. 2nd. That he would mortify 
the oppressors ; " render a reward to the proud," that is, reckon with them for 
all their insolence, and the injuries they have done to thy people. These prayers 
are prophecies, which speak terror to all the sons of violence. The righteous 
God will deal with them according to their merits. 

Secondly. An humble complaint to God of the pride and cruelty of the 
oppressors, and an expostulation with him concerning it, ver. 3 — 6. Where 
observe, 

1 . The character of the enemies they complain against. They are wicked, they 
are workers of iniquity; they are bad, very bad themselves, and therefore they 
hate and persecute those whose goodness shames and condemns them. Those 
are wicked indeed, and workers of the worst iniquity, lost to all honour and 
virtue, that are cruel to the innocent, and hate the righteous. 

2. Their haughty, barbarous carriage which they complain of. 1st. They are 
insolent, and take a pleasure in magnifying themselves. They talk high, and 
talk big; they triumph; they speak loud things; they boast themselves, as if 
their tongues were their own, and their hands too, and they were accountable 
to none tor what they say or do, and as if the day were their own, and they 
doubted not but to carry the cause against God and religion. They that speak 
highly of themselves, that triumph and boast, are apt to speak hardly of others ; 
but there will come a day of reckoning for all their hard speeches which 
ungodly sinners have spoken against God, his truths, and ways, and people, 
Jude 15. 2nd. They are impious, and take a pleasure in running down God's 
people, because they are his ; ver. 5, " They break in pieces thy people, O 
Lord;" break their assemblies, their estates, their families, their persons in 
pieces, and do all they can to afflict thine heritage, to grieve them, to crush 
them, to run them down, to root them out. God's people are his heritage. 
There are those that for his sake hate them and seek their ruin ; and this is 
a very good plea with God in our intercessions for the church : Lord, it is thine, 
thou hast a property in it. It is thine heritage, thou hast a pleasure in it, and 
out of it the rent of thy glory in this world issues; and wilt thou suffer these 
wicked men to trample upon it thus? 3rd. They are inhuman, and take a 
pleasure in wronging those that are least able to help themselves, ver. 6. They 
not only oppress and impoverish, but "they slay the widow and the stranger; ' 
not only neglect the fatherless, and make a prey of them, but murder them, 
because they are weak and exposed, and sometimes lie at their mercy. Those 
whom they should protect from injury, they are most injurious to; perhaps 
because God has taken them into his particular care. Who would think it 
possible that any of the children of men should be thus barbarous? 

3. A modest pleading with God concerning the continuance of the persecu- 
tion. Lord, how long shall they do thus? and again, how long? When shall 
this wickedness of the wicked come to an end? 

Thirdly. A charge of atheism exhibited against the persecutors, and an 
expostulation with them upon that charge. 

1. Their atheistical thoughts are here discovered; ver. 7, "Yet they say, The 
Lord shall not see." Though the cry of their wickedness is very great and 
loud, though they rebel against the light of nature, and the dictates of their 
own consciences, yet they nave the confidence to say, " The Lord shall not see." 
He will not only wink at small faults, but shut his eyes at great ones too ; or 
they think they have managed it so artfully, under colour of justice and 
religion, perhaps, that it will not be adjudged murder. The God of Jacob, 
though his people pretend to have such an interest in him, doth not regard 
it, either as against justice, or as against his own people. He will never 
call them to an account for it. Urns denying God's government of the 
world, bantering his covenant with his people, and setting the judgment to 
come at defiance. 

2. They are here convicted of folly and absurdity. He that saith either that 
Jehovah, the living God, shall not see, or that the God of Jacob shall not 
regard the injuries done to his people, Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. 
And yet here he is fairly reasoned with, for his conviction and conversion, to 
prevent his confusion ; ver. 8, " Understand, ye brutish among the people," and 
let reason guide you. Note, The atheistical, though they set up for wits, and 
philosophers, and politicians, yet are really the brutish among the people; and 
if they would but understand, they would believe. God by the prophet speaks 
as if he thought the time long till men would be men, and shew themselves so 



PSALM XCIV. 457 

by understanding and considering. " Ye fools, when will ye be wise? " so wise 
as to know that God sees and regards all you say and do, and to speak and act 
accordingly, as those that must give account. Note, None are so bad but 
means are to be used for the reclaiming and reforming of them ; none so brutish, 
so foolish, but it should be tried whether they may not yet be made wise. 
While there is life there is hope. To evidence the folly of those that question 
God's omniscience and justice, the psalmist argues, 

1st. From the works of creation, ver. 9. The formation of human bodies, 
which, as it proves that there is a God, so it proves that God has infinitely and 
transcendently in himself all those perfections that are in any creature. " Be 
that planted the ear/' (and it is planted in the head, as a tree in the ground.) 
" shall he not hear?" No doubt he shall, more and better than we can. " He 
that formed the eye," (and how curiously it is formed above any part of the 
body anatomists know and let us know by their dissections,) "shall he not see?" 
Could he give, would he give, that perfection to a creature which he has not in 
himself? Note, First. The powers of nature are all derived from the God 
of nature: see Ex. iv. 11. Secondly. By the knowledge of Gurselves we may 
be led a great way towards the knowledge of God; if by the knowledge of our 
own bodies, and the organs of sense, so as to conclude that if we can see and 
hear, much more can God, then certainly by the knowledge of our own souls, 
and their noble faculties. The gods of the heathen had eyes and saw not, ears 
and heard not ; our God has no eyes or ears, as we have, and yet we must con- 
clude he both sees and hears; because we have our sight and hearing from him, 
and are accountable to him how we use it. 

2nd. He argues from the works of providence; ver. 10, "He that chastiseth 
the heathen" for their polytheism and idolatry, "shall not he" much more 
"correct" his own people for their atheism and profaneness? He that chas- 
tiseth the children of men for oppressing and wronging one another, shall not 
he correct those that profess to be his own children, and call themselves so, 
and yet persecute those that are really so ? Shall not we be under his correc- 
tion, under whose government the whole world is? Doth he regard as king of 
nations, and shall he not much more regard as the God of Jacob ? -Dr. Ham- 
mond gives another very probable sense of this. 'He that instructeth the 
nations.' that is, gives them his law, ' shall not he correct,' that is, shall not he 
judge tnem according to that law, and call them to an account for their viola- 
tions of it? In vain was the law given, if there will not be a judgment upon it. 
And it is true that the same word signifies to chastise and instruct; because 
chastisement is intended for instruction, and instruction should go along with 
chastisement. 

3rd. He argues from the works of grace. " He that teacheth man knowledge, 
shall not he know?" He not only as the God of nature has given the light of 
reason, but as the God of grace has given the light of revelation, hath shewed 
man what is true wisdom and understanding: and he that doth this, shall he not 
know? Job xxviii. 23, 28. The flowing of tne stream is a certain sign of the 
fulness of the fountain. If all knowledge is from God, no doubt all knowledge 
is in God. From thi3 general doctrine of God's omniscience, he not only con- 
futes the atheists, who said. " the Lord shall not see," ver. 7, he will not take 
cognizance of what we do ; but awakens us all to consider that God will take 
cognizance even of what we think; ver. 11, "The Lord know r s the thoughts of 
man, that they are vanity." First. He knows those thoughts in particular con- 
cerning God's conniving at the wickedness of the wicked, and knows them to 
be vain; and laughs at the folly of those who by such fond conceits buoy them- 
selves up in sin. Secondly. He knows all the thoughts of the children of men, 
and knows them to be for the most part vain : that the imaginations of the 
thoughts of men's hearts are evil, only evil, and that continually. Even in good 
thoughts there is a fickleness and inconstancy which may well be called vanity, 
It concerns us to keep a strict guard upon our thoughts, because God takes 
particular notice of them. Thoughts are words to God, and vain thoughts aro 
provocations. 

12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, 0 Lord, 
And teachest him out of thy law ; 

13 That thou may est give him rest from the days of adversity, 
Until the pit be digged for the wicked. 

14 For the Lord will not cast off his people, 
Neither will he forsake his inheritance. 

15 But judgment shall return unto righteousness : 
And all the upright in heart shall follow it. 



453 



PSALM XCIY. 



1 6 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers ? 

Or who will stand up for me against the workers of 
i 7 Unless the Lord had bee?i my help, [iniquity? 

My soul had almost dwelt in silence. 

18 When I said, My foot slippeth; 
Thy mercy, 0 Lord, held me up. 

19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me 
Thy comforts delight my soul. 

20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, 
Which frameth mischief by a law ? [righteous, 

2 1 They gather themselves together against the soul of the 
And condemn the innocent blood. 

22 But the Lord is my defence ; 

And my God is the rock of my refuge. 

23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, 
And shall cut them off in their own wickedness ; 
Yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off. 

The psalmist, having denounced tribulation to them that trouble God's 
people, here assures them that are troubled of rest : see 2 Thes. i. 6, 7. He 
speaks comfort to suffering saints from God's promises and his own experience. 

First. From God's promises, which are such as not only save them from being 
miserable, but secure a happiness to them; ver. 12, "Blessed is the man whom 
thou chastenest." Here he looks above the instruments of trouble, and eyes 
the hand of God, which gives it another name, and puts quite anotner colour 
upon it. The enemies break in pieces God's people, ver. 5 ; they aim at no less; 
but the truth of the matter is, that God by them chastens his people, as ths 
father the son in whom he delighteth, and the persecutors are only the rod he 
makes use of. " Howbeit they mean not so, neither doth their heart think so," 
Isa. x. 5—7. Now it is here promised, 

1. That God's people shall get good by their sufferings. When he chastens 
them he will teach them, and blessed is the man who is thus taken under a 
])ivine discipline; for none teacheth like God. Note, 1st. The afflictions of 
the saints are fatherly chastenings, designed for our instruction, reformation, 
and improvement. 2nd. When the teachings of the W r ord and Spirit go along 
with the rebukes of Providence, they then both speak men blessed, and help to 
make them so ; for then they are marks of adoption and means of sanctification. 
When we are chastened, we must pray to be taught, and look into the law as 4 
the best expositor of providence. It is not the chastening itself that doth good, 
but the teaching that goes along with it, and is the exposition of it. 

2. That they shall see through their sufferings; ver. 13, "That thou mayest 
give him rest from the days of adversity." Note, 1st. There is a rest remaining 
for the people of God after the days of their adversity, which, though they may 
be many and long, shall be numbered and finished in due time, and shall not 
last always. He that sends the trouble will send the rest, that he may comfort 
them according to the time that he hath afflicted them. 2nd. God therefore 
teacheth his people by their troubles that he may prepare them for deliverance, 
and so give them rest from their troubles ; that being reformed, they might be 
relieved, and the affliction having done its work, it may be removed. 

3. That they shall see the ruin of those that are the instruments of their 
sufferings, which is the matter of a promise, not as gratifying any passion of 
theirs, but as redounding to the glory of God; "until the pit is digged," or 
rather, while the pit is in digging "for the wicked," God is ordering peace for 
them at the same time that he is ordaining his arrows against the persecutors. 

4. That though they may be cast down, yet certainly they shall not be cast 
off. ver. 14. Let God's suffering people assure themselves of this, that what- 
ever their friends do, God will not cast them off, nor throw them out of his 
covenant or out of his care ; neither will he forsake them, because they are 
his inheritance, which he will not auit his title to, nor suffer himself to be 
disseized of. St. Paul comforted himself with this, Rom. xi. 1. 

5. That as bad as things are, they shall mend ; and though they are now out 
of course, yet they shall return to their due and ancient channel ; ver. 15, 



PSALM XCIV. 459 

"Judgment shall return unto righteousness," that is, the seeming disorders of 
providence (for real ones there never were) shall be rectified. God's judgment, 
that is, his government, looks sometimes as if it were at a distance from right- 
eousness, while the wicked prosper, and the best men meet with the worst 
usage ; but it shall return to righteousness again, either in this world, or. at 
the farthest, in the judgment of the great day, which will set all to rights. And 
then 4 all the upright in heart shall be after it,' that is, they shall follow it with 
their praises, and with an entire satisfaction ; they shall return to a prosperous 
and flourishing condition, and shine forth out of obscurity. They shall accom- 
modate themselves to the dispensations of Divine providence, and with suitable 
affections attend all its motions. " They shall walk after the Lord," Hos. xi. 10. 
Dr. Hammond thinks this was most eminently fulfilled in the destruction of 
Jerusalem first, and afterwards of heathen Rome, the crucifiers of Christ and 
persecutors of Christians, and the rest which the churches had thereby ; " Then 
judgment returned even to righteousness," that is, to mercy and goodness, and 
favour to God's people, who then were as much countenanced as before they 
had been trampled on. 

Secondly. From his own experiences and observations. 

1. He and his friends had been oppressed by cruel and imperious men, that 
had power in their hands, and abused it, by abusing all good people with it. 
They were themselves evil-doers, and workers of iniquity, ver. 16 ; they aban- 
doned themselves to all manner of impiety and immorality, and. then their 
throne was a throne of iniquity, ver. 20. Their dignity served to put a reputa- 
tion upon sin, and their authority was employed to support it, and to bring 
about their wicked designs. It is pity that ever a throne, which should be a 
terror to evil-doers and a protection and praise to them that do well, should be 
the seat and shelter of iniquity. That is a throne of iniquity which by the 
policy of its counsel frameth mischief, and by its sovereignty enacts it, and 
turns it into a law. Iniquity is daring enough, even when human laws are 
against it, which often prove too weak to give an effectual check to it ; but how 
insolent, now mischievous, is it when it is backed by a law ! Iniquity is not the 
better, but much the worse, for being enacted by law ; nor will it excuse those 
that practise it, to say they did but do as they were bidden. These workers of 
iniquity, having framed mischief by a law, take care to see the law executed ; 
for "they gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous," who 
dare not keep the statutes of Omri, nor the law of the house of Ahab ; and 
they condemned the innocent blood for violating their decrees. ^ See an instance 
in Daniel's enemies ; they framed mischief by a law when they obtained an 
impious edict against prayer, Dan. vi. 7, which when Daniel would not obey, they 
assembled together against him, ver. 11, and condemned his innocent blood to 
the lions. The best of benefactors to mankind have often been thus treated, 
under colour of law and justice, as the worst of malefactors. 

2. This oppression they were under bore very hard upon them, and oppressed 
their spirits too. Let not suffering saints despair, though when they are per- 
secuted they find themselves perplexed and cast down. It was so with the 
psalmist here : His "soul had almost dwelt in silence," ver. 17; that is, he was 
at his wit's end, and knew not what to say or do ; he was, in his own appre- 
hension, at his life's end, ready to drop into the grave, that land of silence. 
St. Paul in a like case received a sentence of death within himself, 2 Cor. i. 8, 9. 
He said, "My foot slippeth " ver. 18, that is, I am going irretrievably, there is 
no remedy, I must fall, " I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul;" or ; my 
hope fails me, I do not find such firm footing for my faith as I have sometimes 
found : see Ps. lxxiii. 2. He had a multitude of perplexed, entangled thoughts 
within him concerning the case he was in, and the construction to be made 
of it, and concerning the course he should take, and what was likely to be the 
issue of it. 

3. In this distress they sought for help and succour, and some relief. 1st. They 
looked about for it, and were disappointed ; ver. 16, " Who will rise up for me 
against the evil-doers?" Have I any friend that in love to me will appear for 
me? Hath justice any friend that in a pious indignation at unrighteousness 
will plead my injured cause? He looked, but there was none to save, there 
was none to uphold. Note, When on the side of the oppressors there is power, 
it is no marvel if the oppressed have no comforter, none that dare own them, 
or speak a good word for them, Eccl. iv. 1 ; when St. Paul was brought before 
Nero's throne of iniquity, no man stood by him, 2 Tim. iv. 16. 2nd. They looked 
up for it, ver. 20. They humbly expostulate with God; "Lord, shall the 
throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?" Wilt thou countenance and 
support these tyrants in their wickedness ? We know thou wilt not. A throne 
has fellowship with God when it is a throne of justice, and answers the end of 
the erecting of it ; for by him kings reign, and when they reign for him, their 
judgments are his, and he owns them as his ministers, and whoever resist them, 
or rise up against them, shall receive to themselves damnation ; but when it 



460 PSALM XCV. 

becomes a throne of iniquity, it has no longer fellowship with God. Far be it 
from the just and holy God that he should be the patron of unrighteousness, 
even in princes and those that sit in thrones ; yea, though they be the thrones 
of the house of David. 

4. They found succour and relief in God, and in him only. When other 
friends failed, in him they had a faithful and powerful friend ; and it is recom- 
mended to all God's suffering saints to trust in him. 

1st. God helps at a dead lift, ver. 17. When I had almost dwelt in silence, 
then the Lord was my help^ kept me alive, kept me in heart; and unless I had 
made him my help, by putting my trust in him, and expecting relief from him, 
I could never have kept possession of my own soul; but living by faith in him 
has kept my head above water, has given me breath, and something to say. 

2nd. God's goodness is the great support of sinking spirits: ver. 18, When 
I said, My foot slippeth" into sin, into ruin, into despair, then "thy mercy, 
O Lord, held me up," and kept me from falling, and defeated the design of 
those who consulted to cast me down from mine excellency, Ps. lxii. 4. We 
are beholden not only to God's power, but to his pity, for spiritual' supports. 
Thy mercy, the gifts of thy mercy, and my hope in thy mercy, held me up. 
God's right hand sustains his people, when they look on their right hand and 
on their left, and there is none to uphold. And we are then prepared for his 
gracious supports, when we are sensible of our own weakness and inability 
to stand by our own strength, and come to God to acknowledge it, and to tell 
him how our foot slippeth. 

3rd. Divine consolations are the effectual relief of troubled spirits; ver. 19, 
M In the multitude of my thoughts within me," that are noisy like a multitude, 
crowding and jostling one another like a multitude, and very unruly and 
ungovernable ; in the multitude of my sorrowful, solicitous, timorous thoughts, 
"thy comforts delight my soul; " and they are never more delightful than when 
they come in so seasonably to silence my unquiet thoughts, and keep my mind 
easy. The world's comforts give but little delight to the soul when it is 
hurried with melancholy thoughts ; they are songs to a heavy heart. .But God's 
comforts will reach the soul, and not the fancy only, and will bring with them 
that peace and pleasure which the smiles of the world cannot give, and w hich 
the frowns of the world cannot take away. 

4th. God is and will be, as a righteous judge, the patron and protector of 
right, and the punisher ana avenger of wrong. This the psalmist had both the 
assurance of, and the experience of. 

First. He will right the injured, ver. 22. When none else will, or can, or dare 
shelter me, * the Lord is my defence," to preserve me from the evil of my 
troubles, from sinking under them, and being ruined by them; and he is "the 
rock of my refuge," in the clefts of which 1 may take shelter, and on the top 
of which I may set my feet, to be out of the reach of danger. God is his 
people's refuge, to whom they may flee, in whom they are safe, and may be 
secure. He is the rock of their refuge, so strong, so firm: impregnable, 
immovable as a rock. Natural fastnesses sometimes exceed artificial forti- 
fications. 

Secondly. He will reckon with the injurious; ver. 23, "He shall render to 
them their own iniquity;" that is, he shall deal with them according to their 
deserts; and that very mischief which they did and designed against God's 
people shall be brought upon themselves; and it follows, he "shall cut them 
off in their own wickedness." A man cannot be more miserable than his own 
wickedness will make him, if God visit it upon him; it will cut him in the 
remembrance of it ; it will cut him off in the recompence of it. This the psalm 
concludes with the triumphant assurance of. " Yea, the Lord our God," who 
takes our part, and owns us for his, " shall cut them off" from any fellowship 
with him, and so shall make them completely miserable, and their pomp and 
power shall stand them in no stead 



PSALM XCV. 

For the expounding of this psalm we may borrow a great deal of light from the apostle's 
discourse, Heb. iii. and iv., where it appears, both to have been penned by David, and 
to have been calculated for the days of the Messiah; for it is there said expressly, 
Heb. iv. 7, that the day here spoken of, ver. 7, is to be understood of the gospel day, in 
which God speak3to us by his Son, in a voice which we are concerned to hear, and pro- 
poseth to us a rest, beside that of Canaan. In singing of psalms it is intended, I. That we 
should make melody unto the Lord, and that we are here excited to do, and assisted in 
doing; being called upon to praise God, ver. 1, 2, as a great God, ver. 3—5, and as our 
gracious benefactor, ver. 6, 7. II. That we should teach and admonish ourselves and 
one another; and we are here taught and warned to hear God's voice, ver. 7. and not 
to harden our hearts, as the Israelites in the wilderness did, ver. 8, 9, lest we fall under 
God's wrath, and fall short of his rest, as they did, ver. 10, 11. This psalm must be 



PSALM XCV. 461 

sung with a holy reverence of God's majesty, and a dread of his justice, with a desire 
to please him, and a fear to offend him. 

OCOME, let us sing unto the Lord : 
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 

2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, 
A.nd make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 

3 For the Lord is a great God, 
And a great King above all gods. 

4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth : 
The strength of the hills is his also. 

5 The sea is his, and he made it : 
And his hands formed the dry land. 

6 0 come, let us worship and bow down : 
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. 

7 For he is our God ; [his hand. 
And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of 

The psalmist here, as often elsewhere, stirs up himself and others to praise 
God; for it is a duty which ought to be performed with the most lively affec- 
tions, and which we have great need to be excited to, being very often backward 
to it, and cold in it. Observe, 

First. How God is to be praised. I. With holy joy and delight in him. The 
praising song must be a joyful noise, ver. I ; and again, ver. 2. Spiritual joy is 
the heart and soul of thankful praise. It is the will of God (such is the con- 
descension of his grace) that when we give glory to him, as a being infinitely 
perfect and blessed, we should, at the same time, rejoice in him as our Father 
and King, and a God in covenant with us. 2. With humble reverence and a 
holy awe of him; ver. 6, "let us worship, and bow down," and kneel before 
him, as becomes those who know what an infinite distance there is between U9 
and God, how much we are in danger of his wrath, and in need of his mercy. 
Though bodily exercise alone profits little, yet certainly it is our duty to glorify 
God with our bodies, by the outward expressions of reverence, seriousness, and 
humility, in the duties of religious worship. 3. We must praise God with our 
voice ; we must speak forth, sing forth, his praises out of the abundance of a 
heart filled with love, and joy, and thankfulness; " Sing to the Lord, make a 
noise, a joyful noise to him with psalms;" as those that are ourselves much 
affected with his greatness and goodness, are forward to own ourselves so, are 
desirous to be more and more affected therewith, and would willingly be instru- 
mental to kindle and inflame the same pious and devout affection in others also. 
4. We must praise God in concert, in the solemn assemblies; "Come, let us 
sing;" let us join in singing to the Lord ; not others without me, nor I alone, 
but others with me. "Let us come" together "before his presence," in the 
courts of his house, where his people use to attend him, and to expect his 
manifestations of himself. Whenever we come into God's presence, we must 
come " with thanksgiving," that we are admitted to such a favour ; and when- 
ever we have thanks to give we must come before God's presence, set ourselves 
before him, and present ourselves to him in the ordinances which he hath 
appointed. 

Secondly. Why God is to be praised, and what must be the matter of our 
praise : we do not want matter, it were well if we did not want a heart. We 
must praise God, 

1. Because he is a great God and sovereign Lord of all ; ver. 3, he is great, 
and therefore greatly to be praised. He is infinite and immense, and hath all 
perfection in himself. 1st. He has great power ; "he is a great King above all 
gods," above all deputed deities, all magistrates, to whom he said, Ye are gods; 
(he manageth them all, and serves his own purposes by them, and to him they 
are all accountable :) above all counterfeit deities, all pretenders, all usurpers ; 
he can do that which none of them can do ; he can and will famish and vanquish 
them all. 2nd. He has great possessions. This lower world is here particularly 
instanced in ; we reckon those great men that have large territories, which they 
call their own against all the world, which yet are a very inconsiderable part 
of the universe. How great then is that God, whose the whole earth is, and 
the fulness thereof ; not only under whose feet it is, as he has an incontestable 



462 PSALM XCV. 

riomin 



ominion over all the creatures, and a propriety in them, but in whose hand it 
« ' * he f ! aS th f J^ tua directing and disposing of all, ver. 4; even 'the dee* 
places of the earth/' which are put of our sight, subterraneous springs and mines 
are in his hand ; and the height of the hills," which are out of our reach what 
ever grows or feeds upon them, « is his also." This may be taken figumfveh the 
meanest of the children of men, that are as the low places of the earth ^e no? 

are ifo \ n hov. 0g h n ' 1ZanC t ; greatest > that are as the length ^of the hi lis 

frnJ r i S hlS ? ont l 0 }' Whatever strength is in any creature it is derived 
trom God and employed for him, ver. 5. « The sea is his," and all tha is ii i ft "122 

SKci.^ +i y nd) ^ough given to the children of men, is his too, for he 
KLJ ve Y VBd A th .? P^P^ t0 himself; it is his, for his hands formed it when 

suddmp th£i£* t e A i L T u hls hemg a * 0S P el P salm > w e may very well 
SSSV n ^ *i* S - h u Lo ^ d , Jesus whom we are here taught to praise He is a 

fvermote 5 As M^Zt^V* ^ ° f h i S T^ tles > ? nd God ^/afl blessed for* 
rZitT. Mediator, he is a great King above all gods : bv him kings 

^ELSi^^JfrH? 1 ^ 41 ^ and powers are subject to him ;%y him, Is 
tne internal >V ord, all things were made, Jno. i. 3; and it was fit he should be 
} l in/, e if° rer an - d ^nciler of all who was the creator of all Col i 16 20 To 
ire delivered " ETh^Si? J 6 ?™ *? earth u> and into'his hand 4ll ihings 

tbp 5«o? USe he " our G i )d - ; not only has a dominion over us, as he has overall 
the creatures, but stands m special relation to us, ver. 7 He is our God 
Wh«r k 13 ^P^^ w , e sh °uld praise him.' Who will if we do not ^ 

What else did he make us for, but that we should be to him for a name aSd a 

thfLo?d e our^Iaker*" £5°. th ?^ ov °, f our being; we must "kneel before 
MX ESS'i SlnS ° Ur S0D « S ^Praises, "to Him tLtsitVup^The'tbron? 

ItSSPfiiil 

To day if ye will hear his voice, 

8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, 
And as in the day of temptation in the wilderness : 

9 When your fathers tempted me, 
Proved me, and saw my work. 

10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, 
And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, 
And they have not known my ways : 

1 1 Unto whom I sware in my wrath 

That they should not enter into my rest. 

2 ffi^ste'TS^ expect that heshoZ *™ & 



PSALM XCV 463 

First. The duty required of all those that are the people of Christ's pasture, 
and the sheep of his hand. He expects that they hear his voice, for he hath said, 
" My sheep hear my voice," Jno. x. 27. " We are his people," say they ; are you 
so? then hear iiis voice. If you call him Master, or Lord, then do the things 
which he saith, and be his willing, obedient people. Hear the voice of his doc- 
trine, his law, and in both of his Spirit ; hear and heed ; hear and yield. Hear 
his voice, and not the voice of a stranger. "If ye will hear his voice;" some 
take it as a wish, ' O, that ye would hear his voice !' that ye would be so wisq, 
and do so well for yourselves ; as, "if thou hadst known," Lu. xix. 41, that is, 
O, that thou hadst known! Christ's voice must be heard to-day; this the 
apostle lays much stress upon, applying it to the gospel day. While he is 
speaking to you see that you attend to him, for this day of your opportunities 
will not last always, improve it therefore while it is called to-day, Heb. iii. 13, 15. 
Hearing the voice of Christ is the same with believing. To-day, if by faith you 
accept the gospel offer, well and good, but to-morrow it may be too late. In a 
matter of such vast importance nothing more dangerous than delay. 

Secondly. The sin they are warned against, as inconsistent with the believing, 
obedient ear required, and that is hardness of heart. "If ye will hear his 
voice," and profit by what you hear, then do not harden your hearts ; for the 
seed sown on the rock never brought any fruit to perfection. The Jews there- 
fore believed not the Gospel of Christ, because their hearts were hardened; 
they were not convinced of the evil of sin, and of their danger by reason of sin, 
and therefore they regarded not the offer of salvation. They would not bend 
to the yoke of Christ, nor yield to his demands. And if the sinner's heart be 
hardened, it is his own act and deed, he hardened it himself, and he alone shall 
bear the blame for ever. 

Thirdly. The example they are warned by ; which is that of the Israelites in 
the wilderness. Take heed of sinning as they did, lest you be shut out of the 
everlasting rest, as they were out of Canaan : "Be not as your fathers, a stub- 
born and rebellious generation," Ps. lxxviii. 8. Thus here, " Harden not your 
heart, as" you did, that is your ancestors, "in the provocation," or in Meribah, 
the place where they quarrelled with God and Moses, Ex. xvii. 2 — 7, " and in 
the day of temptation in the wilderness," ver. 8. So often did they provoke 
God by their distrusts and murmurings, that the whole time of their continu- 
ance in the wilderness might be called a day of temptation, or Massah, the 
other name given to that place, Ex. xvii. 7, because they tempted the Lord, 
saying, "Is the Lord among us, or is he not?" This was in the wilderness 
where they could not help themselves, but lay at God's mercy ; and where God 
wonderfully helped them, and gave them such sensible proofs of his power and 
tokens of his favour as never any people had before or since. # Note, 1. Days 
of temptation are days of provocation. Nothing is more offensive to God than 
disbelief of his promise, and despair of the performance of it because of some 
difficulties that seem to lie in the way. 2. The more experience we have had of 
the power and goodness of God, the greater is our sin if we distrust him. What, 
to tempt him in the wilderness, where we live upon him ! This is as ungrateful 
as it is absurd and unreasonable. 3. Hardness of heart is at the bottom of all 
our distrusts of God, and quarrels with him. That is a hard heart which 
receives not the impressions of Divine discoveries, and conforms not to the 
intentions of the Divine will, which will not melt, which will not bend. 4. The 
sins of others ought to be warnings to us not to tread in their steps. The 
murmurings of Israel were written for our admonition, 1 Cor. x. 11. Now here 
observe. 

1st. The charge drawn up in God's name against the unbelieving Israelites, 
ver. 9, 10. God here, many ages after, complains of their ill carriage towards 
him, with the expressions of a high resentment. First. Their sin was unbelief. 
They tempted God, and proved him; that is, they questioned whether they 
might take his word, and insisted upon farther security, before they would go 
forward to Canaan, by sending spies ; and when those discouraged them, they 
protested against the sufficiency of the Divine power and promise, and would 
make a captain, and return into Egypt, Num. xiv. 3, 4. This is called rebellion, 
Deu. i. 26, 32. Secondly. The aggravation of this sin was, that they saw God's 
work ; they saw what he had done for them in bringing them out of Egypt ; 
nay, what he was now doing for them every day, this day, in the bread he 
reined from heaven for them, and the water out of the rock that followed 
them, than which they could not have more unquestionable evidences of God's 
presence with them. With them even seeing was not believing, because they 
hardened their hearts, though they had seen what Pharaoh got by hardening 
his heart. Thirdly. The causes of their sin. See what God imputed it to : 
"It is a people that do err in their hearts, and they have not known my ways." 
Men's unbelief and distrust of God, their murmurings and quarrels with him, 
are the effect of their ignorance and mistake. 1st. Of their ignorance ; " they 



464 



PSALM XCVL 



have not known my ways." They saw his work, ver. 9, and ne made known 
his acts to them, Ps. ciii. 7, and yet they did not know his ways, the ways of his 
providence, in which he walked towards them, or the ways of his command- 
ments, in which he would have them to walk towards him. They did not 
know, that is, they did not rightly understand, and therefore did not approve 
of these. Note, The reason why people slight and forsake the ways of God 
is because they do not know them. 2nd. Of their mistake ;" they do err in 
their heart they wander out of the way, in heart they turn back. Note, Sins 
are errors, practical errors, errors in heart; such there are, and as fatal as 
errors in the head. When the corrupt affections pervert the judgment, and so 
lead the soul out of the ways of duty and obedience, there is an error of the 
heart. Fourthly. God's resentment of their sin. "Forty years long was I 
grieved with this generation." Note, The sins of God's professing people do 
not only anger him, but grieve him, especially their distrust of him; and God 
keeps an account how often {Num. xiv. 22) and how long they grieve him. See 
the patience of God towards provoking sinners. He was grieved with them 
forty years, and yet those years ended in a triumphant entrance into Canaan, 
made by the next generation. If our sins have grieved God, surely they should 
grieve us, and nothing in sin should grieve us so much as that. 

2nd. The sentence passed upon them for their sin; ver. 11, "Unto whom I 
sware in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest," then say 1 am changeable 
and untrue; see the sentence at large, Num. xiv, 21, &c. Observe, First. 
Whence this sentence came — from the wrath of God. He swore solemnly ir 
his wrath, his just and holy wrath; but let not men therefore swear profanely 
in their wrath, their sinful brutish wrath. God is not subject to such passions 
as we are; but he is said to be angry, very angry at sin and sinners, to shew the 
malignity of sin, and the justice of God's government. That is certainly an evil 
thing which deserves such a recompence of revenge as may be expected from 
a provoked deity. Secondly. What it was; "that they should not enter into 
his rest," the rest which he had prepared and designed for them; a settlement 
for them and theirs. That none of them, who were enrolled when they came 
out of Egypt, should be found written in the roll of the living at their entering 
into Canaan, but Caleb and Joshua. Thirdly. How it was ratified; I swore it. 
It was not only a purpose, but a decree. The oath shewed the immutability of 
his counsel, " The Lord sware, and will not repent ; " and it cut off the thought 
of any reserve of mercy ; God's threatenings are as sure as his promises. 

Now this case of Israel may be applied to those of their posterity that lived in 
David's time, when this psalm was penned. Let them hear God's voice, and 
not harden their hearts as their fathers did, lest, if they were stiffnecked like 
them, God should be provoked to forbid them the privileges of his temple at 
Jerusalem, of which he had said, " This is my rest." But it must be applied to 
us Christians, because so the apostle applies it. There is a spiritual and eternal 
rest set before us, and promised to us, of which Canaan was a type. We are 
all (in profession at least) bound for this rest, yet many that seem to be so come 
short, and shall never enter into it. And what is it that puts a bar in their 
door? It is sin, it is unbelief; that sin against the remedy, against our appeal. 
They that, like Israel, distrust God, and his power and goodness, and prefer 
the garlick and onions of Egypt before the milk and honey of Canaan, will 
justly be shut out from his rest; so shall their doom be, themselves have 
decided it. "Let us therefore fear," Heb. iv. 1. 



PSALM XCYI. 

This psalm is part of that psalm which was delivered into the hand of Asaph and his 
brethren, 1 Chr. xvi. 7, by which it appears both that David was the penman of it, and 
that it has reference to the bringing up of the ark to the city of David ; whether that 
long psalm was made first, and this afterwards taken out of it, or this made first, and 
afterwards borrowed to make up that, is not certain : but this is certain, that though it 
was sung at the translation of the ark, it looks farther to the kingdom of Christ, and 
is designed to celebrate the glories of that kingdom; especially the accession of the 
Gentiles to it. Here is, I. A call given to all people to praise God, to worship him. 
and give glory to him, as a great and glorious God, ver. 1 — 9. II. Notice given to 
all people of God's universal government and judgment, which ought to be the matter 
of universal joy, ver. 10 — 13. In singing this psalm we ought to have our hearts filled 
with great and high thoughts of the glory of God, and the grace of the Gospel, and with 
an entire satisfaction in Christ's sovereign dominion, and in the expectation of the 
judgment to come. 




SING unto the Lord a new song : 
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. 



PSALM XCVI. 



46c 



■ 2 Sing unto the Lord, bless his name ; 
Shew forth his salvation from day to day. 

3 Declare his glory among the heathen, 
His wonders among all people. 

4 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised : 
He is to be feared above all gods. 

5 For all the gods of the nations are idols : 
But the Lord made the heavens. 

6 Honour and majesty are before him : 
Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 

7 Give unto the Lord, 0 ye kindreds of the people, 
Give unto the Lord glory and strength. 

8 Give unto the Lord the glory due anto his name : 
Bring an offering, and come into his courts. 

9 0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness : 
Fear before him, all the earth. 

These verses will be best expounded by pious and devout affections, working 
in our souls towards God, with a high veneration for his majesty and tran- 
scendent excellency. The call here given us to praise God is very lively, the 
expressions raised and repeated, to all which the echo of a thankful heart 
should make agreeable returns. We are here required to honour God, 

First. With songs, ver. L 2. Three times we are here called to " sing unto 
the Lord." Sing to the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Ghost, as it was in 
the beginning, when the morning stars sung together, is now, in the church 
militant, and ever shall be in the church triumphant. We have reason to do 
it often, and we have need to be often minded of it, and stirred up to it. " Sii»g 
unto the Lord," that is, u Bless his name," speak well of him, that you may 
bring others to think well of him. 1. Sing a new song; that is, an excellent 
song, the product of new affections, clothed with new expressions. We speak 
of nothing more despicable than an old song, but the newness of a song recom- 
mends it ; for there we expect something surprising. A new song is a song for 
new favours, for those compassions which are new every morning. A new 
song is a New Testament song, a song of praise for the new covenant, and the 
precious privileges of that covenant. A new song is a song that shall be ever 
new. and shall never wax old, or vanish away : it is an everlasting song, that 
shall never be antiquated or out of date. 2. Let all the earth sing this song; 
not the Jews only, to whom hitherto the service of God had been appro- 
priated, who could not sing the Lord's song in (would not sing it to) a strange 
land; but let all the earth, all that are redeemed from the earth, learn and sing 
this new song, Rev. xiv. 3. This is a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles: 
all the earth shall have this new song put into their mouths, shall have both 
cause and call to sing it. 3. Let the subject matter of this song be his salva- 
tion ; the great salvation which was to be wrought out by the Lord Jesus ; th=,t 
must be shewed forth as the cause of this joy and praise. 4. Let these songs be 
sung constantly, and not only in the times appointed for the solemn feasts, but 
from day to day. It is a subject that can never be exhausted. Let day unto 
day utter this speech, that under the influence of gospel devotions, we may 
daily exemplify a gospel conversation. 

Secondly. With sermons; ver. 3, "Declare his glory among the heathen, even 
his wonders among all people." 1. Salvation by Christ is here spoken of as a 
work of wonder, and that in which the glory of God shines very bright. In 
shewing forth that salvation, we declare God's glory as it shines in the face 
of Christ. 2. This salvation was in the Old Testament times, as heaven's 
happiness is now. a glory to be revealed; but in the fulness of time it was 
declared, and a full discovery made of that, even to babes, which prophets and 
kings desired and wished to see, and might not. 3. What was then discovered 
was declared only among the Jews, but it is now declared among the heathen, 
among all people. The nations which long sat in darkness now see this great 
light. The apostles* commission to preach the Gospel to every creature is 
copied from this : " Declare his glory among the heathen." 

2 a 



PSALM XCVI. 



Thirdly. With religious services, ver. 7—9. Hitherto though in every nation 
they that feared God, and wrought righteousness, were accepted of him, yet 
instituted ordinances were the peculiarities of the Jewish religion; but* in 
gospel times the kindreds of the people shall be invited and admitted into the 
service of God, and be as welcome as ever the Jews were. The court of the 
Gentiles shall no longer be an outward court, but shall be laid in common with 
the court of Israel. All the earth is here summoned to fear before the Lord, 
that is, to worship him according to his appointment. " In every place incense 
shall be offered to his name," Mai. i. 11 ; Zee. xiv. 17 ; Isa. lxvi. 23. This indeed 
spoke mortification to the Jews, but withal it gave a prospect of that which 
would redound very much to the glory of God, and to the happiness of man- 
kind. 

Now observe how the acts of devotion to God are here described. 1. "We must 
give unto the Lord ; not as if God needed any thing, or could receive any thing 
from us or any creature, which was not his own before, much less be benefited 
by it ; but we must in our best affections, adorations, and services return to him 
what we have received from him, and do it freely, as what we give; for God 
loves a cheerful giver. It is debt, it is rent, it is tribute, it is what must be 
paid, and if not will be recovered; and yet if it come from hoiy love, God is 
pleased to accept it as gift. 2. We must acknowledge God to be the sovereign 
Lord, and pay homage to him accordingly; ver. 7, " Give unto the Lord glory 
and strength," glory and empire, or dominion, so some. As a king he is clothed 
with robes of glory, and girt with the girdle of power, and we must subscribe 
to both. "Thine is the kingdom," and therefore "thine is the power and the 
glory." Give the glory to God ; do not take it to yourselves, nor give it to any 
creature. 3. We must "give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name;" that 
is, to the discovery he has been pleased to make of himself to the children of 
men. In all the acts of religious worship this is that which we must aim at, to 
honour God, to pay him some of that reverence which we owe him as the best 
of beings, and the fountain of our being. 4. We must bring an offering into 
his courts. We must bring ourselves in the first place, the offering up of the 
Gentiles, Rom. xv. 16. We must offer up the sacrifices of praise continually, 
Heb. xiii. 15 ; must often appear before God in public worship, and never 
appear before him empty. 5. We must worship him in the beauty of holiness: 
in the solemn assembly, where Divine institutions are religiously observed, the 
beauty of which is their holiness, that is, their conformity to the rule. W orship 
him with holy hearts, sanctified by the grace of God, devoted to the glory of 
God, and purified from the pollutions.of sin. 6. We must fear before him. All 
the acts of worship must be performed from a principle of the fear of God, and 
with a holy awe and reverence. 

In the midst of these calls to praise God and give glory to him, glorious 
things are here said of him, both as motives to praise, and matter of praise. 
"The Lord is great, and" therefore "greatly to be praised," ver. 4, and to be 
feared; great and honourable to his attendants; great and terrible to his 
adversaries. Even the new song proclaims God great as well as good ; for his 
goodness is his glory. And when the everlasting Gospel is preached, this is it, 
" Fear God, and give glory to him," Rev. xiv. 6, 7. 

1st. He is great in his sovereignty over all that pretend to be deities. None 
dare vie with him: "He is to be feared above all gods," all princes, who were 
often deified after their deaths, and even while they lived were adored as petty 
gods ; or rather, all idols, the gods of the nations, ver. 5. All the earth being 
called to sing the new song, they must be convinced that the Lord Jehovah, to 
whose honour they must sing it, is the one only living and true God ; infinitely 
above all rivals and pretenders. He is great, and they are little : he is all, and 
they are nothing. So the word used for idols signifies ; for " we know that an 
idol is nothing in the world," 1 Cor. viii. 4. 2nd. He is great in his right, eyen 
to the noblest part of the creation ; for it is his own work, and derives its being 
from him. " The Lord made the heavens," and all their hosts, they are the 
work of his fingers, Ps. viii. 3; so nicely, so curiously are they made. The 
gods of the nations were all made gods, the creatures of men's fancies ; but our 
God is the creator of the sun, moon and stars, those lights of heaven, which 
they imagined to be gods, and worshipped as such. 3rd. He is great in the 
manifestation of his glory both in the upper and lower world, among his 
angels in heaven, and his saints on earth; ver. 6, "Splendour and majesty are 
before him" in his immediate presence above, where the angels cover their 
faces, as unable to bear the dazzling lustre of his glory. " Strength and beauty 
are in his sanctuary," both that above, and this below. In God there is every 
thing that is awful, and yet every thing that is amiable. If we attend him in 
his sanctuary, we shall behold his beauty, for God is love ; and experience his 
strength, forne is our rock. Let us therefore go forth in his strength, enamoured 
with his beauty, 



PSALM XCYL 



467 



10 Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth : 

The world also shall be established that it shall not be 
He shall judge the people righteously. [moved : 

1 1 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; 
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. 

12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein : 
Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice 

13 Before the Lord : for he cometh, 
For he cometh to judge the earth : 

He shall judge the world with righteousness, 
And the people with his truth. 

We have here instructions given to those who were to preach the Gospel to 
the nations, what to preach ; or to those who had themselves received the 
Gospel, what account to give of it to their neighbours, what to say among the 
heathen. And it is an. illustrious prophecy of the setting up of the kingdom of 
Christ upon the ruins of the devil's kingdom, which began presently after his 
ascension, and will continue in the doing till the mystery of God be finished. 

First. Let it be told that the Lord reigneth, the Lord Christ reigneth, that 
King whom God determined to set upon his holy hill of Zion. See how this 
was first said among the heathen by Peter, Acts x. 42. Some of the ancients 
added a gloss to this, which by degrees crept into the text, ' The Lord reigneth 
from the tree.' So Justin Martyr, Austin, and others, quote it, meaning the 
cross, when he had this title written over him, " The King of the Jews." It 
was because he became obedient to death, even the death of the cross, that God 
exalted him, and gave him a name above every name, a throne above every 
throne. Some of the heathen came betimes to inquire after him that was born 
king of the Jews, Mat. ii. 2. Now let them know that he is come, and his 
kingdom is set up. 

Secondly. Let it be told that Christ's government will be the world's happy 
settlement. " The world also shall be established, that it shall not be moved." 
The natural world shall be established. The standing of the world and its 
.stability is owing to the mediation of Christ, Sin had given it a shock, and 
still threatens it; but Christ as Redeemer upholds all things, and preserves the 
course of nature. The world of mankind shall be established, shall be pre- 
served till all that belong to the election of grace are called in, though a guilty, 
provoking world. The Christian religion, as far as it is embraced, shall establish 
states and kingdoms, and preserve good order among men. The church in the 
world shall be established, so some, that it cannot be moved : for it is built upon 
a rock, and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. It is a kingdom that 
cannot be shaken. 

Thirdly. Let them be told that Christ's government will be incontestably 
just and righteous. " He shall judge the people righteously," ver. 10; " Judge 
the world with righteousness, and with his truth," ver. 13. Judging is here put 
for ruling; and though this maybe extended to the general judgment of the 
world at the last day, which will be in righteousness, Acts xvii. 31, yet it refers 
more immediately to Christ's first coming, and the setting up of his kingdom in 
the world by the Gospel. He saith himself, " For judgment am I come into 
this world," Jno. ix. 39; xii. 31 ; and that all judgment was committed to him, 
Jno. v. 22, 27. His ruling and judging with righteousness and truth signifies, 
1. That all the laws and ordinances of his kingdom shall be consonant to the 
rules and principles of eternal truth and equity, that is, to the rectitude and 
purity of the Divine nature and will. 2. That all his administrations of govern- 
ment shall be just and faithful, and according to what he hath said. 3. That he 
shall rule in the hearts and consciences of men by the commanding power of 
truth, and the spirit of righteousness and sanctification. Yv'hen Pilate asked 
our Saviour, " Art thou a king?" _ He answered, <4 For this cause came I into 
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth,'' Jno. xviii. 37 ; for he 
rules by truth, commands men's wills by informing their judgments aright. 

Fourthly. Let them be told that his coming draws nigh ; that this king, this 
judge, standeth before the door ; "for he cometh, for he cometh." Enoch, the 
seventh from Adam, said so : " Behold, the Lord cometh," Jude 14. Betwixt this 
and his first coming the revolutions of many ages intervened, and yet he came 



463 PSALM XCVII. 

at the set time; and so sure will his second coming; be; though it is now long 
since it was said, ' k Behold he conies in the clouds,"' Rev. i. 7, and yet he is not 
come. See 2 Pet. iii. 4, &c. 

Fifthly. Let them be called upon to rejoice in this honour that is put upon 
the Messiah, and this great trust that is to be lodged in his hand; ver. 11, 12, 
" Let heaven and earth rejoice, the sea. the field, and all the trees of the wood." 
The dialect here is poetical ; the meaning is, 1. That the days of the Messiah 
will be joyful days, and as far as his grace and government are submitted to 
they will bring joy along with them. We have reason to give that place, that 
soul joy into which Christ is admitted. See an instance of both, Acts viii., 
when Samaria received the Gospel, "there was great joy in that city," ver. 8. 
And when the eunuch was baptized, "He went on his way rejoicing," ver. 39. 

2. That it is the duty of every one of us to bid Christ and his kingdom wel- 
come; for though it comes conquering and to conquer, yet it comes peace- 
ably. "Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh ; " and again, " Hosanna, blessed 
be the kingdom of our father David," Mar. xi. 9, 10 ; not only, " Let the 
daughter of Zion rejoice, that her king comes,"' Zee. ix. 9, but let all rejoice. 

3. That the whole creation will have reason to rejoice in the setting up of 
Christ's kingdom, even the sea, and the field. For as by the sin of the first 
Adam the whole creation was made subject to vanity, so by the grace of the 
second Adam it shall, some way or other, first or last, be " delivered from the 
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God," 
Mom. viii. 20, 21. 4. That there will in the first place "be joy in heaven, joy in 
the presence of the angels of God ; " for when the First-begotten was brought 
into the world they sung their anthems to his praise, Lu. ii. 14. 5. That God 
will graciously accept the holy joys and praises of all the hearty wellwishers to 
the kingdom of Christ, be their capacity never so mean. The sea can but roar, 
and how the trees of the wood can shew that they rejoice, I know not; but "he 
that searcheth the heart knows what is the mind of the spirit," and under- 
stands the language, the broken language, of the weakest. 

PSALM XCVII. 

This psalm dwells upon the same subject, and is set to the same tune, with the foregoing 
psalm. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega of both; they are both penned, and are both 
to be sung, to his honour, and we make nothing of them if we do not in them make 
melody with our hearts to the Lord Jesus. He it is that reigns to the joy of all mankind, 
ver. 1. And his government speaks, I. Terror to his enemies; for he is a prince of 
inflexible justice and irresistible power, ver. 2 — 7. II. Comfort to his friends and loyal 
subjects, arising from his sovereign dominion, the care he takes of his people, and. the 
provision he makes for them, ver. 8 — 12. In singing this psalm we must be affected 
with the glory "of the exalted Redeemer ; must dread the lot of his enemies, and think 
ourselves happy if we are of those that kiss the Son. 

THE Lord reigneth ; let the earth rejoice : 
Let the multitude of isles be glad thereo f. 

2 Clouds and darkness are round about him : [throne. 
Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his 

3 A fire goeth before him, 

And burnetii up his enemies round about. 

4 His lightnings enlightened the world : 
The earth saw, and trembled. 

5 The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lokd, 
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 

6 The heavens declare his righteousness, 
And all the people see his glory. 

7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images., 
That boast themselves of idols : 

Worship him, all ye gods. 



PSALM XCVII. 



469 



What was to be said among the heathen in the foregoing psalm, ver. 10, 
is here said again, ver. 1 ; and is made the subject of this psalm, and of 
Ps. xcix., " The Lord reigns." That is the great truth here laid down. The 
Lord Jehovah reigns; he that made the world governs it; he that gave being, 
gives motion and power, gives law and commission, gives success and event. 
Every man's judgment proceeds from the Lord, from his counsel and pro- 
vidence, and in all affairs both public and private he performeth the thing 
which he himself has appointed. The Lord Jesus reigns; the providentiaL 
kingdom is twisted in with the mediatorial, and the administration of both 
is in the hand of Christ; who therefore is both the head of the church, and 
head over all things to the church. The kingdom of Christ is so constituted 
as that, 

First. It may be matter of joy to all ; and it will be so if it be not their own 
fault. "Let the earth rejoice," for hereby it is established, Ps. xcvi. 10; it is 
honoured and enriched, and in part rescued from the vanity which by sin it 
is made subject to. Not only let the people of Israel rejoice in him as King 
of the Jews, and the daughter of Zion as her King, but let all the earth rejoice 
in his elevation ; for the kingdoms of the world shall more or less, sooner or 
later, become his kingdom. " Let the multitude of isles," the many or great 
isles, "be glad thereof." This speaks the language of our country, which is a 
great isle, and has many belonging to it ; however, it speaks comfort in general 
to the Gentiles, whose countries are called the isles of the Gentiles, Gen. x. 5. 
There is enough in Christ for the multitude of the isles to rejoice in ; for though 
many have been made happy in him, yet still there is room. All have reason to 
rejoice in Christ's government. 

1. In the equity of it. There is an incontestable instance in all the acts of his 
government, both legislative and judicial ; sometimes indeed " clouds and dark- 
ness are round about him," his dispensations are altogether unaccountable; 
" His way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters." We are not aware 
what he designs, what he drives at, nor is it fit that we should be let into the 
secrets of his government. There is a depth in his counsels which we must 
not pretend to fathom; but still, "righteousness and judgment are the habi- 
tation of his throne." A golden thread of justice runs through the whole web 
of his administration. In this he resides, for it is his habitation; in this he 
rules, for it is the habitation of his throne. His commandments are and will 
be all righteous. ' Righteousness and judgment are the basis of his throne,' 
so Dr. Hammond; for therefore his throne is for ever and ever, because his 
sceptre is a right sceptre, Ps. xlv. 6. < " The throne is established in righteous- 
ness." Even "the heavens declare his righteousness," ver. 6, that is, it is as 
conspicuous and as illustrious as the heavens themselves. The angels of 
heaven will declare it, who are employed as messengers in the administration 
of his government; and therefore know more of it than any of his creatures. 
His righteousness is incontestable, for who can contradict or dispute what the 
heavens declare ? Ps. 1. 6. 

2. In the extent of it in the upper and lower world. 1st. All the men on earth 
are under his government. Either he is served by them, or he serveth himself by 
them ; " All the people see his glory," or may see it. The glory of God in the 
face of Christ was made to shine in distant countries : among many people, more 
or less among all people. The Gospel was preached, for aught we know, in all 
languages, Acts ii. 5, 11; miracles were wrought in all nations, and so all the 
people saw his glory. " Have they not heard ?" Rom. x. 18. 2nd. All the angels 
in heaven are so ; perhaps we should not have found this truth in those words, 
ver. 7, " Worship him, all ye gods; "if we had not been directed to it by the 
inspired apostle, who from the Septuagint version of those words, makes the 
Messiah to be introduced into the upper world at the ascension, with this 
charge, Heb. i. 6, "Let all the angels of God worship him;" which helps us 
with a key to this whole psalm, and shews us that it must be applied to the 
exalted Redeemer, who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, 
which intimates that all power is given him both in heaven and earth, " angels, 
authorities, and powers being made subject unto him," 1 Pet. iii. 22. This speaks 
the honour of Christ, that he hath such worshippers, and the honour of all good 
Christians, that they have such fellow-worshippers. 

Secondly. Christ's government, though it may be matter of joy to all, yet will 
be matter of terror to some ; and it is long of themselves that it is so, ver. 3 — ^, 7. 
Observe, 

1. When the kingdom of Christ was to be set up in the world after his 
ascension, it would meet with many enemies, and much opposition would be 
given to it. He that reigns to the joy of the w r hole earth, yet as he has his 
subjects, so he hath his enemies, ver. 3; that not only will not have him to 
reign over them, but would not have him to reign at all. That not only will 
not enter into the kingdom of heaven themselves, but do all they can to hinder 
those that are entering, Mat. xxiii. 13. This was fulfilled in the enmity of the 



470 PSALM XC VII. 

unbelieving Jews to the Gospel of Christ, and the violent persecution which 
in all places they stirred up against the preachers and professors of it. These 
enemies are here called hills, ver. 5; for their height, and strength, and 
immovable obstinacy. They were the princes of this world that crucified the 
Lord of glory, 1 Cor. ii. 8; Ps. ii. 1. 

2. The opposition which the Jews gave to the setting up of Christ's kingdom 
turned to their own ruin. Their persecuting the apostles, and forbidding them 
to speak to the Gentiles, filled up their sin, and brought wrath upon them to the 
uttermost, 1 Thes. ii. 15, 16. That wrath is here compared, 1st. To consuming 
fire ; which goes before him and burns up his enemies, that have made them- 
selves like chaff and stubble, and have set the briars and thorns before him in 
battle, Isa. xxvii. 4. This fire of Divine wrath will not only burn the rubbish 
upon the hills, but will even melt the hills themselves like wax, ver. 5. When 
our God appears as a consuming fire, even rocks will be wax before him. The 
most resolute and daring opposition will be baffled" at the presence of the 
Lord." His very presence is enough to shame and sink it, for he is " the Lord 
of the whole earth," by whom all the children of men are manageable, and to 
whom they are accountable. Men hate and persecute God's people, because 
they think him absent; that the Lord has forsaken the earth, but when he 
manifests his presence they melt. 2nd. To amazing lightnings, ver. 4, which 
strike a terror upon many. The judgments of God brought upon the enemies 
of Christ's kingdom were such as all the world took notice of with terror; " The 
earth saw and trembled," and the ears of all that heard were made to tingle. 
This was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the 
Komans, about forty years after Christ's resurrection; which like fire wholly 
destroyed that people, and like lightnings astonished all their neighbours, 
Deu. xxix. 24. Bat the heavens declared God's righteousness in it, and all the 
people to this day see his glory in those lasting monuments of his justice, the 
scattered Jews. 

3. Idolaters also would be put to confusion by the setting up of Christ's 
kingdom; ver. 7, '* Confounded be all they that serve graven images," that is, 
the Gentile world, who "did service to them that by nature are no gods," 
Gal. iv. 8; who boast themselves of idols as their protectors and benefactors. 
Did they that served idols boast of them, and shall the servants of the living 
God distrust him, or be ashamed of him? " Let them be ashamed that serve 
graven images." 1st. This is a prayer for the conversion of the Gentiles, that 
those who have been so long serving dumb idols may be convinced of their 
error, ashamed of their folly, and may by the power of Christ's Gospel be 
brought to serve the only living and true God ; and may be as much asnamed 
of their idols as ever they were proud of them : see Isa. ii. 20, 21. 2nd. This is 
a prophecy of the ruin of those that would not be reformed, and reclaimed from 
their idolatry ; they shall be confounded by the destruction of paganism in the 
Roman empire, which was fulfilled about three hundred years after Christ ; 
so much to the terror of idolaters, that some think it was the revolution under 
Constantine that made even the mighty men say to the rocks, " Fall on us and 
hide us," Rev. vi. 15, 16. This prayer and prophecy is still in force against 
anti-christian idolaters, who may here read their doom, " Confounded be all 
they that worship graven images:" see Jer. xlviii. 13. 

8 Zion heard, and was glad ; 

And the daughters of Judah rejoiced 
Because of thy judgments, 0 Lord. 

9 For thou, Loud, art high above all the earth : 
Thou art exalted far above all gods. 

10 Ye that love the Lord, hate evil : 
He preserveth the souls of his saints ; 

He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. 

1 1 Light is sown for the righteous, 

And gladness for the upright in heart. 

12 Eejoice in the Lord, ye righteous ; 

And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 

The kingdom of the Messiah, like the pillar of cloud and fire, as it hath a 
dark side towards the Egyptians, so it has a bright side towards the Israel of 
fiod. It is set up in spite of opposition; and then "the earth saw and trem- 
bled " ver. 4 ; but " Zion heard, and w as glad," very glad to hear of the con- 



PSALM XCYII. 471 

version of some, and the confusion of others; that is, the conquest of all that 
stood it out against Christ. "Rejoice greatly, () daughter of Zion, for behold 
thy king comes unto thee," Zee. ix. 9. And not Zion only, where the temple 
was, but even the daughters of Judah rejoiced ; the common people, the 
inhabitants of the villages, they shall triumph in Christ's victories. The com- 
mand, ver. 1, is, " Let the earth rejoice;" but it is only the sons of Zion, and 
the daughters of Judah, that do rejoice. All should bid the kingdom of the 
Messiah welcome, but few do. Now here observe, 

First. The reasons that are given for Zion's joy in the government of the 
Redeemer. The faithful servants of God may well rejoice and be glad, 

1. Because God is glorified, and whatever redounds to his honour is very 
much his people's pleasure. They rejoice " because of thy judgments, O Lord ; " 
which may take in both the judgments of his mouth, and the judgments of his 
hand, the word of his Gospel, and his works wrought for the propagating of 
it, miracles and marvellous providences ; for in these we must own, " thou, Lord, 
art high above all the earth," ver. 9. Thou hast manifested thy sovereignty 
in the kingdom of nature, and thy command of all its powers, and thy dominion 
over all nations, over all hearts; "Thou art exalted far above all gods," all 
deputed gods, that is, princes ; all counterfeit gods, that is, idols. The exalta- 
tion of Christ, and the advancement of Gods glory among men thereby, is the 
rejoicing of all the saints. 

2. Because care is taken for their safety. Those that pay allegiance to Christ 
as a King shall be sure of his protection Princes are the shields of the earth : 
Christ is so to his subjects; they may put their trust under his shadow, and 
rejoice in it ; for, ver, 10, " He preserveth the souls of his saints." He preserves 
their lives as long as he has any work for them to do s and wonderfully delivers 
them many a time out of the hand of the wicked, their persecutors, that 
thirst after ther* blood: for "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death 
of his saints." But something more is meant than their lives, for they that 
will be his disciples, must be willing to lay down their lives, and not indent 
for the securing of them. It is the immortal soul that Christ preserves, the 
inward man ; which may be renewed more and more when the outward man 
decays. He will preserve the souls of his saints from sin, from apostacy, and 
despair under their greatest trials ; he will deliver them out of the hands of 
the wicked one, that seeks to devour them. He will preserve them safe to his 
heavenly kingdom, 2 Tim. iv. 18. They have therefore reason to be glad, being 
thus safe. 

3. Because provision is made for their comfort. Those that rejoice in Christ 
Jesus, and in his exaltation, have fountains of joy treasured up for them, which 
will be opened sooner or later ; ver. 11, "Light is sown for the righteous," that 
is, "gladness for the upright in heart." The subjects of Christ's kingdom are 
told to expect tribulation m the world; they must suffer by its malice, and must 
not share in its mirth; yet let them know to their comfort, that light is sown 
for them, it is designed and prepared for them. What is sown will come up 
again in due time; though, like a ^ winter seedness, it may lie long under the 
clods, and seem to be lost and buried, yet it will return in a rich and plentiful 
increase. God's goodness shall be sure of a harvest in the appointed weeks. 
"They that sow in tears, shall" without fail "reap in joy," Ps. exxvi. 5, 6. 
Christ told his disciples at parting, Jno. xvi. 20, "You shall be sorrowful, but 
your sorrow shall be turned into joy." Gladness is sure to the upright in heart, 
to those only that are sincere in religion. " The joy of the hypocrite is but for 
a moment." There is no serenity without a lasting sincerity. 

Secondly. The rules that are here given for Zion's joy. 

1. Let it be a pure and holy joy. Ye that love the Lord Jesus, that love his 
appearing and kingdom, that love his w r ord and his exaltation, see that ye hate 
evil, the evil of sin, every thing that is offensive to him, and will throw you out 
of his favour- Note, A true love to God will shew itself in a real hatred of all 
sin, as that abominable thing which he hates. # The joy of the saints should 
likewise confirm their antipathy to sin, and Divine comforts should" put their 
mouths out of taste to sensual pleasures. 

2. Let the joy terminate in God; ver. 12, "Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous." 
Let all the streams of comfort which flow to us in the channel of Christ's king- 
dom, lead us to the fountain, and oblige us to rejoice in the Lord. All the lines 
of joy must meet in him as their centre : see Phil. hi. 1 ; iv. 4. 

3. Let it express itself in praise and thanksgiving. " Give thanks at the 
remembrance of his holiness." W hatever is the matter of our rejoicing ought 
to be the matter of our thanksgiving ; and particularly, the holiness of God. 
They that hate sin themselves, are glad that God doth so, in hopes that there- 
fore he will not suffer it to have dominion over them. Note, 1st. We ought to 
be much in the remembrance of God's holiness, the infinite purity, rectitude and 
perfection of the Divine nature. We must be ever mindful of his holy covenant, 
which he hath confirmed with an oath by his holiness. 2nd. He ought to give 
thanks upon the remembrance of his holiness; not only give him the glory of 



*' ■ PSALM XCVIII. 

it as it is an honour to him, but give him thanks for it as it is a favour to us* and 
an unspeakable favour it will be if through grace we are partakers of his holi- 
ness. m It is God's holiness which, above all his attributes, the angels celebrate, 
Jsa. vi. 3, " Holy, holy, holy." Sinners tremble, but saints rejoice, at the remem- 
brance of God's holiness, Ps. xxx. 5. 



PSALM XCVIII. 

This psalm is to the same purpose with the two foregoing psalms ; it is a prophecy of the 
kingdom of the Messiah, the setting it up in the world, and the bringing in of the 
Gentiles to it. The Chaldee entitles it a prophetical psalm. It sets forth, I. The glory 
of the Redeemer, ver. 1—3. II. The joy of the redeemed, ver. 4—9. If we in a right 
manner give to Christ this glory, and upon right grounds take to ourselves this joy in 
singing this psalm, we sing it with understanding. And if they then who saw Christ's 
da}* at a distance, and in the promise only, must rejoice and triumph thus, much more 
reason have we to do so, that see these things accomplished, and share in the better 
things provided for us ? Heb. xi. 40. 

A Psalm. 

OSING unto the Lord a new song ; 
For he hath done marvellous things : 
His right hand, and his holy arm, 
Hath gotten him the victory. 

2 The Lord hath made known his salvation : 
His righteousness hath he openly shewed 
In the sight of the heathen. 

3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth 

Toward the house of Israel : [God. 
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our 

We are here called upon again to "sing unto the Lord a new song," as 
before, Ps. xcvi. 1. Sing a most excellent song, the best song you have. Let 
the song of Christ's love be like Solomon's on that subject, — a song of songs. 
A song of praise for redeeming love is a new song, such a song as had not been 
sung before ; for this is a mystery which was hid from ages and generations. 
Converts sing a new song, very different from w T hat they had sung; they change 
their wonder, and change their joy, and therefore change their note. If the 
grace of God put a new 7 heart into our breasts, it will therewith put a new song 
into our mouths. In the new Jerusalem there will be new songs sung, that 
will be new to eternity, and never wax old Let this new song be sung to the 
praise of God, in consideration of these four things : 

First. The wonders he hath wrought. " He hath done marvellous things," 
ver. I. Note, The work of our salvation by Christ is a work of wonder. If we 
take a view of all the steps of it from the contrivance of it, and the counsels of 
God concerning it before all time, to the consummation of it, and its everlasting 
consequences when time shall be no more, we shall say, God has in it done 
marvellous things; it is all his doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. The more 
it is known, the more it will be admired. 

Secondly. The conquests he has won. "His right hand and his holy arm 
hath gotten him the victory." Our Redeemer hath surmounted all the diffi- 
culties that lay in the w r ay of our redemption ^has broken through them all, and 
was not discouraged by the services or sufferings appointed him. He hath 
subdued all the enemies that opposed it, hath gotten the victory over Satan, dis- 
armed him, and cast him out of his strongholds, hath spoiled principalities and 
pow r ers, Col. ii. 15 ; has taken the prey from the mighty, Isa. xliv. 24, and given 
death his death's wound ; he hath gotten a clear and complete victory, not only 
for himself, but for us also; for we through him are more than conquerors. He 
got this victory by his own power; there was none to help, none to uphold, none 
that durst venture into the service, but his right hand and his holy arm, which 
is therefore always stretched out with good success, because it is never stretched 
out but in a good cause. i This has gutten him the victory, hath brought him 
relief or deliverance/ so Dr. Hammond. God's power and faithfulness, called 
here his right hand and his holy arm, brought relief to the Lord Jesus in raising 
him from the dead, and exalting him personally to the right hand of God: so h« 
applies it. 



PSALM XCVIII. 473 

Thirdly. The discoveries he has made to the world of the work of redemption. 
What he has wrought for us he hath revealed to us, and both by his Son. The 
gospel revelation is that on which the gospel kingdom is founded ; " The word 
which God sent/' Acts x. 36. The opening of the sealed book is that which is 
to be celebrated with songs of praise, Rev. v. 8, because by it was brought to 
light the mystery which had long been hid in God. Observe, 1. The subject 
of this discovery. His salvation and his righteousness, ver. 3. Righteousness 
and salvation are often put together, as Isa. lxi. 10; xlvi. 13 ; li. 5, 6, 8. Salva- 
tion speaks the redemption itself, and righteousness the way in which it was 
wrought,— by the righteousness of Christ. Or, the salvation includes all our 
gospel privileges, and the righteousness all our gospel duties; both are made 
known, for God hath joined them together, and we must not separate them 
Or, righteousness is here put for the way of our justification by Christ, which 
is revealed in the Gospel to be by faith, Rom. i. 17. 2. The plainness of this 
discovery. He hath openly shewed it, not in types and figures, as under the law, 
but it is written as with a sunbeam, that he that runs may read it. Ministers 
are appointed to preach it with all plainness of speech. 3. The extent of this 
discovery. It is made in the sight of the heathen, and not of the Jews only. 
"All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God," for to tHe 
Gentiles was the word of salvation sent. 

Fourthly. The accomplishment of the prophecies and promises of the Old 
Testament in this; ver. 3, "He hath remembered his mercy and his truth 
towards the house of Israel." God had mercy in store for the seed of Abraham, 
and had given them many and great assurances of kindness he designed them 
in the latter days; and it w as in pursuance of all those that he raised up his 
Son Jesus, to be not only a "light to lighten the Gentiles," but "the glory 
of his people Israel;" for he sent him in the first place to bless them. God is 
said, in sending Christ, to " perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and 
to remember the holy covenant," Lu. i. 72. It was in consideration of that, and 
not of their merit. 

4 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth : 
Make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 

5 Sing unto the Lord with the harp ; 
With the harp, and the voice of a psalm. 

6 With trumpets and sound of cornet 

Make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. 

7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof ; 
The world, and they that dwell therein. 

8 Let the floods clap their hands : 
Let the hills be joyful together 

9 Before the Lord ; for he cometh to judge the earth : 
With righteousness shall he judge the world, 

And the people with equity. 

The setting up of the kingdom of Christ is here represented as a matter 
of joy and praise. 

First. Let all the children of men rejoice in it; for they all have, or may have, 
benefit by it. Again and again we are here called upon by all ways and means 
possible, to express our joy in it, and give God praise for it. " Make a joyful 
noise," as before, Ps. xlv. 1, 2. "Make a loud noise," as those that are affected 
with those glad tidings, and are desirous to affect others with them ; " Rejoice 
and sing praise; " sing liosanna, Mat. xxi. 9 ; sing Hallelujahs, Rev. xix. 6. Let 
him be welcomed to the throne as new kings used to be, with acclamations of 
joy and loud shouts till the earth ring again, as when Solomon was proclaimed, 
1 Kin. i. 40; and let the shouts of the crowd be acconipanied with " the singers 
and players on instruments," Ps. lxxxvii. 7 : lxviii. 25, as is usual in such 
solemnities. 1. Let sacred songs attend the new king. ^ " Sing praise, sing with 
the voice of a psalm." Express your joy, thus proclaim it, thus excite it yet 
more, and thus propagate it among others. 2. Let these be assisted with sacred 
music, not only with the soft and gentle melody of the harp, but, since it is 
a victorious king whose glory is to he celebrated, who goes forth conquering 
and to conquer, let him be proclaimed with the martial sound of the trumpet 
and cornet, ver. 6. Let all this joy be directed to God, and expressed in a 



474 PSALM XCIX. 

solemn, religious manner: "make a joyful noise to the Lord," ver. 4. "Sing to 
the Lord,'' ver. 5; do it before the Lord, the King," "er. 6. Carnal mirth is 
an enemy to this holy joy. When David danced before the ark he pleaded, "it 
was before the Lord;" and the piety and devotion of the intention not only 
vindicated what he did, but commended it. We must rejoice before the Lord 
whenever we draw near to him, Den. xii. 12 ; before the Lord Jesus, and before 
him not only as the Saviour, but as the King, the King of kings, the church's 
King, and our King. 

Secondly. Let the inferior creatures rejoice in it, ver. 7—9. This is to the 
same purpose with what we had before, Ps. xevi. 11—13, "Let the sea roar," 
and let that be called, — not as it used to be, a dreadful noise, but — a joyful noise; 
for the coming of Christ, and the salvation wrought out by him, hath quite 
altered the property of the troubles and terrors of this world, so that when 
the floods lift up their voice, lift up their waves, we must not construe that to 
be the sea roaring against us, but rather rejoicing with us. Let the floods 
express their joy as men do when they clap their hands; and let the hills, that 
trembled for fear before God when he came down to give the law at mount 
Sinai, dance for joy before him when his Gospel is preached, and that word 
of the Lord goes forth from Zion in a still small voice. " Let the hills be joyful 
together before the Lord." This intimates "hat the kingdom of Christ would 
be a blessing to the whole creation, but that, as the inferior creatures declare 
the glory of the Creator, {Ps. xix. 1,) so they declare the glory of the Redeemer, 
for by him all things not only subsist in their being, but consist in their order. 
It intimates likewise, that the children of men would be wanting in paying their 
due respects to the Redeemer, and therefore he must look for his honour from 
the sea and the floods, which would shame the stupidity and ingratitude of 
mankind. And, perhaps, respect is here had to the new heavens and the new 
earth, which we yet, according to his promise, look for, 2 Pet. hi. 13; and this 
second mention of his coming, after the like, Ps. xcvi., may principally refer to 
his second coming, when all these things shall be so dissolved as to be refined. 
Then shall he come to judge the world with righteousness; and in the prospect 
of that day all that are sanctified do rejoice, and even the sea, and the floods, 
and the hills would rejoice if they could. One would think that Virgil had 
these psalms in his eye, as well as the oracles of the Cumean sybil, in his fourth 
eclogue, where he either ignorantly or basely applies to Asinius Pollio the 
ancient prophecies which at that time were expected to be fulfilled; for he 
lived in the reign of Augustus Cyesar, a little before our Saviour's birth. He 
owns they looked for the birth of a child from heaven, that should be a great 
blessing to the world, and restore the golden age ; 

Jam nova progenies cozlo demittitur alto, 
6 A new race descends from the lofty sky,' 
that should take away sin; 

Te duce, si qua mnnent sceleris vestigia nostri, 

Irrita perpetua solvent for midine terras. 
* Thy influence shall efface every stain of corruption, 

And free the world from alarm.' 
Many other things he saith of this long-looked-for child, which Ludovicus Vives, 
in his notes on that eclogue, thinks applicable to Christ; and he concludes, 
as the psalmist here, with a prospect of the rejoicing of the whole creation 
herein ; 

Aspice, venturo Icetentur ut omnia sceclo. 
4 See how this promised age makes all rejoice.' 
And if all rejoice, why should not we ? 



PSALM XCIX. 

Still we are celebrating the glories of the kingdom of God among men, and are called upon 
to praise him, as in the foregoing psalms ; but those psalms looked forward to the times 
of the Gospel, and prophesied of the graces and comforts of those times. This psalm 
seems to dwell more upon the Old Testament dispensation, and the manifestation of 
God's glory and grace in that. Let not men in expectation of the Messiah's kingdom 
and the evangelical worship neglect that divine regimen they were then under, and the 
ordinances that were then given them, but in them see God reigning, and worship 
before him according to the law of Moses. Prophecies of good things to come must not 
lessen our esteem of good things present. To Israel indeed pertained the promises 
which they must believe ; but to them pertained also the giving of the law and the 
service of God, which they must also dutifully and conscientiously attend to, Rom. ix. 4. 
And this they are called to do in this psalm ; where yet there is much of Christ, for the 
government of the church was in the hands of the eternal Word, before he was incar- 
nate ; ana, besides, the ceremonial services were types and figures of evangelical worship. 



PSALM XCIX. 



475 



The people of Israel are here required to praise and exalt God, and to worship before 
him in consideration of these two things : I. The happy constitution of the govern- 
ment they were under, both in sacred and civil things, ver. 1 — 5. II. Some instances 
of the happy administration of it, ver. 6 — 9. In singing this psalm we must set ourselves 
to exalt the name of God, as it is made known to us in the Gospel, which we have much 
more reason to do than they had that lived under the law. 

THE Lord reigneth ; let the people tremble : 
He sitteth between the cherubinis ; let the earth be 
moved. 

2 The Lord is great in Zion ; 

And he is high above all the people. 

3 Let them praise thy great and terrible name ; 
For it is holy. 

4 The king's strength also love th judgment ; 
Thou dost establish equity, 

Thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob. 

5 Exalt ye the Lord our God, 
And worship at his footstool ; 
For he is holy. 

The foundation of all religion is laid in this truth,— that the Lord reigneth, 
God governs the world by his providence, governs the church by his grace, and 
both by his Son. We are to believe not only that the Lord liveth, but that the 
Lord reigneth. This is the triumph of the Christian church, and here it was 
the triumph of the Jewish church, that Jehovah was their king; and hence it 
is inferred, "Let the people tremble;" that is, 1. Even let the subjects of this 
kingdom tremble, for the Old Testament dispensation had much of terror in 
it. At mount Sinai Israel, and even Moses himself, did exceedingly fear and 
quake; and then God was terrible in his holy places; even when he appeared 
in his people's behalf he did terrible things. But we are not now come to that 
mount that burned with fire, Heb. xii. 18. Now " the Lord reigns, let the earth 
rejoice.'' Then he ruled more by the # power of holv fear, now of holy love. 
2. Much more let the enemies of this kingdom trembie, for he will either bring 
them into obedience to his golden sceptre, or crush them with his iron rod. 
The Lord reigns, though the people be stirred with indignation at it ; though 
they fret their hearts out, their rage is all in vain ; he will set his king upon 
his holy hill of Zion in despite of them, Ps. ii. 1, 6. First or last he will make 
them tremble, Rev. vi. 15, &c. " The Lord reigns, let the earth be moved." Those 
that submit to him shall be established, and not moved, Ps. xcvi. 10 ; but they 
that oppose him will be moved. Heaven and earth shall be shaken and all 
nations ; but the kingdom of Christ is what cannot be moved. The things 
which cannot be shaken shall remain, Heb. xii. 27. In these is continuance, 
Jsa. lxiv. 5. God's kingdom, set up in Israelis here made the subject of the 
psalmist's praise. 

First. God presided in the affairs of religion ; "He sitteth between the cheru- 
bims," ver. 1, as on his throne, to give law by the oracles thence delivered, as on 
the mercy-seat, to receive petitions. This was the honour of Israel, that they 
had among them the Sheehinah, or special presence of God, attended by the 
holy angels. The temple was the_ royal palace ? and the holy of holies was the 
presence-chamber. "The Lord is great in Zion," ver. 2: there he is known 
and praised, Ps. lxxvi. 1,2; there he is served as great, more than any where 
else. He is high there above all people ; as that which is high is exposed to view 
and looked up to, so in Zion the perfections of the Divine nature appear more 
conspicuous and more illustrious than any where else. Therefore "let them" 
that dwell in Zion, and worship there, " praise thy great and terrible name," and 
give thee the glory due unto it, "'for it is holy." The holiness of God's name 
makes it truly great to his friends, and terrible to his enemies, ver. 3. This is 
that which they above ndore:" Holy, holy, holy." 

Secondly. He was all in all in their civil government, ver. 4. As in Jerusalem 
was the testimony of Israel, whither the tribes went up, so there were set 
thrones of judgment, Ps. cxxii. 4, 5. Their government was a theocracy. He 
raised up David to rule over them, (and some think this psalm was penned upon 
occasion of his quiet and happy settlement in the throne,) and he is the king 



476 PSALM XCIX. 

whose strength loveth judgment. He is strong ; all his strength he has from 
God, and his strength is not abused for the support of any wrong, as the power 
of great princes often is, but it loveth judgment ; he doth justice with his power, 
and doth it with delight. And herein he was a type of Christ, to whom God 
would give the throne of his father David, to do judgment and justice. He has 
power to crush, but his strength loves judgment ; that is, he doth not rule with 
rigour, but with moderation, with wisdom, and tenderness. The people of 
Israel had a good king ; but they are here taught to look up to God as he by 
whom their king reigns. " Thou dost establish equity ; " that is, God gave them 
those excellent laws by which they were governed, and "thou executest judg- 
ment and righteousness in Jacob ; " that is, he not only by his immediate pro- 
vidences often executed and enforced his own laws, but took care for the 
administration of justice among them by civil magistrates, who reigned by 
him, and by him did decree justice. Their judges judged for God, and their 
judgment was his, 2 Chr. xix. 6. 

Putting these two things together, we see what was the happiness of Israel 
above any other people, as Moses had described it, Deu. iv. 7, 8, that they had 
God so nigh unto them, sitting between the cherubims, and that thev had 
statutes and judgments so righteous by which equity was established, ana God 
himself ruled in Jacob, from which he infers this command to that happy people ; 
ver. 5, "Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool ;" give him the 
glory of the good government you are under, as it is now established both in 
church and state, rfote, I. The greater the public mercies are which we have 
to share in, the more we are obliged to bear a part in the public homage paid to 
God. The setting up of the kingdom of Christ especially ought to be the matter 
of our praise. 2. When we draw nigh to God to worship him, our hearts must 
be filled with high thoughts of him, and he must be exalted in our souls. 3. The 
more we abase ourselves, and the more prostrate we are before God, the more 
we exalt him. We must worship at his footstool ; that is, at his ark, which was 
as the footstool to the mercy-seat between the cherubims ; or, we must cast 
ourselves down upon the pavement of his courts. And good reason we have to 
be thus reverent, for he is holy : and his holiness should strike an awe upon us, 
as it doth on the angels themselves, Isa. vi. 2, 3. 

6 Moses and Aaron among his priests, 

And Samuel among them that call upon his name ; 
They called upon the Lord, and he answered them. 

7 He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar : 
They kept his testimonies, 

And the ordinance that he gave them. 

8 Thou answeredst them, 0 Lord our God ; 
Thou wast a God that forgavest them, 

Though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions 

9 Exalt the Lord our God, 
And worship at his holy hill ; 
For the Lord our God is holy. 

The happiness of Israel in God's government is here farther made out by somt 
particular instances of his administration, especially with reference to those that 
were in their day the prime leaders and most active useful governors of that 

Seople — Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, in the former of whom the theocracy, o? 
Hvine government began, for they were employed to form Israel into a people, 
and in the last of whom that form of government in a great measure ended; for, 
when the people rejected Samuel, and urged him to resign, they are said to 
reject God himself, that he should not be so immediately their king as he had 
been, 1 Sam. viii. 7 ; for now they would have a king like all the nations. Moses 
as well as Aaron is said to be among his priests, for he executed the priest's 
office till Aaron was settled in it, and he consecrated Aaron and his sons ; there- 
fore the Jews call him the priest of the priests. Now concerning these three 
chief rulers observe, 

First. The intimate communion they had with God, and the wonderful favour 
to wmich he admitted them. None of all the nations of the earth could produce 
three such men as these, that had such an_ intercourse with heaven, and whom 
God knew by name, Ex. xxxiii. 17. Here is, 

I. Their gracious observance of Cod. No kingdom had men that honoured 
God so as these three men of the kingdom of Israel did. They honoured him, 



PSALM C. 477 

1st. By their prayers. Samuel, though not among his priests, yet was among 
them that called on his name; and for this they were all famous, they called 
i upon the Lord; they relied not on their own wisdom or virtue, but in every 
emergency had recourse to God; towards him was their desire, and on him 
| their dependence. 2nd. By their obedience. " They kept his testimonies, and the 
I ordinances that he gave them;" that is, they made conscience of their duty, and 
' in every thing made God's word and law their rule, as knowing that unless they 
did so, they could not expect their prayers should be answered, Pr. xxviii. 9. 
Moses did all according to the pattern shewn him : it is often repeated, ** accord- 
ing to all that God commanded Moses, so did he." Aaron and Samuel did 
likewise. These were the greatest men, and most honourable, that were 
most eminent for keeping God's testimonies, and conforming to the rule of his 
word. 

2. God's gracious acceptance of them. " He answered them," and granted 
them the things which they called upon him for; they all wonderfully prevailed 
with God in prayer; miracles were wrought at their special instance and 
request; nay, he not only condescended to do that for them which they desired, 
as a prince for a petitioner, but he communed with them as one friend familiarly 
converseth with another; ver. 7, "He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar. 
He often spake to Samuel; from his childhood the word of the Lord came to 
him ; and probably sometimes he spake to him by a bright cloud overshadowing 
him ; however, to Moses and Aaron he often spake out of the famous cloudy 
pillar, Ex. xvi. 10 ; Num. xii. 5. Israel is now minded of this, for the confirming 
of their faith, that though they had not every day such sensible tokens of God's 
presence as the cloudy pillar was, yet to them that were their first founders, 
and to him that was their great reformer, God was pleased thus to manifest 
himself. 

Secondly. The good offices they did to Israel. They interceded for the people, 
and for them also they obtained many an answer of peace. " Moses stood in 
the gap, and Aaron between the living and the dead;" and when Israel was 
in distress, Samuel cried unto the Lord for them, 1 Sam. vii. 9. This is here 
referred to, ver. 8, u Thou answeredst them, O Lord our God," and at their 
prayer "thou wast a God that forgavest" the people they prayed for; and 
though " thou tookest vengeance of their inventions," vet thou didst not cut 
them off from being a people, as their sin deserved. ' Thou wast a God that 
wast propitious for them, (so Dr. Hammond,) for their sakes, and sparedst the 
people at their request, then when thou wast about to take vengeance of their 
inventions ;' that is, when thy wrath was so highly provoked against them that 
it was just ready to break in upon them, to their utter overthrow. These were 
some of the many remarkable instances of God's dominion in Israel more than 
in any other nation, for which the people are again called upon to praise God; 
ver. 9, "Exalt the Lord our God," onaccount of what he hath done for us for- 
merly as well as of late, "and worship at his holy hill of Zion,'" on which he 
hath now set his temple, and will shortly set his king, Ps. ii. 6, the former a type 
of the latter. There, as the centre of unity, let all God's Israel meet with their 
adorations, " for the Lord our God is holy," and appears so, not only in his holy 
law, but in his holy Gospel. 

PSALM C. 

It is with good reason that many sing this psalm very frequently in their religious assem- 
blies, for it is very proper both to express and to excite pious and devout affections 
towards God in our approach to him in holy ordinances ; and if our hearts go along with 
the words, we shall make melody in it to the Lord. The Jews say it was penned to be 
sung with their thank-offerings ; perhaps it was ; but we say that as there is nothing in 
it peculiar to their economy, so its beginning with a call to all lands to praise God, 
plainly extends it to the gospel-church. Here, I. We are called upon to praise God, 
and rejoice in him, ver. 1, 2, 4. II. We are furnished with matter for praise; we must 
praise him, considering his being and relation to us, ver. 3, and his mercy and truth, 
ver. 5. These are plain and common things, and therefore the more fit to be the matter 
of devotion. 

A Psalm of praise. 

MAKE a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 
2 Serve the Lord with gladness : 
Come before his presence with singing. 
3 Know ye that the Lord he is God : 

It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves ; 
We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 



478 



PSALM C. 



4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, 
And into his courts with praise : 

Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 

5 For the Lord is good ; his mercy is everlasting ; 
And his truth endureth to all generations. 

Here, First. The exhortations to praise are very importunate. The psalm 
doth indeed answer the title, " a psalm of praise." It begins with that call which 
of late we have several times met with, ver. I, "Make a joyful noise unto the 
Lord, all ye lands," or all the earth, all the inhabitants of the earth. When all 
nations shall be discipled, and the Gospel preached to every creature, then this 
summons will be fully answered to. But if we take the foregoing psalm to be 
(as we have opened it) a call to the Jewish church to rejoice in the administra- 
tion of God's kingdom which they were under, (as the four before it were 
calculated for the days of the Messiah,) this psalm perhaps was intended for 
proselytes, that came over out of all lands to the Jews' religion. However, we 
nave here, 

1. A strong invitation to worship God; not that God needs us, or any thing 
we have, or can do, but it is his will that we should serve the Lord, should 
devote ourselves to his service, and employ ourselves in it, and that we should 
not only serve him in all instances of obedience to his law, but that we should 
come before his presence in the ordinances which he has appointed, and in which 
he hath promised to manifest himself, ver. 2 ; that we should enter into his gates, 
and into his courts, ver. 3 ; that we should attend upon him among his servants, 
and keep there where he keeps court. In all acts of religious worship, whether 
in secret or in our families, we come into God's presence, and serve him ; but it 
is in public worship especially that we enter into his gates, and into his courts. 
The people were not permitted to enter into the holy place, there the priests 
only went in to minister ; but let the people be thankful for their place in the 
courts of God's house, to which they were admitted, and gave their attendance 
there. 

2. Great encouragement given us in worshipping God, to do it cheerfully; 
ver. 2, " Serve the Lord with gladness." This intimates a prediction that, in 
gospel times, there should be special occasion for joy. And it prescribes this as 
a rule of worship, Let God be served with gladness. By holy joy we do really 
serve God; it is an honour to him to rejoice in him, and we ought to serve him 
with holy joy. Gospel worshippers should be joyful worshippers. If we serve 
God in uprightness, let us serve him with gladness ; we must be willing and 
forward to it; glad when we are called to go up to the house of the Lord, 
Ps. cxxii. 1 ; looking upon it as the comfort of our lives to have communion 
with God; and we must be pleasant and cheerful in it, must say, "it is good 
to be here," approaching to God in every duty, as to God our exceeding joy, 
Ps. xliii. 4. We must " come before his presence with singing," not only songs 
of joy, but songs of praise; ver. 4, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving." 
We must not only comfort ourselves, but glorify God with our joy, and let him 
have the praise of that which we have the pleasure of. " Be thankful to him. 
and bless his name;" that is, 1st. We must take it as a favour to be admitted: 
into his service, and give him thanks that we have liberty of access to him, that 
we "have ordinances instituted, and opportunity continued, of waiting upon God 
in those ordinances. 2nd. We must intermix praise and thanksgiving with all 
our services. This golden thread must run through every duty, Heb. xiii. 15, 
for it is the work of angels. " In every thing give thanks," in every ordinance, 
as well as in every providence. 

Secondly. The matter of praise, and motives to it, are very important ; ver. 3, 5, 
" Know ye" what God is in himself, and what he is to you. Note, Knowledge 
is the mother of devotion and of all obedience. Blind sacrifices will never please 
a seeing God. Know it; that is, consider and apply it, and then you will be 
more close and constant, more inward and serious, in the worship of him. Let 
us know then these seven things concerning the Lord Jehovah, with whom we 
have to do in all the acts of religious worship : 

1 . " That the Lord he is God," the only living and true God ; that he is a being 
infinitely perfect, self-existent, and self-sufficient, and the fountain of all being. 
He is God, and not a man as we are. He is an eternal Spirit, incomprehensible 
and independent ; the first cause and last end. The heathen worshipped the 
creatures of their own fancy ; "'the workmen made it, therefore it is not God." 
We worship him that made\is and all the world. He is God, and all other pre- 
tended deities are vanity and a lie, and such as he hath triumphed over. 

2. That he is our Creator. "It is he that hath made us, and not we our- 
selves." 1 find that I am, but cannot, say, I am that I am, and. therefore must 
ask whence am I ? Who made me-? "Where is God my Maker?" And it is 



PSALM CI. 479 

the Lord Jehovah; he gave us being, gave us this being; is both the Former of 
our bodies, and the Father of our spirits.^ We did not, we could not, make 
ourselves. It is God's prerogative to be his own cause ; our being is derived 
and depending. 

3. That therefore he is our rightful owner. The Masorites, by altering one 
letter in the Hebrew, read it, ' He made us, and his we are,' or to him we 
belong. Put both the readings together, and we learn, that because God made 
us, and not we ourselves, therefore we are not our own but his. He hath an 
incontestable right to and property in us and all things. His we are, to be 
acted by his power, disposed of by his will, and devoted to his honour and 
glory. 

4. That he is our sovereign ruler. "We are his people," or subjects, and he 
is our prince, our rector, or governor, that gives law to us as morai agents, and 
will call us to an account for what we do. " The Lord is our judge, the Lord is 
our lawgiver;" we are not at liberty to do what we will, but must always make 
conscience of doing as we are bidden. 

5. That he is our bountiful benefactor. We are not only his sheep, whom he 
is entitled to, but "the sheep of his pasture," whom he takes care of. 'The 
flock of his feeding,' so it may be read : therefore the sheep of his hand, at his 
disposal, because the sheep of his pasture, Ps. xcv. 7. He that made us main- 
tains us, and gives us all good things richly to enjoy. 

6. That he is a God of infinite mercy and goodness; ver. 5, "The Lord is 
good," and therefore doth good; "his mercy is everlasting it is a fountain that 
can never be drawn dry. The saints that are now the sanctified vessels of 
mercy, will be to eternity the glorified monuments of mercy. 

7. That he is a God of inviolable truth and faithfulness. " His truth endureth 
to all generations," and no word of his shall fall to the ground as antiquated or 
revoked ; the promise is sure to all the seed from age to age. 



PSALM CI. 

David was for certain the penman of this psalm, and it has in it the genuine 
spirit of the man after God's own heart ; it is a solemn vow he made to God when he 
took upon him the charge of a family, and of the kingdom. Whether it was penned 
when he entered upon the government immediately after the death of Saul, as some 
think, or when he hegan to reign over all Israel, and brought up the ark to the city 
of David, as others think, is not material ; it is an excellent plan or model for the good 
government of a court, or the keeping up of virtue and piety, and by that means good 
order in it. But it is applicable to private families ; it is the householder's psalm. It 
instructs all that are in any sphere of power, whether larger or narrower, to use their 
power so as to make it a terror to evil-doers, but a praise to them that do well. 
Here is, I. The general scope of David's vow, ver. 1, 2. II. The particulars of it, 
that he would detest and discountenance all manner of wickedness, ver. 3, 5, 7, 8. 
And that he would favour and encourage such as were virtuous, ver. 6. Some think 
this may fitly be accommodated to Christ the son of David, who governs his church, 
the city of the Lord, by these rules, and who loveth righteousness and hateth wicked- 
ness. In singing this psalm families, both governors and governed, should teach and 
admonish, and engage themselves and one another to walk by the rule of it, that peace 
may be upon them, and God's presence with them. 

A Psalm of David. 

I WILL sing of mercy and judgment : 
Unto thee, 0 Lord, will I sing. 

2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. 

0 when wilt thou come unto me ? 

1 will walk within my house with a perfect heart. 

3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes : 
I hate the work of them that turn aside ; 

It shall not cleave to me. 

4 A froward heart shall depart from me : 
I will not know a wicked person. 

5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off : 
Him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not 

I suffer. 



480 PSALM Ci, 

6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that 

they may dwell with me : 
He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall seiwe me. 

7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house : 
He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. 

8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land ; 

That I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the 
Lord. 

David here cuts out to himself and others a pattern both of a good magistrate 
and a good master of a family, and if these were careful to discharge the duty 
of their place it would contribute very much to a universal reformation. 
Observe, 

First. The chosen subject of the psalm ; ver. 1, " I will sing of mercy and judg- 
ment;" that is, 1. Of God's mercy and judgment; and then it looks back upon 
the dispensations of providence that had been concerning him since he was 
first anointed to be king, during which time he had met with many a rebuke, 
and much hardship on the one hand, and yet on the other hand had many 
wonderful deliverances wrought for him and favours bestowed upon him. Of 
these he will sing unto God. Note, 1st. God's providences concerning his 
people are commonly mixed both of mercy and judgments; God hath set the 
one over against the other, and appointed them April-days, showers and sun- 
shine. It was so with David and his family ; when there was mercy in the re- 
turn of the ark, there was judgment in the death of Uzza. 2nd. When God in 
his providence exerciseth us with a mixture of mercy and judgment, it is our 
duty to sing, and sing unto him, both of the one and of the other; we must be 
suitably affected with both, and make suitable acknowledgments to God of 
both. The Chaldee paraphrase of this is observable, 4 If thou bestowest mercy 
upon me, or if thou bring any judgment upon me, before thee, O Lord, will I 
sing my hymns for all f whatever our outward condition is, whether joyful or 
sorrowful, still we must give glory to God, and sing praises to him; neither the 
laughter of a prosperous condition nor the tears of an afflicted condition, must 
put us out of tune for sacred songs. Or, 2. It may be understood of David's 
mercy and judgment; he would in this psalm promise to be merciful and just, or 
wise, for judgment is often put for discretion. To do justly and love mercy is 
the sum of our duty ; these he would covenant to make conscience of in that 
place and relation to which God had called him, and this in consideration of 
the various providences of God that had been concerning him. Family mercies 
and family afflictions are both of them calls to family religion. David puts his 
tow into a song or psalm, that he might the better keep it in his own mind, 
and frequently repeat it, and that it might the better be communicated to 
others, and preserved in his family for a pattern to his sons and successors. 

Secondly. The general resolution David took up to carry himself carefully 
and conscientiously in his court, ver. 2. W r e have here, 1. A good purpose con- 
cerning his conversation, concerning his conversation in general, how he would 
behave himself in everything; he would live by rule, and not at large, nor 
walk at all adventures ; he would, though a king, by a solemn covenant, bind 
himself to his good behaviour. And concerning his conversation in his family 
particularly, not only how he would walk when he appeared in public, when 
he sat on the throne; but how he would walk within his house, where he was 
more out of the eye of the world, but where he still saw himself under the eye 
of God. It is not enough to put on our religion when we go abroad, and 
appear before men, but we must govern ourselves by it in our families. Those 
that are in public stations are not thereby excused from care in governing their 
families; nay, rather they are most concerned to seta good example of ruling 
their own nouses well, 1 Tim. iii. 4. When David had his hands full of public 
affairs, yet he returned to bless his house, 2 Sam. vi. 20. He resolves, 1st. To 
act conscientiously and with integrity, to walk in a perfect way, that is, in the 
way of God's commandments ; that is a perfect way, for " the law of the Lord 
is perfect." This he will walk in with a perfect heart, with all sincerity, not 
dissembling either with God or men. When we make the Word of God our 
rule, and are ruled by it, the glory of God our end, and aim at it, then we walk 
in a perfect way with a perfect heart. 2nd. To act considerately and with 
discretion, "I will behave myself wisely;" *I will understand,' or 'instruct 
myself in a perfect way:' (so some ;) I will walk circumspectly. Note, We must 
all resolve to walk by tne rules of Christian prudence in the ways or Christian 
piety. We must never turn aside out of the perfect way under pretence of 



PSALM CI. 



481 



behaving ourselves wisely ; but while we keep to the good way we must he 
wise as serpents. 2. Here is a good prayer : " () when wilt thou come unto 
me !" Note, It is a desirable thing when a man hath a house of his own to ha\e 
God come to him, and dwell with him in it; and those may expect God's pre- 
sence that walk with a perfect heart in a perfect way. If we compare the 
account which the historian gives of David, 1 Sam. xviii. 14, we shall find how 
exactly it answers his purpose and prayer, and that neither was in vain. 
David, as he purposed, behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and as he prayed 
the Lord was with him. 

Thirdly. His particular resolution to practise no evil himself; ver. 3, "I will 
set no wicked thing before mine eyes;" that is, I will not design or aim at any 
thing but what is for the glory of God and the public welfare. He will never 
have it in his eye to enrich himself by impoverishing his subjects, or enlarge his 
own prerogative by encroaching on their property. In all our worldly business 
we must see that that be right and good which we set our eyes upon, and not 
any forbidden fruit, and that we never seek that which we cannot have without 
sin. It is the character of a good man that he shuts his eyes from seeing of 
evil, Isa. xxxiii. 15. Nay, I hate the work of them that turn aside from the 
paths of equity. Job xxxi. 7 ; not only I avoid it, but abhor it, it shall not cleave 
to me 3 if any blot of injustice should come on my hands, it shall be washed 
off quickly. 

Fourthly. His farther resolution not to keep bad servants, nor to employ 
those about him that were vicious. He will not countenance them, nor shew 
them any favour, lest thereby he should harden them in their wickedness, and 
encourage others to do like them. He will not converse with them himself, nor 
admitthem into the company of his other servants, lest they should spread the 
infection of sin in his family.' He will not confide in them, nor put them in 
power under him, for they would certainly hinder every thing that is good, who 
did themselves hate to be reformed. When he comes to instance in particulars, 
he doth not mention drunkards, adulterers, murderers, or blasphemers; such 
gross sinners as these he was in no danger of admitting into his house : nor did 
he need to covenant particularly against having fellowship with them ; but he 
instanceth in those sinners who were less scandalous, but no less dangerous, 
and in reference to whom he needed to stand upon his guard with caution, and 
to behave himself wisely. 

1. He will have nothing to do with spiteful malicious people, they are ill- 
natured, and will bear a grudge a great while, and care not what mischief 
they do to those they have a pique against; ver. 4, "Afroward heart," one 
that delights to be cross and perverse, "shall depart from me," as not fit for 
society, the bond of which is love. " I will not know," that is, I will have no 
acquaintance or conversation, if I can help it, with such a wicked person, for 
a little of the leaven of malice and wickedness will leaven the whole lump. 

2. Nor with slanderers and those who take a pleasure in wounding their 
neighbours' reputation secretly; ver. 5, "Whoso privily slandereth his neigh- 
bour," either raises or spreads false stories to the prejudice of his good name, 
"him will I cut off" from my family and court. Many endeavour to raise 
themselves into the favour of princes by unjust representations of persons 
and things which they think will please their prince : " If a ruler hearken to 
lies, all his servants are wicked," Pr. xxix. 12. But David will not only not 
hearken to them, but will baulk the preferment of those that hope thus to curry 
favour with him. He will punish not only those that falsely accuse another in 
open court, but that privily slander another. I wish David remembered this 
vow in the case of Mephibosheth and Ziba. 

3. Nor with haughty, conceited, ambitious people; none do more mischief in 
a family, in a court, in a church, for "only by pride comes contention :" there- 
fore him "that hath an high look and a proud heart will I not suffer." I will 
have no patience with them that are still grasping at all preferments, for it is 
certain they do not aim at doing good, but only at aggrandizing themselves and 
their families. God resists the proud, and so will David. 

4. Nor with false deceitful people, that make no conscience of a lie or a fraud : 
ver. 7, "He that worketh deceit," though he may insinuate himself into my 
family, yet as soon as he is discovered, he "shall not dwell within my house." 
Some great men know how to serve their own purposes by such as are skilful 
to deceive, and they are fit tools for them to work by, but David will make 
use of no such as agents for him ; " he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my 
sight," but shall be expelled the house with indignation. Herein David was a 
man after God's own heart, for a proud look and a lying tongue are things 
which God hates. And he was also a type of Christ, who will in the great 
day banish from his presence all that love and make a lie, Rev. xxii. 15. 

Fifthly. His resolution to put those in trust under him that were honest and 
good; ver. 6, "Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful in the land." In choosing 
his servants and ministers of state he kept to the land of Israel, and would not 
employ foreigners ; none shall be preferred but true-born Israelites, and those 

2 H 



482 



PSALM CII. 



such as were Israelites indeed, "the faithful in the land," for even in that land 
there were those that were unfaithful. These faithful ones his eyes shall be 
upon, to discover them and find them out, for they were modest, did not crowd 
into the city, to court preferment, but lived retired in the land, in the country, 
out of the way of it. Those are commonly most fit for places of honour and 
trust that are least fond of them, and therefore wise princes will spy out such 
in their recesses and privacies, and take them to dwell with them, and act 
under them. " He that walks in a perfect way," that makes conscience of what 
he saith and doth, "he shall serve me." The kingdom must be searched for 
honest men to make courtiers of, and if any man were better than another, lie 
must be preferred. This was a good resolution of David's, but either he did 
not keep to it, or else his judgment was imposed upon, when he made Ahithophe) 
his right hand. It should be the care and endeavour of all masters of families, 
for their own sakes and their children's, to take such servants into their 
families as they have reason to hope fear God. The Son of David has his eyes 
upon the faithful in the land; his secret is with them, and they shall dwell 
with him. Saul chose servants for their goodliness, 1 Sam. viii. 16, but David 
for their goodness. 

Lastly. His resolution to extend his zeal to the reformation of the city and 
country as well as of the court ; ver. 8, " I will early destroy all the wicked of 
the land." that is, all that are discovered and convicted, the law shall have its 
course against them. He would do his utmost to destroy all the wicked, so as 
that there might be none left that were notoriously ^ wicked ; he would do it 
early, that is, he would lose no time, and spare no pains, he would be forward 
and zealous in promoting the reformation of manners and suppression of vice, 
and those must rise betimes that will do any thing to purpose in that work. 
That which he aimed at was not only the securing of his own government and 
the peace of the country, but the honour of God in the purity of his church, 
" That I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord ;" not Jeru- 
salem only, but the whole land was the city of the Lord; so is the gospel 
church, it is the interest of the city of the Lord to be purged from evil-doers, 
who both blemish it and weaken it, and it is therefore the duty of all to do 
what they can in their places towards so good a work, and to be zealously 
affected in it. The day is coming when the Son of David shall cut off all 
wicked doers from the new Jerusalem, for there shall not enter into it any 
that do iniquity. 

PSALM OIL 

Some think David penned this psalm at the time of Absalom's rebellion ; others, that 
Daniel, Nehemiah, or some other prophet penned it for the use of the church when it 
was in captivity in Babylon, because it seems to speak of the ruins of Zion, and of a time 
set for the rebuilding of it, which Daniel understood by books, Dan. ix. 2. Or perhaps 
the psalmist was himself in great affliction, which he complains of in the beginning 
of the psalm, but (as in Ps. lxxvii. and elsewhere) he comforts himself under it with 
the consideration of God's eternity, and the church's prosperity and perpetuity, 
however it was now distressed and threatened. But it is clear by the application of 
ver. 25, 26, to Christ, Heb. i. 11, 12, that the psalm has reference to the days of the 
Messiah, and speaks either of his affliction, or the afflictions of his church for his 
sake. In the psalm we have, I. A sorrowful complaint which the psalmistmakes either 
for himself, or in the name of the church, of great afflictions which were very pressing, 
ver. 1 — 11. II. Seasonable comfort fetched in against these grievances, 1. From the 
eternity of God, ver. 12, 23, 27. 2. From a believing prospect of the deliverance which 
God would in due time work for his afflicted church, ver. 13 — 22, and the continuance 
of it in the world, ver. 28. In singing this psalm, if we have not occasion to make 
the same complaints, yet we may take occasion to sympathize with those that have, 
and then the comfortable part of the psalm will be more comfortable to us in the 
singing of it. 

A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his com- 
plaint before the Lord. 

HEAE my prayer, 0 Lord, 
And let my cry come unto thee. [trouble ; 

2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in 
Incline thine ear unto me : in the day when I call 
Answer me speedily. 

3 For my days are consumed like smoke, 
And my bones are burned as an hearth. 



PSALM GIL 



483 



4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass ; 
So that I forget to eat my bread. 

5 By reason of the voice of my groaning 
My bones cleave to my skin. 

6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: 
I am like an owl of the desert. 




PELICANS OR CORMORANTS. 



7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. 

8 Mine enemies reproach me all the clay ; 

And they that are mad against me are sworn against me. 

9 For I have eaten ashes like bread. 
And mingled my drink with weeping, 

10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath : 
For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. 

1 1 My days are like a shadow that declineth ; 
And I am withered like grass. 

The title of this psalm is very observable: it is "a prayer of the afflicted;" it 
was composed by one that was himself afflicted, afflicted with the church and 
for it; and on those that are of a public spirit afflictions of that kind lie heavier 
than any other. It is calculated for an afflicted state, and is intended for the 
use of others that may be in the like distress ; " for whatsoever things were 
written aforetime were written" designedly " for our use." The whole Word of 
God is of use to direct us in prayer; but here, as often elsewhere, the Holy 
Ghost has drawn up our petition for us, has put words into our mouths ; 
Hos. xiv. 2, " Take with you words." Here is a prayer put into the hands of 
the afflicted; let them set, not their hands, but their hearts to it, and present it 
to God. Note, 1. It is many times the lot of the best saints in this world to 
be sorely afflicted. 2. Even good men may be almost overwhelmed with their 
afflictions, and may be ready to faint under them. 3. When our state is afflicted, 
and our spirits overwhelmed, it is our duty and interest to pray, and by prayer 
to pour out our complaints before the Lord; which intimates the leave God 
gives us to be free with him, and the liberty of speech we have before him, as 
well as liberty of access to him ; it intimates also what an ease it is to an afflicted 
spirit to unburthen itself by an humble representation of its grievances and 
griefs. Such a representation we have here ; in which, 

First. The psalmist humbly begs of God to take notice of his affliction, and of 
his prayer in his affliction, ver. 1, 2. When we pray in our affliction, 1. It should 



484 PSALM CIT. 

be our care that God would graciously hear us ; for if our prayers be not pleas- 
ing to God, they will be to no purpose to ourselves. Let this therefore be in 
our eye, that our prayer may come unto God, even to his ears, Ps. xviii. 6 ; and 
in order to that let us lift up the prayer, and our souls with it. 2. It may be 
our hope that God will graciously hear us, because he has appointed us to seek 
him, and has promised we shall not seek him in vain. If we put up a prayer in 
faith, we may in faith say, " Hear my prayer, O Lord." Hear me, that is, 1st. 
Manifest thyself to me; ''hide not thy face from me" in displeasure "when I 
am in trouble:" if thou dost not presently free me, yet let me know that thou 
favourest me ; if I see not the operations of thy hand for me, yet let me see the 
smiles of thy face upon me. God's hiding his face is trouble enough to a good 
man, even in his prosperity; Ps. xxx. 7, "Thou didst hide thy face, and 1 was 
troubled;" but if when we are in trouble God hides his face, the case is sad 
indeed. 2nd. Manifest thyself to me ; not only hear me, but answer me ; 
grant me the deliverance I am in want of, and in pursuit of; "answer me 
speedily, even in the day when I call." When troubles press hard upon us, 
God gives us leave to be in prayer thus pressing upon him, yet with humility 
and patience. 

Secondly. He makes a lamentable complaint of the low condition to which he 
was reduced by his afflictions. 

1. His body was macerated and emaciated, and he was become a perfect 
skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. As prosperity and joy are represented 
by making fat the bones, and the bones flourishing like an herb : so great 
trouble and grief are here represented by the contrary ; "My bones are burnt 
as an hearth," ver. 3; "they cleave to my skin," ver. 5; nay, "my heart is 
smitten, and withered like grass," ver. 4; it toucheth the vitals, and there is a 
sensible decay there. "I am withered like grass," ver. 11, scorched with the 
burning heat of my troubles. If we be thus brought low by bodily distempers, 
let us not think it strange; the body is like grass, weak, and of the earth, no 
wonder it withers then. 

2. He was very melancholy, and of a sorrowful spirit : he was so taken up 
with the thoughts of his troubles, that he forgot to eat bread, ver. 4 ; he had no 
appetite to his necessary food, nor could he relish it. When God hides his face 
from a soul, the delights of sense will be sapless things. He was always sighing 
and groaning, as one pressed above measure, ver. 5, and this wasted him and 
exhausted his spirits. He affected solitude, as melancholy people do. His friends 
deserted him and were shy of him, and he cared as little for their company; 
ver. 6, 7, "I am like a pelican in the wilderness," or a bittern, (so some,) that 
makes a doleful noise ; " I am like an owl," that affects to lodge in deserted, 
ruined buildings. " I watch, and am as a sparrow on the house top ;" I live in 
a garret, and there spend my hours in poring on my troubles, and bemoaning- 
myself. Those who do thus when they are in sorrow, humour themselves 
indeed, but they prejudice themselves, and know not what they do, nor what 
advantage they hereby give to the tempter. In affliction we should sit alone, 
to consider our ways, Lam. iii. 28 ; but not sit alone to indulge an inordinate 
grief. 

3. He was evil spoken of by his enemies, and all manner of evil said against 
him. When his friends went off from him, his foes set themselves against him ; 
ver. 8, "Mine enemies reproach me all the day," designing thereby both to 
create vexation to himself,— for an ingenuous mind regrets reproach, — and to 
bring an odium upon him before men. When they could not otherwise reach 
him they shot these arrows at him, even bitter words, and in this they were 
unwearied, they did it all the day, it was a continual dropping. His enemies 
were very outrageous : " They are mad against me," and very obstinate and 
implacable; they are sworn against me, as the Jews that bound themselves 
with an oath to kill Paul ; or, They have sworn against me as accusers, to take 
away my life. 

4. He fasted and wept under the tokens of God's displeasure ; ver. 9, 10, " I 
have eaten ashes like bread," that is, instead of eating my bread, I have lain 
down in dust and ashes, and "I have mingled my drink with weeping;" when 
I should have refreshed myself with drinking, I have only eased myself with 
weeping. And what is the matter? He tells us, ver. 10, "Because of thy 
wrath." It was not so much the trouble itself that troubled him, as the wrath 
of God, which he was under the apprehensions of as the cause of the trouble. 
This, this was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery. 
"Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down;" as that which we cast to the 
ground with a design to dash it to pieces ; we lift it up first that we may throw 
it down with the more violence. Or, Thou hast formerly lifted me up in 
honour, and joy, and uncommon prosperity; but the remembrance of that 
aggravates the present grief, and makes it the more grievous. We must eye 
the hand of God, both in lifting us up, and casting us down, and say, Blessed be 
the name of the Lord, who both gives and takes away. 



PSALM CI I. 



5. He looked upon himself as a dying man; "My days are consumed like 
smoke," ver. 3, which vanisheth away presently. Or, They are consumed in 
smoke, of which nothing remains. They are like a shadow that deelineth, 
ver. 11; like the evening-shadow, or a forerunner of night approaching. Now 
all this, though it seems to speak the psalmist's personal calamities, and there- 
fore is properly a prayer for a particular person afflicted, yet is supposed to be 
a description of the afflictions of the church of God, with which the psalmist 
sympathized, making public grievances his own. The mystical body of Christ 
is sometimes, like the psalmist's body here, withered and parched, nay, like 
dead and dry bones. The church sometimes is forced into the wilderness, 
seems lost, and gives up herself for gone, under the tokens of God's dis- 
pleasure. 

12 But thou, 0 Lord, shalt endure for ever ; 
And thy remembrance unto all generations. 

13 Thou shalt arise, and have mere}- upon Zion : 

For the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. 

14 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, 
And favour the dust thereof. 

15 So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, 
And all the kings of the earth thy glory. 

16 When the Lord shall build up Zion, 
He shall appear in his glory. 

17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, 
And not despise their prayer. 

18 This shall be written for the generation to come : 

And the people which shall be created shall praise the 
Lord. 

19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary 7 ; 
From heaven did the Lord behold the earth ; 

20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner ; 

To loose those that are appointed to death ; 

21 To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, 
And his praise in J erusalem ; 

22 When the people are gathered together, 
And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord. 

Many exceeding great and precious comforts are here thought of. and mus- 
tered up to balance the foregoing complaints, for " unto the upright there 
ariseth light in the darkness," so that though they are cast down they are not 
in despair. It is bad with the psalmist himself, bad with the people of God, 
but he hath many considerations to revive himself with. 

First. We are dying creatures, and our interests and comforts dying, but 
God is an everliving, everlasting'God ; ver. 12, "My days are like a shadow ;" 
there is no remedy, night is coming upon me ; but "thou, O Lord, shalt endure 
for ever." _ Our life is transient, but thine is permanent; our friends die, but 
cur God dies not; what threatened us cannot touch him; our names wiil be 
written in the dust, and buried in oblivion, but "thy remembrance shall be 
unto all generations," to the end of time, nay, to eternity, thou shalt be known 
and honoured. A good man loves God better than himself, and therefore can 
balance his own sorrow and death with the pleasing thought of the unchange- 
able blessedness of the Eternal Mind. God endures for ever, his church's 
faithful patron and protector; and his honour and perpetual remembrance 
being very much bound up in her interests, we may be confident that they shall 
not be neglected. 

Secondly. Poor Zion is now in distress, but there will come a time for her 
relief and succour ; ver. 13, " Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion." The 
hope of deliverance is built upon the goodness of God, " Thou wilt have mercy 
upon Zion," for she is become an object of thy pity; and upon the power 



486 



PSALM CII. 



God, " Thou shalt arise, and have mercy," shalt stir up thyself to do it, shalt do ii 
in contempt of all the opposition made by the church's enemies; "the zeal of 
the Lord of hosts shall do this." And that which is very encouraging is, that 
there is a time set for the deliverance of the church, which not only will come 
some time, but will come at the time appointed, the time which Infinite Wisdom 
hath appointed, and therefore it is the best time ; and which Eternal Truth has 
fixed it to, and therefore it is a certain time, and shall not be forgotten or 
farther adjourned. At the end of seventy years the time to favour Zion, by 
delivering her from the daughter of Babylon, was to come, and at length it did 
come. Zion was now in ruins, that is, the temple that was built in the city of 
David : the favouring of Zion is the building of it up again, as it is explained 
ver. 16. This is expected from the favour of God : that will set all to rights, 
and nothing but that, and therefore Daniel prays, JDan. ix. 11, " Cause thy face 
to shine upon thy sanctuary, which is desolate." And the building up of Zion 
is as great a favour to any people as they can desire. No blessing more desir- 
able to a ruined state than the restoring and re-establishing of their church 
privileges. Now this is here wished for and longed for, 

1. Because it would be a great rejoicing to Zion's friends ; ver. 14, " Thy ser- 
vants take pleasure" even "in the stones" of the temple, though they were 
thrown down and scattered, " and favour the dust," the very rubbish and ruins 
of it. Observe here, That when the temple was ruined, yet the stones of it 
were to be had for a new building, and there were those who encouraged 
themselves with that, for they had a favour even for the dust of it. Those that 
truly love the church of God, love it when it is in affliction as well as when it is 
in prosperity ; and it is a good ground to hope that God will favour the ruins of 
Zion, when he puts it into the heart of his people to favour them, and to shew 
that they do so by their prayers and by their endeavours ; as it is also a good 
plea with God for mercy for Zion, that there are those who are so affectionately 
concerned for her, and are " waiting for the salvation of the Lord." 

2. Because it would have a good influence upon Zion's neighbours, ver. 5. It 
will be a happy means perhaps of their conversion, however of their conviction ; 
for " so the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord," shall have high thoughts 
of him and of his people, and even the kings of the earth shall be affected with 
his glory. They shall have better thoughts of the church of God than the.y 
have had, when God by his providence thus puts an honour upon it. They 
shall be afraid of doing any thing against it when they see God taking its part ; 
nay, they shall say, "We will go with you, for we have seen that God is with 
you," Zee. viii. 23: thus it is said, Est. viii. 17, that "many of the people of the 
land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them." 

3. Because it would redound to the honour of Zion's God; ver. 16, "When 
the Lord shall build up Zion." They take it for granted it will be done, for God 
himself hath undertaken it, and "he shall then appear in his glory;" and for 
that reason all that have made his glory their highest end, desire it and pray 
for it. Note, The edifying of the church will be the glorifying of God, and 
therefore we may be assured it will be done in the set time. They that pray- 
in faith, 'Father, glorify thy name," may receive the same answer to that 
prayer which was given to Christ himself by a voice from heaven, "I have 
both glorified it, and I will glorify it yet again," though now for a time it may 
be eclipsed. 

Thirdly. The prayers of God's people now seem to be slighted, and no notice 
taken of them, but they will be reviewed, and greatly encouraged ; ver. 17, 
"He will regard the prayer of the destitute." It was said, ver. 16, that God 
will appear in his glory, such a glory as kings themselves shall stand in awe 
of, ver. 15. When great men appear in their glory, they are apt to look with 
disdain upon the poor that apply themselves to them, but the great God will 
not do so. Observe, 1. The meanness of the petitioners, they are the destitute ; 
it is an elegant word that is here used, which signifies the heath in the wilder- 
ness, a low shrub or bush, like the hyssop of the wall. They are supposed to 
be in a low and broken state, enriched with spiritual blessings but destitute of 
temporal good things: the poor, the weak, the desolate, the stripped; thus 
variously is the word rendered ; or it may signify that low and broken spirit 
which God looks for in all that draw nigh to him, and which he will graciously 
look upon. This will bring them to their knees. Destitute people should be 
praying people, 1 Tim. v. 5. 2. The favour of God to them, notwithstanding 
their meanness. He will regard their prayer, and will look at, will peruse their 
petition, 2 Chr. vi. 40, and he will not despise their prayer. More is implied 
than is expressed. He will value it, and be well pleased with it, and will return 
an answer of peace to it, which is the greatest honour that can be put upon it. 
But it is thus expressed because others despise their praying; they themselves 
fear God will despise it ; and he was thought to despise it while their affliction 
was prolonged, and their prayers lay unanswered. When we consider our own 
meanness and vileness, our darkness and deadness, and manifold defects in our 
prayers, we have cause to suspect that our prayers will be received with dis- 



PSALM CIL 



457 



dain in heaven • but we are here assured of the contrary, for we have an Advo- 
cate with the lather, and are under grace, not under the law. This instance 
of God's favour to his praying people, though they are destitute, will be a 
lasting encouragement to prayer; ver. 18, " This shall be written for the gene- 
ration to come," that none may despair, though they be destitute, nor think 
their prayers forgotten because they have not an answer to them presently. 
Others' experiences should be our encouragements to seek unto God, and trust 
in him. And if we have the comfort of others' experiences it is fit we should 
give God the glory of them : " The people which shall be created shall praise the 
Lord," for what he hath done both for them and for their predecessors; many 
that are now unborn, by reading the history of the church, shall be wrought 
upon to turn proselytes. The people that shall be created anew by Divine 
grace, that are a kind of firstfruits of his creatures, shall praise the Lord for 
his answers to their prayers when they were more destitute. 

Fourthly. The prisoners under condemnation unjustly seem as sheep ap- 
pointed for the slaughter, but care shall be taken for their discharge ; ver. 19, 20, 

God hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary, from heaven," where 
he hath prepared his throne, that high place, that holy place ; thence "did the 
Lord behold the earth," for it is a place of prospect, and nothing on this earth 
is or can be hid from his all-seeing eye. He looks down not to take a view of 
the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, but to do acts of grace, " to 
hear the groaning of the prisoners," which we would desire to be out of the 
hearing of; and not only to hear them, but to help them, "to loose those that 
are appointed to death," then when there is but a step between them and it. 
Some understand it of the release of the Jews out of their captivity in Babylon ; 
God heard their groaning there as he did when they were in Egypt, Ex. iii. 7, 9, 
and came down to deliver them. God takes notice not only of the prayers of 
his afflicted people, which are the language of grace, but even of their groans, 
which are the language of nature. See the Divine pity, in hearing the prisoners'' 
groans, and the Divine power, in loosing the prisoners' bonds; even when they 
are appointed to death, and are pinioned and double shackled: we have an 
instance in Peter, Acts xii. 6. 

Such instances as these of the Divine condescension and compassion will 
help, 1. "To declare the name of the Lord in Zion," and to make it appear 
that he answers his name which he himself proclaimed, " The Lord God, 
gracious and merciful;" and this declaration of his name in Zion shall be the 
matter of his praise in Jerusalem, ver. 21. If God by his providences declare 
his name, we must by our acknowledgments of them declare his praise, which 
ought to be the echo of his name. God will discharge his people that were 
prisoners and captives in Babylon, " that they may declare his name in Zion," 
the place he has chosen to put his name there, and his praise in Jerusalem, 
at their return thither. In the land of their captivity they could not sing the 
songs of Zion, Ps. cxxxvii. 3, 4, and therefore God brought them again to 
Jerusalem that they might sing them there. For this end God gives liberty 
from bondage; "Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name,'* 
Ps. cxlii. 7; and life from the dead, "Let my soul live, and it shall praise 
thee," Ps. cxix. 175. 2. They will help to draw in others to the worship of 
God; ver. 22, "when the people of God are gathered together at Jerusalem," 
(as they were after their return out of Babylon,) many out of the kingdoms 
joined with them "to serve the Lord." This was fulfilled, Ezr. vi. 21, where 
we find that not only the children of Israel that were come out of captivity, but 
many that had "separated themselves to them from among the heathen," did 
" keep the fast of unleavened bread with joy." But it may look farther, at the 
conversion of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ in the latter days. Christ has 
proclaimed liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that 
were bound, that they may declare the name of the Lord in the Gospel church, 
in which Jews and Gentiles shall unite. 

23 He weakened my strength in the way ; 

He shortened my days. [days: 

24 I said, 0 my God 5 take me not away in the midst of my 
Thy years are throughout all generations. 

25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth : 
And the heavens are the work of thy hands. 

26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure : 
Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; 



483 



PSALM CII. 



As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be 

27 But thou art the same, [changed : 
And thy years shall have no end. 

28 The children of thy servants shall continue, 
And their seed shall be established before thee. 

We may here observe, 

First. The imminent danger that the Jewish church was in of being quite 
extirpated and cut off by the captivity in Babylon; ver. 23, "He weakened my 
strength in the way." They were for many ages in the way to the performance 
of the great promise made to their fathers concerning the Messiah, longing as 
much for it as ever a traveller did to be at his journey's end. The legal institu- 
tions led them in the way ; but when the ten tribes were lost in Assyria, and 
the two almost lost in Babylon, the strength of that nation was weakened, and 
in all appearance its days shortened, for they said " our hope is lost, we are cut 
off for our parts," Eze. xxxvii. 11 ; and then what comes of the promise that 
Shiloh should arise out of Judah, the star out of Jacob, and the Messiah, out of 
the family of David ? If these fail, the promise fails. This the psalmist speaks 
of as in his own person, and it is very applicable to two of the common afflic- 
tions of this time: 1. To be sickly; bodily distempers soon weaken our 
strength in the way, make the^keepers of the house to tremble, and the strong 
men to bow themselves. 2. To be short-lived ; where the former is felt, this 
is feared. When in the midst of our days, according to a course of nature, our 
strength is weakened, what can we expect, but that the number of our months 
should be cut off in the midst," and what should we do but provide accord- 
ingly ? We must own God's hand in it, for in his hand our strength and our 
times are ; and must reconcile it to his love, for it has often been the lot of those 
that have used their strength well, yet to have it weakened ; and of those who 
could very ill be spared, yet to have their days shortened. 

Secondly. A prayer for the continuance of it ; ver. 24, " O my God, take me 
Bot away in the midst of my days." Let not this poor church be cut off in the 
jnidst of the days assignecl it by the promise; let it not be cut off till the 
Messiah is come ; " Destroy it not, for that blessing is in it," Isa. lxv. 8. It is 
a criminal, but for the sake of that blessing which is in her, she pleads for a 
reprieve. This is " a prayer for the afflicted," and which with submission to the 
will of God we may in faith put up, that God would not "take ns away in the 
midst of our days;" but that if it be his will, he would spare us to do him 
farther service, and to be made riper for heaven. 

Thirdly. A plea to enforce this prayer taken from the eternity of the Messiah 
promised, ver. 25 — 27. The apostle quotes these verses, Heb. i. 10 — 12; and 
tells us, " He saith this to the Son," and in that exposition we must acquiesce. It 
is very comfortable, in reference to all the changes that pass over the churchy 
and all the dangers it is in, that " Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to day, 
and for ever." " Thy years are throughout all generations," and cannot be 
shortened. As it is likewise comfortable in reference to the decay and death 
of our own bodies, and the removal of our friends from us, that God is an ever- 
living God, and therefore, if he be ours, in him we may have everlasting con- 
solation. In this plea observe how, to illustrate the eternity of the Creator, he 
compares it with the mutability of the creature, for it is God's sole prerogative 
to be unchangeable. 

1. God made the world, and therefore had a being before it from eternity j 
the Son of God, the eternal Word, made the world. It is expressly said, " All 
things were made by him. and without him was not any thing made that was 
made;" and, "therefore trie same was in the beginning " from eternity "with 
God, and was God," Jno. i. 1 — 3 ; Col. i. 16; Eph. hi. 9; Heb. i. 2. Earth and 
heaven, and the hosts of both, include the universe and its fulness, and these 
derive their being from God by his Son ; ver. 25, " Of old hast thou laid the 
foundation of the earth," that is founded on the seas, and on the floods, and 
yet it abideth; much more shall the church which is built upon a rock, 
" The heavens are the work of thy hands," and by thee are all their motions 
and influences directed; God is therefore the fountain, not only of all being, 
but of all power and dominion. See how fit the great Redeemer is to be 
intrusted w r ith all power both in heaven and in earth, since he himself, as 
Creator of both, perfectly knows both, and is entitled to both. 

2. God will unmake the world again, and therefore shall have a being to 
eternity ; ver. 26, 27, " They shall perish," for " thou shalt change them," by the 
same almighty power that made them; and therefore, no doubt, "thou shalt 
endure ; thou art the same." God and the world, Christ and the creature, are 
rivals for the innermost and uppermost place in the soul of man, the immortal 
soul; now w^hat is here said, one w r ould think, were enough to decide the 
controversy presently, and to determine us for God and Christ. For, 1st. A 



PSALM cm. 



489 



portion in the creature is fading and dying ; " They shall perish," they will not 
last so long as we shall last; the day is coming when "the earth and all the 
works that are therein shall be burnt up ;" and then what will become of those 
that have laid up their treasure in it? Heaven and earth " shall wax old as a 
garment," not by a gradual decay ; but wnen the set time comes, they shall be 
laid aside like an old garment that we have no more occasion for. "As a 
vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed ; " not annihilated, but 
altered it may be, so as that they shall not be at all the same, but " new heavens 
and a new earth." See God's sovereign dominion over heaven and earth; he can 
change them as he pleaseth, and when he pleaseth, and the constant changes 
they are subject to in the revolutions of day and night, summer and winter, are 
earnests of their last and final change, when the heavens and time (which they 
measure) shall be no more. 2nd. A portion in God is perpetual and everlasting ; 
for "thou art the same," subject to no change, "and thy years have no end," 
ver. 27. Christ will be the same in the performance that he was in the pro- 
mise ; the same to his church in captivity that he was to his church at liberty. 
Let not the church fear the weakening of her strength or the shortening of 
her days, while Christ himself is both her strength and her life, and he is the 
same ; and hath said, " Because I live ye shall live also." Christ came in the 
fulness of time, and set up his kingdom, in spite of the power of the Old Tes- 
tament Babylon, and he will keep it up in spite of the power of the New 
Testament Babylon. 

Fourthly. A comfortable assurance of an answer to this prayer ; ver. 28, 
"The children of thy servants shall continue." Since Christ is the same, the 
church shall continue from one generation to another. From the eternity of the 
Head we may infer the perpetuity of the bod\, though often weak and distem- 
pered, and even at death's door. They that hope to wear out the saints of the 
Most High will be mistaken. Christ's servants shall have children ; those 
children shall have a seed, that is, a succession of professing people. The 
church as well as the world is under the influence of that blessing, "Be fruitful 
and multiply." These children shall continue, not in their own persons, by 
reason of death, but in their seed, which shall be established before God, that is, 
in his service, and by his grace. The entail of religion shall not be cut off while 
the world stands; but as one generation of good people passeth away, another 
shall come, and thus the throne of Christ shall endure. 



PSALM cm. 

This psalm calls more for devotion than exposition ; it is a most excellent psalm of 
praise, and of general use. The psalmist, I. Stirs up himself and his own soul to 
praise God, ver. 1, 2, for his favour to him in particular, ver. 3 — 5, to the church in 
general, and to all good men, to whom he is and will be just, and kind, and con- 
stant, ver. 3 — 18, and for his government of the world, ver. 19. II. He desires the 
assistance of the holy angels and all the works of God in praising him, ver. 20—22. 
In singing this psalm we must in a special manner uet our hearts affected with the 
goodness of God, and enlarged in love and thankfulness. 

A Psalm of David. 

BLESS the Lord, 0 my soul : 
And all that is within me, bless his holy name. 

2 Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, 
And forget not all his benefits : 

3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities: 
Who healeth all thy diseases ; 

4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction ; [cies ; 
Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mer- 

5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things ; 
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. 

David is here communing with his own heart; and he is no fool that thus 
talks to himself, and excites his own soul to that which is good. Observe. 

First. How he stirs up himself to the duty of praise, ver. 1,2. 1. It is the 
Lord that is to be blessed and spoken well of, for he is the fountain of all good, 
whatever are the channel or cisterns. It is to his name, his noly name, that 
we are to consecrate our praise, giving thanks at the remembrance of his holi- 



490 PSALM CIIL 

ness. 2. It is the soul that is to be employed in blessing God, and all that is 
within us. We make nothing of our religious performances if we do not make 
heart-work of them ; if that which is within us, nay, if all that is within us be 
not engaged in them. The work requires the inward man, the whole man, and 
all little enough. 3. In order to our return of praises to God, there must be 
a grateful remembrance of the mercies w r e have received from him. "Forget 
not all his benefits." If we do not give thanks for them, we do forget them, 
and that is unjust as well as unkind ; since in all God's favours there is so much 
that is memorable. O my soul! to thy shame be it spoken, thou hast forgotten 
many of his benefits ; but sure thou wilt not forget them all, for thou shouldest 
not have forgotten any. 

Secondly. How he furnisheth himself w T ith abundant matter for praise, and 
that which is very affecting; Come, my soul, consider what God has done for 
thee. 

1. He hath pardoned thy sins, ver. 3. He hath forgiven and doth forgive all 
thine iniquities. This is mentioned first, because by the pardon of sin that is 
taken away which kept good things from us, and we are restored to the favour 
of God, w^hich bestow r s good things on us. Think what the provocation was, 
it was iniquity, and yet pardoned; how many the provocations were, and yet 
all pardoned ; he hath forgiven all our trespasses. It is a continued act ; he is 
still forgiving, as w r e are still sinning and repenting. 

2. He hath cured thy sickness. The corruption of nature is the sickness of 
the soul, it is its disorder, and threatens its death. This is cured in sanctifi ca- 
tion ; wfien sin is mortified, the disease is healed ; though complicated, it is all 
healed. Our crimes were capital, but God saves our lives by pardoning them; 
our diseases w r ere mortal, but God saves our lives by healing them. These two 
go together, for "as for God his w r ork is perfect," and not done by the halves; if 
God take away the guilt of sin by pardoning mercy, he will break the pow r er of 
it by renewing grace. Where Christ is made righteousness to any soul, he is 
made sanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. 

3. He hath rescued thee from danger. A man may be in peril of life, not only 
by his crimes or his diseases, but by the pow r er cf his enemies ; and therefore, 
here also we experience the Divine goodness: "who redeemed thy life from 
destruction/" ver. 4, from the destroyer; from hell, (so the Chaldee;) from the 
second death. The redemption of the soul is precious, w r e cannot compass it, 
and therefore are the more indebted to Divine grace that has wrought it out, 
to him who hath obtained eternal redemption for us : see Job xxxiii. 24, 28. 

4. He hath not only saved thee from death and ruin, but has made thee truly 
and completely happy, with honour, pleasure, and long life. 1st. He hath given 
thee true honour, and great honour, no less than a crown; "He crowneth 
thee with his lovingkindness and tender mercies ;" and what greater dignity is 
a poor soul capable of, than to be advanced into the love and favour of God? 
" This honour have all his saints." What is the crown of glory but God's 
favour? 2nd. He hath given thee true pleasure; he " satisfieth thy mouth with 
good things," ver. 5; and it is only the favour and grace of God that can give 
satisfaction to a soul, can suit its capacities, supply it needs, and answer its 
desires. Nothing but Divine w r isdom can undertake to fill its treasures, 
Pr. viii. 21; other things will surfeit but not satiate, Eccl. vi. 7; Isa. lv. 2. 
3rd. He hath given thee a prospect and pledge of long life ; " Thy youth is 
renewed like the eagle's." The eagle is long-lived, and, as naturalists say, 
when she is near a hundred years old, casts all her feathers, (as indeed she 
changes them in a great measure every year at moultin^-time,) and fresh ones 
come, so that she becomes young again. When God by the graces and com- 
forts of his Spirit recovers his people from their decays, and fills them with 
new life and joy, which is to them an earnest of eternal life and joy, then they 
may be said to return to the days of their youth, Job xxxiii. 25. 

6 The Lord execute th righteousness and judgment 
For all that are oppressed. 

7 He made known his ways unto Moses, 
His acts unto the children of Israel. 

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, 
Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 

9 He will not always chide : 

Neither will he keep his a?iger for ever. 
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins ; 
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities 



PSALM cm. 



491 



1 1 For as the heaven is high above the earth, 

So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 

12 As far as the east is from the west, 

So far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 

13 Like as a father pitieth his children, 

So the Lord pitieth them that fear him. 

14 For he knoweth our frame ; 

He remembereth that we are dust. 

1 5 As for man, his days are as grass : 

As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 

16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone ; 
And the place thereof shall know it no more. 

17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to ever- 

lasting upon them that fear him, 
And his righteousness unto children's children; 

18 To such as keep his covenant, [them. 
And to those that remember his commandments to do 

Hitherto the psalmist had only looked back upon his own experiences, and 
thence fetched matter for praise; here he looks abroad and takes notice of 
his favour to others also, for in them we should rejoice, and give thanks for 
t hem ; all the saints being fed at a common table, and sharing in the same 
blessings. 

First. Truly God is good to all; ver. 6, "He executeth righteousness and 
judgment," not only for his own people, but "for all that are oppressed;" for 
even in common providence he is the patron of wronged innoceney ? and one way 
or other will plead the cause of those that are injured against their oppressors. 
It is his honour to humble the proud, and help the helpless. 

Secondly. He is in a special manner good to Israel, to every Israelite indeed, 
that is of a clean and upright heart. < 

1. He hath revealed himself and his grace to us ; ver. 7, " He made known his 
ways unto Moses," and by him "his acts to the children of Israel;" not only 
by his rod to those who then lived, but by his pen to succeeding ages. Note, 
Divine revelation is one of the first and greatest of Divine favours with which 
the church is blessed; for God reduceth us to himself by revealing himself to 
us; and gives us all good by giving us knowledge. He hath made known his 
acts and his ways, that is, his nature, and the methods of his dealing with the 
children of men, that they may know both what to conceive of him, and what 
to expect from him ; so Dr. Hammond. Or, by his ways we may understand 
his precepts, the way which he requires us to walk in ; and by his acts, or 
designs, as the word signifies, his promises and purposes what to do with us. 
Thus fairly doth God deal with us. 

2. He hath never been rigorous and severe with us, but always tender, full 
of compassion, and^ ready to forgive. 1st. It is in his nature to be so; ver. 8, 
" The Lord is merciful and gracious." This was his way which he made known 
unto Moses at mount Horeb, when he thus proclaimed his name, Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7, 
in answer to Moses' request, Ex. xxxiii. 13, " 1 beseech thee shew me thy way, 
that I may know thee." It is my way, saith God, to pardon sin. Eirst. He is 
not soon angry; ver. 8, he is "slow to anger," not extreme to mark what we do 
amiss, nor ready to take advantage against us. He bears long with those that 
are very provoking, defers punishing that he may give space to repent, and 
doth not speedily execute the sentence of his law. And he could not be thus 
slow to anger if he were not plenteous in mercy, the very Father of mercies. 
Secondly. He is not long angry ; for, ver. 9, " He will not always chide," though 
we always offend, and deserve chiding. Though he signify his displeasure 
against us for our sins by the rebukes of providence, and the reproaches of our 
own consciences, and thus cause grief; yet he will have compassion, and will 
not always keep us in pain and terror, no, not for our sins, but, after the spirit 
of bondage, will give the spirit of adoption. How unlike are those to God who 
always chide, who take every occasion to chide, and never know when to take 



492 



PSALM CIII. 



up ! What would become of us, if God should deal so with us? "He will not 
keep his anger for ever " against his own people, but will gather them with 
everlasting mercies, Isa. liv. 8; lvii. 16. 2nd. We have found him so. We, for 
our parts, must own, that "He hath not dealt with us after oar sins," ver. 10. 
The Scripture saith a great deal of the mercy of God, and we may all set to our 
seal that it is true; that we have experienced it. If he had not been a God of 
patience we had been in hell long ago: but He hath not "rewarded us after 
our iniquities ;" so they will say who know what sin deserves. He has not 
inflicted the judgments which we have merited, nor deprived us of the comforts 
which we have forfeited; which should make us think the worse and not the 
better of sin ; for God's patience should lead us to repentance, Rom. ii. 4. 

3. He hath pardoned our sins; not only mine iniquity, ver. 3, but our trans- 
gressions, ver. 12. Though it is of our own benefit by the pardoning mercy 
of God that we are to take the comfort, yet of the benefit others have by it 
we must give him the glory. Observe, 1st. The transcendent riches of God's 
mercy ; ver. 11, " As the heaven is high above the earth," so high that the earth 
is but a point to the vast expanse ; so God's mercy is above the merits of those 
that fear him most; so much above and beyond them thatthere is no proportion 
at all between them. The greatest performances of man's duty cannot demand 
the least tokens of God's favour as a debt, and therefore all the seed of Jacob 
will join with him in owning themselves less than the least of all God's mercies, 
Gen. xxxii. 10. . Observe, God's mercy is thus " great towards them that fear 
him," not towards them that trifle with him. ~v> e must fear the Lord and his 
goodness. 2nd. The fulness of his pardons, an evidence of the riches of his 
mercy; ver. 12, " As far as the east is from the west," (which two quarters of 
the world are of greatest extent, because all known and inhabited, and there- 
fore geographers that way reckon their longitudes,) " so far hath he removed 
our transgressions from us," so that theyshall never be laid to our charge, nor 
rise up in judgment against us. The sins of believers shall be remembered 
no more, shall not be mentioned unto them; they shall be sought for and not 
found. If we thoroughly forsake them, God will thoroughly forgive them. 

4. He hath pitied our sorrows, ver. 13, 14. Observe, 1st. Whom he pities; 
" Them that fear him ; " that is, all good people who in this world may become 
objects of pity upon account of the grievances which they are not only born, 
but born again to. Or it may be understood of those who have not yet received 
the spirit of adoption, but are yet trembling at his word; those he pities, 
Jer. xxxi, 18, 20. 2nd. How he pities ; " As a father pities his children ;" and doth 
them good as there is occasion. God is a father to them that fear him, and 
owns them for his children, and he is tender of them as a father. The father 
pities his children that are weak in knowledge, and instructs them ; pities them 
when they are froward, and bears with them ; pities them when they are sick, 
and comforts them, Jsa.lxvi. 13; when they are fallen, and helps them'up again ; 
when they have offended, and, upon their submission,' forgives them ; when they 
are wronged, and rights them. Thus " the Lord pities them that fear him. 
3rd. Why he pities ; For he knoweth our frame." He has reason to know our 
frame, for he framed us, and having himself made man of the dust, " he remem- 
bers that he is dust," not only by constitution but by sentence; "Dust thou 
art." He considers the frailty of our bodies, and the folly of our souls, how 
little we can do, and expects accordingly from us; how little we can bear, and 
lays accordingly upon us; in all which appears the tenderness of his com- 
passion. 

5. He hath perpetuated his covenant mercy, and therefore provided relief 
for our frailty, ver. 15 — 18. See here, 1st. How short man's life is, and of what 
uncertain continuance. The lives even of great men and good men are so, and 
neither their greatness nor their goodness can alter the property of them. '"As 
for man, his days are as grass," which growls out of the earth, rises but a little 
way above it, and soon withers and returns to it again : see Isa. xl. 6, 7. Man 
in his best estate seems somewhat more than grass ; he flourishes and looks gay; 
vet then he is but like a flower of the field, which/though distinguished a little 
from the grass, will wither with it. The flower of the garden is commonly more 
choice and valuable, and though in its own nature withering, yet will last the 
longer for its being sheltered by the garden wail, and the gardener's care ; but 
the flower of the field (to which life is here compared) is not only withering 
in itself, but exposed to the cold blasts, and liable to be cropped and trodden on 
by the beasts of the field. Man's life is not only wasting of itself, but its period 
may be anticipated by a thousand accidents. ^Vhen the flower is in its perfec- 
tion, a blasting wind, unseen, unlooked-for, passeth over it and it is gone; it 
hangs the head, drops the leaves, dwindles into the ground again, and the place 
thereof, which was proud of it, now knows it no more. Such a thing is man : 
God considers it, and pities him ; let him consider it himself, and be humble, 
d^ad to this world, and thoughtful of another. 2nd. How long and lasting 
God's mercy is to his people, ver. 17, 18. It will continue longer than their 
lives, and will survive their present state. Observe, First. The description 



PSALM CIII. 493 

if of those to whom this mercy belongs. They are such as fear God ; that is, 
I are truly religious from a principle. 1st. They live a life of faith ; for they keep 
I God's covenant ; having taken hold of it, they keep hold of it, fast hold, and 
1 will not let it go. They keep it as a treasure, keep it as their portion, and would 
I not for all the world part with it, for it is their life. 2nd. They live a life 
1 of obedience; they "remember his commandments to do them," else they do 
I not keep his covenant. Those only shall have the benefit of God's promises 
I that make conscience of his precepts. See who they are that have a good 
i memory, as well as a good understanding, Ps. cxi. 10. those that remember 
I God's commandments, not to talk of them, but to do them, and to be ruled by 
I them. Secondly. The continuance of the mercy which belongs to such as 
1 these. It will last them longer than their lives on earth, and therefore they 
I need not be troubled though their lives be short, since death itself will be no 
I abridgement, no infringement of their bliss. God's mercy is better than life; 
| for it will outlive it. \st. To their souls, which are immortal, to them "the 
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting;" from everlasting in the 
counsels of it, to everlasting in the consequences of it; in their election before 
the world was, and their glorification when this^ world shall be no more ; for 
they are predestinated to the inheritance, Eph. i. 11, and "look for the mercy 
of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, unto eternal life." 2nd. To their seed, which 
shall be kept up to the end of time, Ps. cii. 28. His righteousness, the truth 
of his promise, unto children's children, provided they tread in the steps of their 
predecessors' piety, and keep his covenant as they did, then shall mercy be pre- 
served to them even to a thousand generations. 

19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens ; 
And his kingdom ruleth over all. 

20 Bless the Lord, ye his angels, 

That excel in strength, that do his commandments^ 
Hearkening unto the voice of his word. 

21 Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts ; 

Ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. 

22 Bless the Lord, all his works 
In all places of his dominion : 
Bless the Lord, 0 my soul. 

| Here is, First. The doctrine of universal providence laid down, ver. 19. He 
I hath secured the happiness of his peculiar people by promise and covenant; 
but the order of mankind and the world in general he secures by common pro- 
vidence. The Lord hath a throne of his own, a throne of glory, a throne of 

government He that made all rules all, and both by a word of power. He 
ath prepared his throne, has fixed and established it, that it cannot be shaken. 
He has foreordained all the measures of his government, and doth all accord- 
ing to the counsel of his own will. He has prepared it in the heavens, above 
us, and out of sight ; for he holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth 
a cloud upon it, Job xxvi. 9 ; yet can himself judge through the dark cloud, 
Job xxii. 13. Hence the heavens are said to rule, Dan. iv. 26. And we are led 
to consider this by the influence which even the visible heavens have upon this 
earth, their dominion, Job xxxviii. 33 ; Gen. i. 16. Rut though God's throne is 
in heaven, and there he keeps his court, and thither we are to direct to him, 
"Our Father, which art in heaven," yet "his kingdom ruleth over all." He takes 
cognizance of all the inhabitants, and all the affairs, of this lower world, and 
disposeth all persons and things according to the counsel of his will to his own 
glory ; Dan. iv. 35, His kingdom ruleth over all kings, and all kingdoms, and 
from it there is no exempt jurisdiction. 

Secondly. The duty of universal praise inferred from it. If all are under 
God's dominion, all must do him homage. 

1. Let the holy angels praise him; ver. 20, 21, "Bless the Lord, ye his angels." 
And again, " Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts ; ye ministers of his." David had 
been stirring up himself and others to praise God, and here, in the close, he 
calls upon the angels to do it. Not as if they needed any excitement of ours 
to praise God, they do it continually; but thus he expresses his high thoughts 
of God, as worthy of the adorations of the holy angels ; thus he quickens him- 
self and others to the duty, with this consideration,— that it is the work of 
angels ; and comforts himself in reference to his own weakness and defect in 
the performance of this duty, that there is a world of holy angels who dwell 



494 



PSALM CIV. 



in God's house, and are still praising him. In short, the blessed angels are 
glorious attendants upon the blessed God. Observe, 1st. How well qualified 
they are for the post they are in. They are able ; for they " excel in strength;" 
they are ' mighty in strength/ so the word is. They are able to bring great things 
to pass, and to abide in their work without weariness ; and they are as willing 
as they are able. They are willing to know their work; for they hearken to 
the voice of his word; they stand expecting commissions and instructions from 
their great Lord, and always behold his face, Mat. xviii. 10, that they may take 
the first intimation of his mind. They are willing to do their work; they do 
his commandments, ver. 20; they do his pleasure, ver. 21. They dispute not 
any Divine commands, but readily address themselves to the execution of them. 
Nor do they delay; but fly swiftly. 'They do his commandments at hearing;' 
or, 4 as soon as they hear the voice of his word,' so Dr. Hammond. "To obey 
is better than sacrifice for angels obey, but do not sacrifice. 2nd. What their 
service is. They are his angels, and ministers of his ; His, for he made them, 
and made them for himself; His, for he useth them, though he doth not need 
them ; His, for he is their owner and lord; they belong to him, and he has them 
at his beck. All the creatures are his servants, but not as the angels that attend 
the presence of his glory. Soldiers and seamen, and all good subjects, serve 
the king; but not as the courtiers do ? the ministers of state, and those of the 
household. First. The angels occasionally serve God in this lower world; 
thev do his commandments, go on his errands, Dan. ix. 21, fight his battles, 
2 Kin. vi. 17, and minister for the good of his people, Heb. i. 14. Secondly. They 
continually praise him in the upper world; they began betimes to do it, 
Job xxxviii. 7; and it is still their business, from which they rest not day or 
night, Rev. iv. 8. It is God's glory that he hath such attendants; but more his 
glory that he neither needs them nor is benefited by them. 

2. Let all his works praise him; ver. 22, "All in 'all places of his dominion ; " 
for because they are his works they are under his dominion, and they were made 
and are ruled, that they may be unto him for a name and a praise. 44 All his 
works ;" that is, all the children of men in ail parts of the w r orld, let them all 
praise God; yea, and the inferior creatures too, which are God's works too. 
let them praise him objectively, though they cannot actually do it, Ps. cxlv. 10. 
Yet all this shall not excuse David from doing it, but rather excite him to do it 
the more cheerfully, that he might bear a part in this concert; for he concludes, 
" Bless the Lord, O my soul," as he began, ver. 1. Blessing God, and giving him 
glory, must be the alpha and omega of all our services. He began with, 44 Bless 
the Lord, O my soul;" and when he had penned and sung this excellent hymn 
to his honour, he doth not say. 4 Now, O my soul, thou hast blessed the Lord, sit 
down and rest thee,' but 44 Bless the Lord, O my soul," yet more and more. 
When we have done never so much in the service of God ; yet still we must stir 
up ourselves to do more. God's praise is a subject that will never be exhausted; 
and therefore we must never think this work done till we come to heaven, 
vvhere it will be for ever in the doing. 



PSALM CIV. 

It is very probable that this psalm was penned by the same hand, and at the same 
time with the former ; for as that ended this begins with " Bless the Lord, O my 
soul," and concludes with it too, ver. 35. The style indeed is somewhat different, 
because the matter is so. The scope of the foregoing psalm was to celebrate the 
goodness of God, and his tender mercy and compassion, to which a soft and sweet style 
was most agreeable : the scope of this is to celebrate his greatness and majesty and 
sovereign dominion, which ought to be done in the most stately lofty strains of 
poetry. David in the former psalm gave God the glory of his covenant-mercy and 
love to his own people ; in this he gives him the glory of his works of creation and 
providence, his dominion over, and his bounty to, all the creatures. God is there praised 
as the God of grace, here as the God of nature. And this psalm is wholly bestowed on 
that subject; not as Ps. xix., which begins with it, but passeth from it to the consi- 
deration of the Divine law; not as Ps. viii., which speaks of this, but prophetically, 
and with an eye to Christ. This noble poem is thought by very competent judges, not 
only for piety and devotion (that is past dispute), but for flight of fancy, brightness of 
ideas, surprising turns, and all the beauties and ornaments of expression, far to excel 
any of the Greek and Latin poets upon any subject of this nature. Many great things 
the psalmist here gives God the glory of, I. The splendour of his majesty in the upper 
world, ver. 1 — 4. II. The creation of the sea and the dry land, ver. 5 — 9. III. 
The provision he makes for the maintenance of all the creatures according to their 
nature, ver. 10—18, and again, ver. 27, 28. IV. The regular course of the sun and 
moon, ver. 19—24. V. The furniture of the sea, ver. 25, 26. VI. God's sovereign 
power over all the creatures, ver. 29—32. And lastly, he concludes with a pleasant and 
firm resolution to continue praising God, ver. 33—35; with which we should heartily 
join in singing this psalm. 



PSALM CIV. 



495 



BLESS the Lord, 0 my soul. 
0 Lord my God, thou art very great ; 
Thou art clothed with honour and majesty. 

2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment : 
Who stretch est out the heavens like a curtain : 

3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters : 
Who maketh the clouds his chariot : 

Who walketh upon the wings of the wind : 

4 Who maketh his angels spirits ; 
His ministers a flaming fire : 

5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, 
That it should not be removed for ever. 

6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: 
The waters stood above the mountains. 

7 At thy rebuke they fled ; 

At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. 

8 They go up by the mountains ; they go down by the 

valleys 

Unto the place which thou hast founded for them. 

9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over ; 
That they turn not again to cover the earth. 

"When we are addressing ourselves to any religious service, we must stir up 
ourselves to take hold on God in it, Jsa. lxiv. 7 ; so David doth here. Come, 
my soul, where art thou? What art thou thinking of? Here is work to be 
done, good work, angels' work, about it in good earnest, let all thy powers and 
faculties be engaged and employed in it. " Bless the Lord, O my soul ! " In 
these verses, 

First. The psalmist looks up to the Divine glory shining in the upper world, 
which, though it is one of the things not seen, yet faith is the evidence of it. 
With what reverence and holy awe doth he begin his meditation, with that 
acknowledgment, " O Lord my God, thou art very great." And it is the joy 
of the saints that he that is their God is a great God. The grandeur of the 
prince is the pride and pleasure of all his good subjects. The majesty of God 
is here set forth by divers instances ; alluding to the figure which great princes 
in their public appearances covet to make ; their equipage compared with his 
(even of the Eastern kings, who most affected pomp,) is but as the light of a 



honour and majesty," ver. 1. God is seen in his works; and those speak him 
infinitely wise and good, and all that is great. " Thou coverest thyself with 
light as with a garment," ver. 2 ; " God is light," 1 Jno. i. 5 ; " The Father of 
lights," Jas. i. 17 ; " He dwells in light," 1 Tim. vi. 16. He clothes himself with 
it. The residence of his glory is in the highest heaven ; that light which was 
created the first day, Gen. i. 3. Of all visible beings, light comes nearest to 
the nature of a spirit ; and therefore with that God is pleased to cover himself, 
that is, to reveal himself under that similitude ; as men are seen in the clothes 
with which they cover themselves,— and so only, for his face cannot be seen. 

2. In their palaces or pavilions, when they take the field. And what is God's 
palace and his pavilion ? He " stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain," ver. 2 ; 
so he did at first, when he made the firmament, which in the Hebrew has its 
name from its being expanded or stretched out, Gen. i. 7. He made it to divide 
the waters as a curtain divides between two apartments : so he doth still, he 
now "stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain;" that is, keeps them upon the 
stretch, and they "continue to this day according to his ordinance." The 
regions of the air are stretched out about the earth, like a curtain about a 
bed, to keep it warm, and drawn between us and the upper world to break 
its dazzling light ; for though God covers himself with light, yet in compassion 




496 



PSALM CIV 



to us he makes darkness his pavilion, thick clouds are a covering to him. The 
vastness of this pavilion may lead us to consider how great, how very great, 
He is that fills heaven and earth. He hath his chambers, his upper rooms, so the 
word signifies ; the beams whereof he lays in the waters, the waters that are 
above the firmament, ver. 3; as he has founded the earth upon the seas and 
floods, the waters beneath the firmament. Though air and water are fluid 
bodies, yet by the Divine power they are kept as tight and as firm in the place 
assigned them as a chamber is with beams and rafters. How great a God is he 
whose presence-chamber is thus reared, thus fixed ! 

3. In their coaches of state, and their stately horses, which add much to the 
magnificence of their entries. But God "makes the clouds his chariots," in 
which he rides strongly, swiftly, and far above out of the reach of opposition, 
when at any time he will act by uncommon providences in the government of 
this world. He descended in a cloud as in a chariot to mount Sinai to give 
the law ; and to mount Tabor to proclaim the Gospel, Mat. xvii. 5 ; and he 
"walketh" (a softly pace, indeed, 'yet stately,) "upon the wrings of the wind:" 
see Ps. xviii. 10, 11. He commands the winds, directs them as he pleaseth, and 
serves his own purposes by them. 

4. In their retinue, or train of attendants. And here also God is very great ; 
for, ver. 4, "He maketh his angels spirits.'' This is quoted by the apostle, 
Heb. i. 7, to prove the preeminence of Christ above the angels. The angels 
are here said to be his angels and his ministers, for they are under his dominion, 
and at his dispose. They are winds, and a flame of fire ; that is, they appeared 
in wind and fire, so some; or they are swift as winds, and pure as flames; or 
he maketh them spirits, so the apostle quotes it. They are spiritual beings ; 
and whatever vehicles they may have proper to their nature, it is certain they 
have not bodies as we have. Being spirits, they are so much the farther removed 
from the incumbrances of the human nature, and so much the nearer allied to 
the glories of the Divine nature ; and they are bright, and quick, and ascending, 
as fire, as a flame of fire. In Ezekiel's vision they ran and returned like a flash 
of lightning, Eze. i. 14. Thence they are called seraphim, 'burners.' Whatever 
they are, they are what God made them, what he still makes them ; they derive 
their being from him, having the being he gave them, are held in being by him, 
and he makes what use he pleaseth of them. 

Secondly. He looks down, and looks about, to the power of God shining 
in this lower world. He is not so taken t up with the glories of his court as 
to neglect even the remotest of his territories ; no, not the sea and dry land. 

1. He hath founded the earth, ver. 5. Though he has hnng it upon nothing, 
Job xxvi. 2, iponderihus libraia suis, — ' balanced by its own weight,') yet it is 
as immovable as if it had been laid upon the surest foundations. He hath built 
the earth upon her basis, so that though it has received a dangerous shock 
by the sin of man, and the malice of hell strikes at it, yet it shall not be 
removed for ever ; that is, not till the end of time, when it must give way to the 
new earth. Dr. Hammond's paraphrase of this is worth noting : 4 God has 
fixed so strange a place for the earth, that being a heavy body, one would think 
it should fall every minute ; and yet, which way soever we would imagine it to 
stir, it must, contrary to the nature of such a body, fall upwards, and so can 
have no possible ruin, but by tumbling into heaven.' 

2. He hath set bounds to the sea, for that also is his. 

1st. He brought it within bounds in the creation. At first the earth (which, 
being the more ponderous body, would subside of course) was covered with the 
deep ; ver. 6, " The waters were above the mountains," and so it was unfit to be, 
as it was designed, an habitation for man ; and therefore on the third day God 
said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered unto one place, and let the 
dry land appear," Gen. i. 9. This command of God is here called his rebuke, 
as if he gave it because he was displeased that the earth was thus covered with 
water, and not fit for man to dwell on. Power went along with this word ; and 
therefore it is also called here the voice of his thunder, which is a mighty voice, 
and produeeth strange effects, ver. 7. "At thy rebuke," as if they were made 
sensible that they were out of their place, "they fled, they hasted aw r ay:" they 
called, and not in vain, to the rocks and mountains to cover them. As it is 
said on another occasion, Ps. lxxyii. 16, " The waters saw thee, O God, the 
waters saw thee, they were afraid." Even those fluid bodies received the 
impression of God's terror. But " was the Lord displeased against the rivers ?" 
No; it was "for the salvation of his people," Hab. hi. 8, 13. So here, God 
rebuked the waters for man's sake, to prepare room for him; for men must 
not be made as the fishes of the sea, Hab. i. 14; they must have air to breathe 
in. Immediately therefore, with ail speed, the waters retired, ver. 8 ; they go 
over hilL and dale, (as we say,) "go up by the mountains, and down by the 
valleys."' They will neither stop at the former, nor lodge in the latter, but 
make the best of their way "to the place which thou hast founded for them," 
and there they make their bed. " Let the obsequiousness even of the unstable 



P S A Is H CI V. 497 

waters teach us obedience to the word and will of God; for shall man alono 
of all the creatures be obstinate? Let their retiring to, and resting in, the 
place assigned them, teach us to acquiesce in the disposals of that wise pro- 
vidence which appointeth us the bounds of our habitation. 

2nd. He keeps it within bounds, ver. 9. The waters are forbidden to pass 
over the limits set them ; they may not, and, therefore, they " do not turn again 
to cover the earth." Once they did in Noah's flood, because God bade them; 
but never since, because he forbids them, having promised not to drown the 
world again. God himself glories in this instance of his power, Job xxxviii. 8, 
&c. ; and useth it as an argument with us to fear him, Jer. v. 22. This, if 
duly considered, would keep the world in awe of the Lord and his goodness, 
that the waters of the sea would soon cover the earth if God did not restrain 
them. 

10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, 
Which run among the hills. 

11 They give drink to every beast of the field : 

The wild asses quench their thirst. [tation, 

12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habi- 
Which sing among the branches. 

13 He watereth the hills from his chambers : 

The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. 

14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, 
And herb for the service of man : 

That he may bring forth food out of the earth ; 

1 5 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, 
And oil to make his face to shine, 

And bread which strengtheneth man's heart. 
1 f> The trees of the Lord are full of sap ; 

The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted , 

1 7 Where the birds make their nests : 

As for the stork, the fir trees are her house. ' 

18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; 
And the rocks for the conies. 




Lebanon with cedars. — La Borde, 



498 



PSALM CIV. 



Having given glory to God, as the powerful protector of this earth, in saving 
it from being deluged, here he comes to acknowledge him as its bountiful bene- 
factor, who provides conveniences for all the creatures. 

First. He provides fresh water for their drink. " He sendeth the springs intc 
the valleys," ver. 10. There is water enough, indeed, in the sea, that is, enough to 
drown us, but not one drop to refresh us, be we never so thirsty, it is all so salt; 
and therefore God has graciously provided water fit to drink. Naturalists dis- 
pute about the origin of fountains ; but, whatever are their second causes, here 
is the first cause, it is God that sends the springs into the brooks, which walk 
by easy steps between the hills, and receive increase from the rain water that 
descends from them. These give drink, not only to man, and those creatures 
that are immediately useful to him, but to every beast of the field," ver. 11 ; for 
where God has given life he provides a livelihood, and takes care of all the crea- 
tures ; even " the wild asses," though untameable, and therefore of no use to 
man, yet are welcome to " quench their thirst; " and we have no reason to grudge 
it them, for we are better provided for, though born like the wild ass's colt. 
We have reason to thank God for the plenty of fair weather with which he has 
provided the habitable part of his earth, which otherwise would not be habit- 
able. That ought to be reckoned a great mercy, the want of which would be 
a great affliction; and the more common it is. the greater mercy it is. Usus 
communis aquarum, — * Water is common to all. 

Secondly. He provides food convenient for them, both for man and beast. 
The heavens drop fatness ; they hear the earth, but God hears them, Hos. ii. 21. 
He 14 waters the hills from his chambers," ver. 13; from those chambers spoken 
of, ver. 3, the beams of which he lays in the waters ; those store chambers, the 
clouds that distil the fruitful showers. The hills that are not watered by the 
rivers, as Egypt was by the Nile, are watered by the rain from heaven, which is 
called the river of God, Ps. lxv. 9, as Canaan was, Deu. xi. 11, 12. Thus the earth 
is satisfied with the fruit of his works, either with the rain it drinks in, — the earth 
knows when it has enough, it is pity that any men should not, — or with the pro- 
ducts it brings forth. It is a satisfaction to the earth to bear the fruit of God's 
works for the benefit of man, for thus it answers the end of its creation. The 
food which God brings forth out of the earth, ver. 14, is the fruit of his works, 
which the earth is satisfied with. Observe how various and how valuable its 
proaucts are : for the cattle there is grass, and the beasts of prey, that live not 
on grass., feed on those that do. For man there is herb, a better sort of grass, 
(and a dinner of herbs and roots is not to be despised,) nay, he is furnished with 
wine, and oil, and bread, ver. 15. We may observe here concerning our food that 
which will help to make us both humble and thankful : 

1. To make us humble, let us consider that we have a necessary dependence 
upon God for all the supports of this life ; we live upon alms, we are at his find- 
ing, for our own hands are not sufficient for us: that our food comes all out of the 
earth, to mind us whence we ourselves were taken, and whither we must return ; 
and that therefore we must not think to live by bread alone, for that will feed 
the body only, but must look into the Word of God for the meat that endures 
unto eternal life. It is also humbling to consider that we are upon the matter 
fellow commoners with the beasts ; the same earth, the same spot of ground, 
that brings grass for the cattle, brings corn for man. 

2. To make us thankful, let us consider, 1st. That God not only provides for 
us, but for our servants. The cattle, that are of use to man, are particularly 
taken care of ; grass is made to grow in great abundance for them, when " the 
young lions," that are not for the service of man, often "lack, and suffer hunger." 
2nd. That our food is nigh us, and ready to us. Having our habitation on the 
earth, there we have our storehouse, and depend not on "the merchant ships 
that bring food from afar," Pr. xxxi. 14. 3rd. That w r e have even from the pro - 
ducts of the earth, not only for necessity, but for ornament and delight, so good 
a master do we serve. First. Doth nature call for something to support it and 
repair its daily decays? Here is bread, which strengthens man's heart, and is 
therefore called the staff of life : let none that have that complain of want. 
Secondly. Doth nature go farther, and covet something pleasant? Here is 
" wine, that makes glad the heart," refresheth the spirits, and exhilarates them, 
when it is soberly and moderately used; that we may not only go through our 
business, but go through it cheerfully. It is pity that should be abused to over- 
charge the heart, and unfit men for their duty, which was given to revive their 
heart, and quicken them in their duty. Thirdly. Is nature yet more humour- 
some, and doth it crave something to ornament it too ? Here is that also out of 
the earth, " oil to make the face to shine," that the countenance may not only be 
cheerful but beautiful, and we may be the more acceptable to one another. 

Nay, the Divine providence not only furnisheth animals with their proper 
food, but vegetables also with theirs ; ver. 16, " the trees of the Lord are full of 
sap ;" not only men's trees, which they take care of, and have an eye to in their 
orchards, and parks, and other inclosures, but God's trees, which grow in the 
wildernesses, and are taken care of only by his providence, yet they are full of 
sap, and want no nourishment. Even the cedars of Lebanon, an open forest, 



PSALM CIV. 499 

though they are high and bulky, and require a great deal of sap to feed them, 
have enough from the earth. 'They are trees which he hath planted, and which 
therefore he will protect and provide for. We may apply this to the trees of 
righteousness, which are the planting of the Lord, planted in his vineyard : these 
are full of sap ; for what God plants he will water, and " they that are planted 
in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God," Ps. xcii. 13. 

Thirdly. He takes care that they shall have suitable habitations to dwell in. 
To men God has given discretion to build for themselves, and for the cattle that 
are serviceable to them ; but there are some creatures which God more imme- 
diately provides a settlement for. 

i- The birds. Some birds by instinct make their nests in the bushes near 
rivers; ver. 12, by the springs that run among the hills some of "the fowls of 
heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches." They sing, 
according to their capacity, to the honour of their Creator and benefactor ; and 
their singing may shame our silence. Our heavenly Father feedeth them, 
Mat. vi. 26, and therefore they are easy and cheerful, and take no thought for 
the morrow. The birds being made to fly above the earth, as we find. Gen. i. 20, 
they make their nests on high on the tops of trees, ver. 17. And it should seem 
as if nature had an eye to this in planting the cedars of Lebanon, that they might 
be receptacles for the birds. Those that fly heavenward shall not want resting- 
places. The stork is particularly instanced in. The fir-trees, which are very 
high, are her house, her castle. 

2. The lesser sort of beasts ; ver. 18, The wild goats, having neither strength 
nor swiftness to secure themselves, are guided by instinct to the high hills, 
which are a refuge to them ; and the rabbits, which are also helpless animals, 
find a shelter in the rocks ; where they can set beasts of prey at defiance. Doth 
God provide thus for the inferior creatures, and will he not himself be a refuge 
and dwelling-place to his own people ? 

1 9 He appointed the moon for seasons : 
The sun knoweth his going down. 

20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night : 
Wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth, 

21 The young lions roar after their prey, 
And seek their meat from God. 

22 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, 
And lay them down in their dens. 

23 Man goeth forth unto his work 
And to his labour until the evening. 

24 0 Lord, how manifold are thy works ! 
In wisdom hast thou made them all : 
The earth is full of thy riches. 

25 So is this great and wide sea, 
Wherein are things creeping innumerable 
Both small and great beasts. 

26 There go the ships : [therein. 
There is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play 

27 These wait all upon thee ; 

That thou mayest give them their meat in due season. 

28 That thou givest them they gather : 

Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. 

29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled : 

Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to 
their dust. 

30 Thou senclest forth thy spirit, they are created : 
And thou renewest the face of the earth. 



500 



PSALM CI V. 



We are here taught to praise and magnify God, 

First. For the constant revolutions and succession of day and night, and the 
dominion of sun and moon over them. The heathen were so affected with the 
light and influence of the sun and moon, and their serviceableness to the earth, 
that they worshipped them as deities ; and therefore the Scripture takes all 
occasions to shew that the gods they worshipped are the creatures and servants 
of the true God ; ver. 19, " He appointed the moon for seasons," for the measur- 
ing of the months, the directing of the seasons for the business of the husband- 
man, and the governing of the tides. The full and change, the increase and 
decrease of the moon, exactly observe the appointment of the Creator ; so doth 
the sun, for he keeps as punctually to the time and place of his going down 
as if he were an intellectual being, and knew what he did. God herein con- 
sults the comfort of man. 

1. The shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night; ver. 20, 
" Thou makest darkness, and it is night," which, though black 5 contributes to 
the beauty of nature, and is a foil to the light of the day ; and under the protec- 
tion of the night "all the beasts of the forest creep forth" to feed; which they 
are afraid to do in the day, God having put the fear and dread of man upon 
every beast of the earth. Gen. ix. 2, which contributes as much to man's satety 
as to his honour. See how nearly allied they are to the disposition of the wild 
beasts that wait for the twilight. Job xxiv. 15, and have fellowship with the 
unfruitful works of darkness ; and compare to this the danger of ignorance and 
melancholy, which are both as darkness to the soul. When, either of those ways, 
it is night, then all the beasts of the forest creep forth ; Satan's temptations then 
assault us, and have advantage against us. Then the young lions roar after 
their prey ; and, as naturalists tell us, their roaring terrifies the timorous beasts, 
so that they have not strength or spirit to outrun them, which otherwise they 
might do, and so they become an easy prey to them. They are said to seek their 
meat from God, because it is not prepared for them by the care and forecast of 
man, but more immediately by the providence of God. The roaring of the young 
lions, like the crying of the young ravens, is interpreted asking them meat of 
God. Doth God put this construction upon the language of mere nature, even 
in venomous creatures, and shall he not much more interpret favourably the 
language of grace in his own people, though it be weak and broken, groanings 
which cannot be uttered ? 

2. The light of the morning befriends the business of the day •. ver. 22, 23, 64 The 
sun ariseth," (for as he know r s his going down, so, thanks be to God, he knows 
his rising again,) and then the wild beasts betake themselves to their rest. Even 
they have some society amongthem, for they "gather themselves together, and 
lay them dowm in their dens," which is a great mercy to the children of men, 
that while they are abroad, as becomes honest travellers between sun and sun, 
care is taken that they shall not be set upon by wild beasts ; for they are then 
drawn out of the field, and the sluggard shall have nowhere to excuse himself 
from the business of the day, with this, that there is a lion in the way. There- 
fore, then, " man goes forth to his work and to his labour." The beasts of prey 
creep forth with fear ; man goes forth with boldness, as one that ha:h dominion. 
The beasts creep forth to spoil and do mischief ; man goes forth to work and do 
good. There is the work of every day which is to be done in its day, which man 
must apply to every morning,— for the lights are set up for us to work by, not to 
play by,— and which he must stick to till evening. It will be time enough to rest 
when the night comes, in which no man can work. 

Secondly. For the replenishing of the ocean ; ver. 25, 26, as " the earth is full 
of God's riches," well stocked with animals, and those well provided for, so 
that it is seldom that any creature dies merely for want of food, " so is this great 
and wide sea," which seems a useless part of the globe, at least not to answer 
the room it takes up ; yet God has appointed it its place, and made it serviceable 
to man, both for navigation, — "there go the ships," in which goods are conveyed 
to countries vastly distant, speedily, and much cheaper than by land-carriage,— 
and also to be his storehouse for fish. _ God made not the sea in vain, no more 
than the earth ; he made it to be inherited, for "there are things swimming in- 
numerable, both small and great animals, which serve for man's dainty food. 
The whale is particularly mentioned in the history of the creation, Gen. i. 21, 
and is here called the leviathan, as Job xli. 1. He is made to play in the sea ; he 
hath nothing to do as man hath, that goes forth to his work ; he hath nothing to 
fear, as the beasts have, that lie down in their dens, and therefore lie plays with 
the waters. It is pity any of the children of men, that have nobler powers, and 
were made for nobler purposes, should live as if they were sent into the world, 
like leviathan into the waters, to play therein, spending all their time in pastime. 
The leviathan is said to play in the waters because he is so well armed against 
all assaults that he sets them at defiance, and laughs at the shaking of a spear, 
Job xli. 29. 



PSALM CIV. SJl 

Thirdly. For the seasonable and plentiful provision which is made for all the 
creatures, ver. 27, 28. 1. God is a bountiful benefactor to them. He gives them 
their meat ; he opens his hand, and they are filled with good. He subsists the 
armies both of heaven and earth ; even the meanest creatures are not below his 
cognizance. He is open-handed in the gifts of his bounty, and is a great and 
good housekeeper that provides for so large a family. 2. They are patient 
expectants from him. They all wait upon him; that is, they seek their food 
according to the natural instinct God has put into them, and in the proper sea- 
son for it, and affect not any other food, or at any other time than nature has 
ordained. They do their part for the obtaining of it ; what God gives them they 
gather, and expect not that providence should put it into their mouths ; and what 
they gather they are satisfied with. They are filled with good, and desire no 
more than what God sees fit for them, which may shame our murmurings, and 
discontent, and unsatisfiedness with our lot. 

Fourthly. For the absolute power and sovereign dominion which he has over 
all the creatures, by which the species of each are still continued, though the 
individuals of each are daily dying and dropping off. m See here, 1. All the crea- 
tures perishing ; ver. 29, " Thou hidest thy face," withdrawest thy supporting 

Eower, thy supplying bounty, and they are troubled presently. Every creature 
ath as necessary a dependence upon God's favour as every saint is sensible he 
has, and therefore saith with David, Ps. xxx. 7, " Thou didst hide thy face, and 
I was troubled." God's displeasure against this lower w r orld for the sin of man 
is the cause of all that vanity and burthen w hich the whole creation groans 
under. " Thou takest away their breath," which is in thy hand, and then, and 
not till then, "they die, and return to their dust," to their first principles. The 
spirit of the beast that goes downward is at God's command as well as the spirit 
of a man which goes upward. The death of cattle was one of the plagues of 
Egypt, and is particularly taken notice of in the drowning of the world. 2. All 
preserved, notwithstanding, in a succession: ver. 30, "Thou sendest forth thy 
spirit, they are created." The same Spirit, that is, the same Divine will and 
power by which they were all created at first still preserves the several sorts of 
creatures in their being, and place, and usefulness; so that, though one genera- 
tion of them passeth away, another comes, and from time to time they are cre- 
ated; new ones rise up instead of the old ones, and this is a continual creation. 
Thus the face of the earth is renewed from day to day by the light of the sun 
which beautifies it anew every morning ; from year to year by the products of 
it, which enrich it anew every spring, and put quite another face upon it from 
what it had all winter. The world is as full of creatures as if none died, for the 
place of those that die is filled up. This, the Jews say, is to be applied to the 
resurrection, which every spring is an emblem of, when a new world rises out 
of the ashes of the old one. 

In the midst of this discourse the psalmist breaks out into wonder at the 
works of God; ver. 24, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works!" They are 
numerous, they are various, of many kinds, and many of every kind, and yet " in 
wisdom hast thou made them all." When men undertake many works, and of 
different kinds, commonly some of them are neglected, and not done with due 
care; but God's works, though many, and of very different kinds, yet all are 
made in wisdom, and with the greatest exactness ; there is not the least flaw or 
defect in them. The works of art, the more closely they are looked upon with 
the help of microscopes, the more rough they appear; the works of nature 
through these glasses appear more fine and exact. They are all made in wis- 
dom, for they are all made to answer the end they were designed to serve, the 
good of the universe, in order to the glory of the uuiversal Monarch. 



3 1 The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever : 
The Lord shall rejoice in his works. 

32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth : 
He toucheth the hills, and they smoke. 

33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live : 

I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 

34 My meditation of him shall be sweet : 
I will be glad in the Lord. 

35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, 
And let the wicked be no more. 

Bless thou the Lord, 0 my soul. Praise ye the Lord 



502 PSALM CV. 

The psalmist concludes this meditation with speaking, 
First. Praise to God, which is chiefly intended in the psalm. 

1. He is to be praised, 1st. As a great God, and a God of matchless perfection. 
" The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever," ver. 31. It shall endure to the 
end of time in his works of creation and providence ; it shall endure to eternity 
in the felicity and adoration of saints and angels. Man's glory is fading, God's 
glory is everlasting ; creatures change, but with the Creator there is no 
variableness. 2nd. As a gracious God. " The Lord shall rejoice in his works." 
He continues that complacency in the products of his own wisdom and good- 
ness, which he had when he " saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, 
it was very good, and rested the seventh day." We often do that which upon 
the review we cannot rejoice in, but are displeased at, and wish undone 
again, blaming our own management. But God always rejoiceth in his works, 
because they are all done in wisdom. We regret our bounty and beneficence, 
but God never doth; he rejoiceth in the works of his grace, his gifts and call- 
ings are without repentance. 3rd. As a God of almighty power ; ver. 32, " He 
looketh on the earth, and it trembleth," as unable to bear his frowns ; trembleth 
as Sinai did at the presence of the Lord ; he toucheth the hills, and they 
smoke." The volcanoes, or burning mountains, such as jEtna. are emblems of 
the power of God's wrath fastening upon proud unhumblea sinners. If an 
angry look and touch hath such effects, what will the weight of his heavy hand 
do, and the operations of his outstretched arm? " Who knows the power of his 
anger?" Who then dare set it at defiance? God therefore rejoiceth in his 
works, because they are all so observant of him; and he will in like manner take 
pleasure in them that fear him, and that tremble at his word. 

2. The psalmist will himself be much in praising him; ver. 33, "I will sing 
unto the Lord, unto my God," will praise him as Jehovah, the Creator, and as 
my God, a God in covenant with me: and this not now only, "but as long as I 
live, and while I have my being." Because we have our life and being from 
God, and depend upon him for the support and continuance of it, as long as we 
live and have our being we must continue to praise God ; and when we have no 
life, no being on earth, we hope to have a better life and a better being in a 
better world, and there to be doing this work in a better manner, and in better 
company. 

Secondly. Joy to himself; ver. 34, " My meditation of him shall be sweet." It 
shall be fixed and close, it shall be affecting and influencing, and therefore it 
shall be sweet. Thoughts of God will then be most pleasing when they are 
most powerful. Note, Divine meditation is a very sweet duty to all that are 
sanctified. " I will be glad in the Lord ; " that is, it shall be a pleasure to me to 
praise him ; I will be glad of all opportunities to set forth his glory ; and I will 
rejoice in the Lord always, and in him only. All my joys shall centre in him, 
and in him they shall be full. 

Thirdly. Terror to the wicked ; ver. 35, " Let the sinners be consumed out of 
the earth, and let the wicked be no more." I. They that oppose the God of 
power, and fight against him, will certainly be consumed. None can prosper 
that harden themselves against the Almighty. 2. They that rebel against the 
light of such convincing evidence of God's being, and refuse to serve him whom 
all the creatures serve, will justly be consumed. They that make that earth to 
groan under the burthen of their impieties, which God thus fills with his riches, 
deserve to be consumed out of it, and that it should spue them out. 3. They 
that heartily desire to praise God themselves cannot but have a holy indigna- 
tion at those that blaspheme and dishonour him, and a holy satisfaction in the 
prospect of their destruction, and the honour that God will get to himself upon 
them. And even this ought to be the matter of their praise ; while sinners are 
consumed out of the earth, let my soul bless the Lord that I am not cast away 
with the workers of iniquity, but distinguished from them by the special grace 
of God. When the wicked are no more, I hope to be praising God world with- 
out end ; and, therefore, " praise ye the Lord ;" let all about me join with me in 
praising God. " Hallelujah." Sing praise to Jehovah. This is the first time 
that we meet with Hallelujah, and it comes in here upon occasion of the destruc- 
tion of the wicked; and the last time we meet with it, it is upon the like occasion, 
when the New Testament Babylon is consumed: this is the burthen of the song. 
Hallelujah, Rev. xix. 1, 3, 4, 6. 



PSALM CV. 

Some of the psalms of praise are very short, others very long, to teach us that in our 
devotions we should be more observant how our hearts work than how the time 
passeth, and neither overstretch ourselves by coveting to be too long, nor overstint our- 
selves by coveting to be too short, but either the one or the other, as we find it in our 
hearts to pray. This is a long psalm. The general scope is- the same with most of the 



PSALM CV 



psalms, to set forth the glory of God, but the subject matter is particular. Every time 
we come to the throne of grace, we may, if we please, furnish ourselves out of the Word 
of God, (out of the history of the New Testament, as this out of the history of the Old,) 
with new songs, with fresh thoughts, so copious, so various, so inexhaustible is the 
subject. In the foregoing psalm we are taught to praise God for his wondrous work of 
common providence with reference to the world in general ; in this we are directed to 
praise him for his special favours to his church. We find the first eleven verses of this 
psalm in the beginning of that psalm which David delivered to Asaph, to be used, as it 
should seem, in the daily service of the sanctuary, when the ark was fixed in the place 
he had prepared for it, by which it appears both who penned it and when and upon 
what occasion it was penned, 1 Chr. xvi. 7, &c. David by it designed to instruct his 
people in the obligations they lay under to adhere faithfully to their holy religion. 
Here is the preface, ver. 1 — 7, and the history itself in several articles. I. God's cove- 
nant with the patriarchs, ver. 8 — 1 1. II. His care of them while they were strangers, 
ver. 12 — 15. III. His raising up Joseph to be the shepherd and stone of Israel, 
ver. 16 — 22. IV. The increase of Israel in Egypt, and their deliverance out of Egypt, 
ver. 23 — 38. V. The care he took of them in the wilderness, and their settlement in 
Canaan, ver. 39 — 45. In singing this we must give to God the glory of his wisdom and 
power, his goodness and faithfulness, must look upon ourselves as concerned in the 
affairs of the Old Testament church, both because to it were committed the oracles of 
God which are our treasure, and out of it Christ arose, and these things happened to it 
for ensamples. 

OGIVE thanks unto the Lord ; 
Call upon his name : 

Make known his deeds among the people. 

2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him : 
Talk ye of all his wondrous works. 

3 Glory ye in his holy name : 

Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. 

4 Seek the Lord, and his strength : 
Seek his face evermore. 

5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done ; 
His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; 

6 O ye seed of Abraham his servant, 
Ye children of Jacob his chosen. 

7 He is the Lord our God : 

His judgments are in all the earth. 

Our devotion is here warmly excited; and we are stirred up, that we may 
stir up ourselves, to praise God. Observe, 

First. The duties we are here called to; and they are many, but the tendency 
of them all is to give unto God the glory due unto his name. 1. We must give 
thanks to him, as one who has always been our bountiful benefactor, and 
requires only that we give htm thanks for his favours : poor returns for rich 
receivings. 2. Call upon his name ; as one whom you depend upon for farther 
favours. Praying for farther mercies is accepted as an acknowledgment of 
former mercies. " Because he has inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I 
call upon him." 3. " Make known his deeds," ver. 1, that others many join with 
you in praising him. '* Talk ye of all his wondrous works," ver. 2, as we talk of 
things that we are full of, and much affected with, and desire to fill others with. 
God's wondrous works ought to be the subject of our familiar discourses with 
our families and friends ; and we should talk of them " as we sit in the house, 
and as we go by the way," Deu. vi. 7. Not merely for entertainment, but for 
the exciting of devotion, and the encouraging of our own and others' faith and 
hope in God. Even sacred things may be the matter of common talk, provided 
it be with due reverence. 4. Sing psalms to God's honour, as those tnat rejoice 
in him, and desire to testify that joy for the encouragement of others, and to 
transmit it to posterity, as memorable things anciently were handed down by 
songs, when writing was scarce. 5. " Glory in his holy name." Let those that 
are disposed to glory not boast of their own accomplishments and achievements, 
but of their acquaintance with God, and their relation to him, Jer. ix. 23, 24. 
'Praise ye his holy name,' so some. But it comes all to one ; for in glorying in 
him we give glory to him. 6. Seek him ; place your happiness in him, and then 
pursue that happiness in all the ways that he hath appointed. " Seek the Lord 



504 



PSALM CV. 



and his strength," that is, the ark of his strength ; seek him in the sanctuary, in 
the way wherein he has appointed us to seek him. Seek his strength, that is, 
his grace, the strength. of his Spirit, to work in you that which is good, which 
we cannot do but by strength derived from him, for which he will be inquired 
of. * Seek the Lord and be strengthened ;' so divers ancient versions read it. 
They that would be strengthened in the inward man must fetch in strength from 
God by faith and prayer. Seek hisstrength, and then seek his xace; for by his 
strength we hope to prevail with him for his favour, as Jacob did, Hos. xii. 3. 
"Seek his face evermore," that is, seek to have his favour to eternity, and 
therefore continue seeking it to the end of the time of your probation. Seek it 
while you live in this world, and you shall have it while you live in the other 
world, and even there shall be for ever seeking it, in an infinite progression, and 
yet be for ever satisfied in it. 7. "Let the hearts of those rejoice that do seek 
him," ver. 3 ; for they have chosen well, are well fixed, and well employed, and 
they may be sure their labour will not be in vain ; for he will not only be found, 
but he will be found "the rewarder of those that diligently seek him." And if 
those have reason to rejoice that seek the Lord, much more those that have 
found him. 

Secondly. Some arguments to quicken us to these duties. 

1. Consider both what he hath said and what he hath done to engage us for 
ever to him. You will see yourselves under all possible obligations to give 
thanks to him and call upon his name, if you remember the wonders, which 
should make deep and durable impressions upon you; the wonders of his 
providence which he hath wrought for you, and those that are gone before 
you; "the marvellous works that he has done," which will be had in everlast- 
ing remembrance with the thoughtful, and with the grateful; the wonders of 
his law which he has written to >ou, and intrusted you with; "the judgments 
of his mouth," as well as the judgments of his hand, ver. 5. 

2. Consider the relation you stand in to him; ver. 6, "Ye are the seed of 
Abraham his servant." You are born in his house, and being thereby entitled 
to the privilege of his servants, protection and provision, you are also bound to 
do the duty of servants, to attend your master, consult his honour, obey his 
commands, and do what you can to advance his interests. You are "the 
children of Jacob his chosen," and are chosen and beloved for the father's 
sake, and therefore ought to tread in the steps of those whose honours you 
inherit. You are the children of godly parents, do not degenerate; you are 
God's church upon earth, and if you do not praise him who should? 

3. Consider your interest in him. " He is the Lord our God," ver. 7. We 
depend upon him, are devoted to him, and from him our expectation is. Should 
not a people seek unto their God, Isa. viii. 19, and praise their God? Dan. v. 4. 
He is Jehovah, our God ; he that is our God is self-existent and self-sufficient, 
hath an irresistible power, and incontestable sovereignty; his judgments are 
in all the earth ; he governs the whole world in wisdom, and gives law to all 
nations, even those that know him not. The earth is full of the proofs of his 
power. 

8 He hath remembered his covenant for ever, 

The word which he commanded to a thousand generations. 

9 Which covenant he made with Abraham, 
And his oath unto Isaac. 

10 And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, 



And to Israel for an everlasting covenant : 
i J Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, 

The lot of your inheritance : 
1 % When they were but a few men in number ; 

Yea, very few, and strangers in it. 

1 3 When they went from one nation to another, 
From one kingdom to another people ; 

14 He suffered no man to do them wrong : 
Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes ; 

1 5 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, 
And do my prophets no harm. 



PSALM CV. 



505 



1 6 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land : * 
He brake the whole staff of bread. 

1 7 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, 
Who was sold for a servant: 

18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters : 
He was laid in iron : 

1 9 Until the time that his word came : 
The word of the Lord tried him. 

20 The king sent and loosed him ; 

Even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. 

2 1 He made him lord of his house, 
And ruler of all his substance : 

22 To bind his princes at his pleasure ; 
And teach his senators wisdom. 

23 Israel also came into Egypt ; 

And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. 

24 And he increased his people greatly; 

And made them stronger than their enemies. 

We are here taught in praising God to look a great way back, and to give 
him the glory of what he did for his church in former ages, especially when it 
was in the founding and forming, which those in its later ages enjoy the benefit 
of, and therefore should give thanks for. Doubtless we may fetch as proper 
matter for praise from the histories of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, 
which relate the birth of the Christian church, as the psalmist here doth from 
the histories of Genesis and JExodus, which relate the birth of the Jewish 
church, and our histories quite outshine theirs. Two things are here made 
the subject of praise : 

First. God's promise to the patriarchs; that great promise that he would give 
to their seed the land of Canaan for an inheritance, which was a type of the 
promise of eternal life made in Christ to all believers. In all the marvellous 
works which God did for Israel, "he remembered his covenant," ver. 8, and he 
will remember it for ever ; it is " the word which he commanded to a thousand 
generations." See here the power of the promise ; it is the word which he 
commanded, and which will take effect. See the perpetuity of the promise; it 
is commanded to a thousand generations, and the entail of it shall not be cut 
off. In the parallel place it is expressed as our duty, 1 Chr. xvi. 15, "Be ye 
mindful always of his covenant." God will not forget it, and therefore we must 
not. The promise is here called a covenant, because there was something 
required on man's part as the condition of the promise. Observe, 1. The 
persons with whom this covenant was made. With Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
grandfather, father, and son, all eminent believers, Heb. xi. 8, 9. 2. The rati- 
fications of the covenant. It was made sure by all that is sacred. Is that sure 
which is sworn to? It is his oath to Isaac, and to Abraham. See to whom God 
sware by himself, Heb. vi. 13, 14. Is that sure which is passed into a law ? He 
confirmed the same for a law, a law never to be repealed. Is that sure which 
is reduced to a mutual contract and stipulation? This is confirmed for an 
everlasting covenant, inviolable. 3. The covenant itself. "Unto thee will I 
give the land of Canaan," ver. 11. The patriarchs had a right to it, not by 
providence but promise; and their seed should be put in possession of it, not 
by the common ways of settling nations, but by miracles. God will give it 
them himself, as it were with his own hand ; it shall be given them as their lot, 
which God assigns them, and measures out to them, as the lot of their inherit- 
ance, a sure title, by virtue of their birth ; it shall come to them by descent, not 
by purchase ; by the favour of God, and not any merit of their own. Heaven is 
the inheritance we have obtained, Eph. i. 11 ; and "this is the promise which 
God has promised us," (as Canaan was the promise he promised them,) " even 
eternal life," 1 Jno. ii. 25 ; Tit. i. 2. 

Secondly. His providences concerning the patriarchs while they were waiting 
for the accomplishment of this promise ; which represent to us the care God 



606 



PSALM CV. 



takes of his people in this world, while they are yet on this side the heavenly 
Canaan; for "these things happened unto them for examples" and encourage- 
ments to all the heirs of promise, that live by faith as they did. 

1. They were wonderfully protected and sheltered: and, as the Jewish 
masters express it, 1 gathered under the wings of the t)ivine majesty.' This 
is accounted for here, ver. 12 — 15, where we may observe, 

1st. How they were exposed to injuries from men. To the three renowned 
patriarchs, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, God's promises were very rich. 
Again and again he told them he would be their God ; but his performances in 
this world were so little proportionable, that if he had not prepared for thenva 
city in the other world he would have been ashamed to have been called their 
God, (see Heb. xi. 16,) because he is always generous; and yet even in this 
world he was not wanting to them but, that he might appear to do uncommon 
things for them, he exercised them with uncommon trials. First. They were 
few, very few. Abraham was called alone, Jsa. lii. 2. He had but two sons, 
and one of them he cast out. Isaac had but two, and one of them was forced 
for many years to run his country. Jacob had more, but some of them, instead of 
being a defence to him, exposed him, when (as he himself pleads, Gen. xxxiv. 30) 
he was but few in number, and therefore might easily be destroyed by the 
natives, he and his house. God's chosen are but a little flock, few, very few, 
and yet upheld. Secondly. They were strangers, and therefore were the more 
likely to be abused, and to meet with strange usages, and the less able to 
help themselves. Their religion made them to be looked upon as strangers, 
1 Pet. iv. 4, and to be hooted at as speckled birds, Jer. xii. 9. Though the 
whole land was theirs by promise, yet they were so far from producing and 
pleading their grant, that they confessed themselves strangers in it, Heb. xi. 13, 
Thirdly. They were unsettled ; ver. 13, " They went from one nation to an- 
other," from one part of that land to another, for it was then in the holding 
and occupation of divers nations. Gen. xii. 8 ; xiii. 3, 18. Nay, "from one king- 
dom to another people;" from Canaan to Egypt, from Egypt to the land of 
the Philistines, which could not but weaken and expose them ; yet they were 
forced to it by famine. Note, Though frequent flitting is neither desirable 
nor commendable, yet sometimes there is a just and necessary occasion for it, 
and it may be the lot of some of the best men. 

2nd. How they were guarded by the special providence of God, the wisdom 
and power of which was the more magnified by their being so many ways ex- 
Dosed, ver. 14, 15. They were not able to help themselves; and yet, First. No 
men were suffered to wrong them, but even those that hated them, and would 
gladly have done them a mischief, had their hands tied, and could not do what 
they would. This may refer to Gen. xxxv. 5, where we find that " the terror of 
God" (an unaccountable restraint) "was upon the cities that were round about 
them," so that, though provoked, "they did not pursue after the sons of 
Jacob." Secondly. Even crow r ned heads that did offer to wrong them were 
not only checked and chidden for it, but controlled and baffled. "He re- 
proved kings for their sakes," in dreams and visions, " saying, Touch not mine 
anointed," it is at your peril if you do; nay, it shall not be in your power to 
do it; "Do my prophets no harm." Pharaoh king of Egypt was plagued, 
Gen. xii. 17; and Abimelech king of Gerar was sharply rebuked, Gen. xx. 6, 
for doing wrong to Abraham. Note, 1st. Even kings themselves are liable to 
God's rebukes if they do wrong. 2nd. God's prophets are his anointed, for 
they have the unction of the Spirit, that oil of gladness, 1 Jno. ii. 27. 3rd. They 
that offer to touch God's prophets with design to harm them may expect to 
hear of it one way or other. God is jealous for his prophets : (i whoso toucheth 
them toucheth the apple of his eye." 4th. Even they that touch the prophets, 
nay, that kill the prophets, as many did, yet cannot do them any harm. 
5th. God's anointed prophets are dearer to him than anointed kings them- 
selves. Jeroboam's hand was withered when it was stretched out against a 
prophet. 

2. They were wonderfully provided for and supplied. And here also, 
1st. They were reduced to great extremity. Even in Canaan, the land of 
promise, "he called for a famine," ver. 16. Note, All judgments are at God's 
call, and no place is exempt from their visitation and jurisdiction, when God 
sends them forth with commission. To try the faith of the patriarchs God 
*' brake the w hole staff of bread," even in that good land, that they might 
plainly see God designed them a better country than that was. 2nd. God 
graciously took care for their relief. It was in obedience to his precept, and 
in dependence upon his promise, that they were now sojourners in Canaan, 
and therefore he could not in honour suffer any evil thing to befall them, or any 
good thing to be wanting to them. As he restrained one Pharaoh from doing 
them wrong, so he raised up another to do them a kindness, by preferring and 
intrusting Joseph, of whose story we have here an abstract. He was to be the 
shepherd and stone of Israel, and to save that holy seed alive, Gen. xlix. 24; 
1. 20. In order to this, 



PSALM CV. 



5C7 



First. He was humbled, greatly humbled; ver. 17, 18, " God sent a man 
before them, even Joseph." Many years before the famine began, he was sent 
before them that was to nourish them in the famine ; so vast are the foresights 
and forecasts of providence, and so long its reaches. But in what character did 
he go to Egypt, who was to provide for the reception of the church there? He 
went not in quality of an ambassador, no, nor so much as a factor or com- 
missary ; but he was sold thither for a servant, a slave for term of life, without 
any prospect of being ever set at liberty. This was low enough, and one would 
think set him far enough from any probability of being great ; and yet he was 
brought lower, he was made a prisoner ; ver. 18, " His feet they hurt with 
fetters," being unjustly charged with a crime no less heinous than a rape upon 
his mistress ; " the iron entered into his soul," that is, was very painful to him ; 
and the false accusation which was the cause of his imprisonment did in a 
special manner grieve him, and went to his heart; yet all this was the way to 
his preferment. 

Secondly. He was exalted, highly exalted. He continued a prisoner, neither 
tried nor bailed, 44 until the time " appointed of God for his release; ver. 19, 
" when his word came,"' that is, his interpretations of dreams came to pass, and 
the report thereof came to Pharaoh's ears, by the chief butler ; and then 'the 
word of the Lord cleared him,' that is, the power God gave nim to foretell 
things to come rolled away the reproach his mistress had loaded him with, for 
it could not be thought God would give such a power to so ill a man as he was 
represented to be. God's word tried him, tried his faith and patience, and then 
it came in power to give command for his release. There is a time set when 
God's word will come, for the comfort of all that trust in it ; Hab. ii. 3, "at the 
end it shall speak and not lie." God gave the word, and then the king sent and 
loosed him; for the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. Pharaoh, finding 
him to be a favourite of Heaven, 1st. Discharged him from his imprisonment ; 
ver. 20, he let him go free. God has often by wonderful turns of providence 
pleaded the cause of oppressed innocency. 2nd. He advanced him to the 
highest posts of honour ; ver. 21, 22, he made him lord high chamberlain of his 
household, " he made him lord of his house ;" nay, he put him into the office of 
lord treasurer, " the ruler of all his substance ; " he made him prime minister of 
state, lord president of his council, to " command his princes at his pleasure, and 
teach them wisdom ;" general of his forces. "According to thy word shall all 
my people be ruled," Gen. xli. 40, 43, 44. He made him lord chief justice, to judge 
even his senators, and punish those that were disobedient. In all this Joseph 
was designed to be, (1.) A father to the church that then was, to save the 
house of Israel from perishing by the famine. He was made great that he 
might do good, especially in the household of faith. (2.) A figure of Christ 
that w T as to come; who, because he humbled himself^ and took upon him the 
form of a servant, was highly exalted, and hath all judgment committed to 
him. Joseph being thus sent before, and put into a capacity of maintaining 
all his father's house, "Israel also came into Egypt," ver. 23, where he and all 
his were very honourably and comfortably provided for many years. Thus the 
New Testament church has a place provided for her, even in the wilderness, 
where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time, Rev. xii. 14; verily she 
shall be fed. 

3. They were wonderfully multiplied, according to the promise made to 
Abraham, that his seed should be as the sand of the sea for multitude, ver. 24. 
In Egypt "he increased his people greatly ;" they multiplied like fishes, so that 
in a little time they became stronger than their enemies, and formidable to 
them. Pharaoh took notice of it; Ex. i. 9, "The children of Israel are more 
and mightier than we." When God pleaseth, " a little one shall become a thou- 
sand;" and God's promises, though they work slowly, yet they work surely. 

25 He turned their heart to hate his people, 
To deal subtilly with his servants. 

26 He sent Moses his servant ; 
And Aaron whom he had chosen. 

27 They shewed his signs among them, 
And wonders in the land of Ham. 

28 He sent darkness, and made it dark; 
And they rebelled not against his word. 

29 He turned their waters into blood, 
And slew their fish. 



5C8 



PSA. L M CT. 



30 Their land brought forth frogs m abundance. 
In the chambers of their kings. 

3 1 He spake, and there came divers sorts of Hies, 
And lice in all their coasts. 

32 He gave them hail for rain, 
And flaming fire in their land. 

33 He smote their vines also and their fig trees ; 
And brake the trees of their coasts. 

34 He spake, and the locusts came, 

And caterpillers, and that without number, 

35 And did eat up all the herbs in their land, 
And devoured the fruit of their ground. 

36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, 
The chief of all their strength. 

37 He brought them forth also with silver and gold : 

And there ivas not one feeble person among their 
tribes. 

38 Egypt was glad when they departed : 
For the fear of them fell upon them. 

39 He spread a cloud for a covering; 
And fire to give light in the night. 

40 The people asked, and he brought quails. 
And satisfied them with the bread of heaven. 

4 J He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out ; 
They ran in the dry places like a river. 

42 For he remembered his holy promise, 
And Abraham his servant. 

43 And he brought forth his people with joy, 
And his chosen with gladness : 

44 And gave them the lands of the heathen : 
And they inherited the labour of the people ; 

45 That they might observe his statutes, 
And keep his laws. 

Praise ye the Lord. 

After the history of the patriarchs follows here the history of the people of 
Israel, when they grew into a nation. 

First. Their affliction in Egypt, ver. 25. He turned the heart of the Egyptians 
that had protected them to hate them, and deal subtly with them. God s good- 
ness to his people exasperated the Egyptians against them, and though their old 
antipathy to the Hebrews (which we read of Gen. xliii. 32 ; xlvi. 34,) was laid 
asleep for awhile, yet now it revived with more violence than ever ; formerly 
they hated them because they despised them, now because they feared them. 
They dealt subtly with them, set all their politics on work, to find out ways 
and means to weaken them and waste them, and prevent their growth: they 
made their burthens heavy, and their lives bitter, and slew their male children 
as soon as they were born. Malice is crafty to destroy ; Satan has the serpent's 
subtlety with his venom. It was God that turned the hearts of the Egyptians 
against them ; for every creature is that to us that he makes it to be. a friend or 
an enemy. Though God is not the author of the sins of men, yet he serves his 
ow." purposes by them. 



P S A UI C V. 



509 



Secondly. Their deliverance out of Egypt, that work of wonder, which, that 
it might never be forgotten, is put into the preface to the ten commandments 
Observe. 

1. The instruments employed in that deliverance; ver. 28, "He sent Moses 
his servant" on this errand, and joined Aaron in commission with him. _ Moses 
was designed to be their lawgiver and chief magistrate, Aaron to be their chief 
priest; and therefore, that they might respect them the more, and submit to 
them the more cheerfully, God made use of them as their deliverers. 

2. The means of accomplishing that deliverance ; and those were the plagues 
of Egypt. Moses and Aaron observed their orders in summoning them, just 
as God appointed them, "and they rebelled not against hisword," (ver. 28) as 
Jonah did, who, when he was sent to denounce God's judgments against 
Nineveh, went to Tarshish. Moses and Aaron were not moved either with a 
foolish fear of Pharoah's wrath, or a foolish pity of Egypt's misery, to relax 
or retard any of the plagues which God ordered them to inflict on the Egyptians, 
but stretched forth their hand to inflict them as God appointed. They that 
are instructed to execute judgment w r ili find their remissness construed a 
rebellion against God's word. The plagues of Egypt are here called God's 
signs, and his wonders, ver. 27 ; they were not only proofs of his pow r er, but 
tokens of his wrath, and to be looked upon with admiration and holy aw T e. 
* They shewed the words of his signs,' so it is in the original, for every plague 
had an exposition going along with it; they were not as the common works of 
creation and providence, silent signs, but speaking ones, and spoke aloud. They 
are all, or most of them, here instanced in, though not in the order in which 
they vrere inflicted. 

1st. The plague of darkness, ver. 28. This was one of the last, though here 
mentioned first. God sent darkness, and coming with commission it came with 
efficacy ; his command made it dark. And then they, that is, the people of 
Israel, rebelled not against God's word, namely, a command which some think 
was given them to circumcise all among them that had not been circumcised ; 
in doing which, the three days' darkness would be a protection to them. The 
old translation follows the Septuagint, and reads it, i They were not obedient 
to his word,' which may be applied to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who, not- 
withstanding the terror of this plague, would not let the people go ; but there 
is no ground for it in the Hebrew. 

2nd. The turning of the river Nilus (which they idolized) into blood, and all 
their other waters, which slew their fish, ver. 29; and so they were deprived 
not only of their drink, but the daintiest of their meat, Num. xi. 5. 

3rd. The frogs, shoals of which their land brought forth, which poured in 
upon them, ^.ot only in such numbers, but with such fury, that they could not 
keep them out of the chambers of their kings and great men, whose hearts had 
been full of vermin more nauseous, and more noxious, contempt of, and enmity 
to, God and his Israel. 

4th. Flies of divers sorts swarmed in their air, and lice in their clothes, ver. 31; 
Ex. viii. 17, 24. Note, God can make use of the meanest, and weakest, and most 
despicable animals for the punishing and humbling of proud oppressors, to 
whom the impotency of the instrument cannot but be a great mortification, 
as well as an undeniable conviction of the Divine omnipotence. 

5th. Hailstones shattered their trees, even the strongest timber-trees in their 
coasts, and killed their vines, and other their fruit-trees, ver. 32, 33. Instead 
of rain to cherish their trees, he gave them hail to crush them, and with it 
thunder and lightning, to that degree that the fire ran along upon the ground, 
as if it had been a stream of kindled brimstone, Ex. ix. 23. 

6th. Locusts and caterpillars destroyed all the herbs w r hich w r ere made for 
the service of man, and ate the bread out of their mouths, ver. 34, 35. See what 
variety of judgments God has wherewith to plague proud oppressors, that will 
not let his people go. God did not bring the same plague twice, but when 
there was occasion for another it was still a new T one; for he has many arrows 
in his quiver. Locusts and caterpillars are God's armies; and, how weak soever 
they are singly, he can raise such numbers of them as to make them formidable, 
Joel i. 4, 6. 

7th. Having mentioned all the plagues but those of the murrain and boils, he 
concludes with that which gave the conquering stroke, and that was the death 
of the firstborn, ver. 36. In the dead of the night the joys and hopes of their 
families, the chief of their strength and flower of their land, were all struck 
dead by the aestroying angel. They would not release God's firstborn, and 
therefore God seized theirs by way of reprisal, and thereby forced them to 
dismiss his too when it was too late to retrieve their own ; for when God 
judgeth, he will overcome, and they will certainly sit down losers at last that 
contend with him. 

3. The mercies that accompanied this deliverance. In their bondage, 1st. 
They had been impoverished and yet they came out rich and wealthy. God 



510 



PSALM CV. 



not only brought them forth, but he "brought them forthwith silver and gold/' 
ver. 37. God empowered them to ask and collect the contributions of their 
neighbours, which was indeed but part of payment for their service they had 
done them, and inclined the Egyptians to furnish them with what they asked. 
Their wealth was his, and therefore he might — their hearts were in his hand, 
and therefore he could— give it to the Israelites. 2nd. Their lives had been made 
bitter to them, and their bodies and spirits broken by their bondage; and yet, 
when God brought them forth there was not one feeble person, none sick, none 
so much as sickly among their tribes. They went out that very night that the 
plague swept away all the firstborn of Egypt, and yet they came out all in 
good health, and brought not with them any of the diseases of Egypt. m Surely 
never was the like, that among so many thousands there was not one sick. So 
false was the representation which the Jews' enemies in after ages gave of this 
matter, that they were all sick of a leprosy, or some loathsome disease, and 
therefore the Egyptians thrust them out of their land. 3rd. They had been 
trampled upon and insulted over, and yet they were brought out with honour; 
ver. 38, "Egypt was glad when they departed," for God had so wonderfully 
owned them, and pleaded their cause, that the fear of Israel fell upon them, 
and they owned themselves baffled and overcome. God can and will make his 
church a burthensome stone to all that heave at it, and seek to displace it, so 
that they shall think themselves happy that get out of its way, Zee. xii. 3. Wnen 
God judges, he will overcome. 4th. They had spent their days in sorrowing 
and sighing, by reason of their bondage; but new he brought them forth with 
joy and gladness, ver. 43. When Egypt's cry for grief was loud,— their firstborn 
being all slain,— Israel's shouts for joy were as loud ; both when they looked 
back upon the land of slavery, out of which they were rescued, and when they 
looked forward to the pleasant land to which they were hastening. God now 
put a new song into their mouth. 

4. The special care God took of them in the wilderness. 1st. For their shelter, 
besides the canopy of heaven, he provided them another heavenly canopy ; he 
spread a cloud for a covering, ver. 39, which was to them not only a screen and 
umbrella, but a cloth of state. A cloud was often God's pavilion, Ps. xviii. II, 
and now it was Israel's, for they also were his hidden ones. 2nd. For their 
conduct and refreshment in the dark, he appointed a pillar of "fire to give 
light in the night," that they might never be at a loss. Note, God graciously 
provides against all the grievances of his people, and furnisheth them with 
convenient succours for every condition, for day and night, till they come there 
where it will be ail day, to eternity. 3rd. He fed them both with necessaries 
and dainties. Sometimes he furnished their tables with wild fowl ; ver. 40, 
"The people asked, and he brought quails;" and when they were not thus 
feasted, yet they were abundantly satisfied "with the bread of heaven;" and 
those are curious and covetous indeed who will not be so satisfied. Man did 
eat angels' food, and that constantly, and on free cost ; and, as every bit they 
ate had miracle in it, so had every drop they drank; "He opened the rock, and 
the waters gushed out," ver. 41. Common providence fetcheth waters from 
heaven, and bread out of the earth, but for Israel the Divine power brings 
bread from the clouds, and water from the rocks ; so far is the God of nature 
from being tied to the laws and courses of nature. The water did not only 
gush out once, but it ran like a river, plentifully and constantly, and attended 
their camp in all their removes ; hence they are said to have the rock follow 
them, 1 Cor. x. 4. And, which increased the miracle, this river of God, (so it 
might be truly called,) ran in dry places, and yet was not drunk in and lost, 
as one would expect it should have been by the sands of the desert of Arabia. 
To this that promise alludes; "I will give rivers in the desert, to give drink 
to my chosen,''' Isa. xliii. 19, 20. 

5. Their entrance at length into Canaan ; ver. 44, " He gave them the lands 
of the heathen;" put them in possession of that which they had long been put 
in hopes of ; and what the Canaanites had taken pains for, God's Israel had the 
enjoyment of; " They inherited the labour of the people;" and the wealth of 
the sinner is laid up for the just. The Egyptians had long inherited their 
labours, and now they inherited the labours of the Canaanites. Thus sometimes 
one enemy of the church is made to pay another's score. 

6. The reason why God did all this for them. 

1st. Because he would himself perform the promises of the word, ver. 42. 
They were unworthy and unthankful, yet he did those great things in their 
favour, "because he remembered the word of his holiness" (that is, his cove- 
nant,) with Abraham his servant," and he would not suffer one iota or tittle 
of that to fall to the ground : see Deu. vii. 8. 

2nd. Because he would have them to perform the precepts of the word, to 
bind them to which was the greatest kindness he could put upon them. He put 
them in possession of Canaan, not that they might live in plenty and pleasure, 



PSALM CVL 511 

in ease and honour, and might make a figure among the nations, but "that they 
might observe his statutes, and keep his laws," that being formed into a people 
they might be under God's immediate government, and revealed religion might 
be the basis of their national constitution : that, having a good land given them, 
they might out of the profits of it bring sacrifices to God's altar ; and that, God 
having thus done them good, they might the more cheerfully receive his law, 
concluding that also designed for their good, and might be sensible of their 
obligations in gratitude to live in obedience to him. _ We are therefore made, 
maintained, and redeemed, that we may live in obedience to the will of God; 
and the halleluiah with which the psalm concludes, may be taken both as a 
thankful acknowledgment of God's favours and as a cheerful concurrence 
with this great intention of them. Has God done so much for us, and yet doth 
he expect so little from us ? " Praise ye the Lord." 

PSALM CVL 

We must give glory to God by making confession not only of his goodness, but our 
own badness, which serve as foils to each other: our badness makes his goodness 
appear the more illustrious, as his goodness makes our badness the more heinous 
and scandalous. The foregoing psalm was a history of God's goodness to Israel. This 
is a history of their rebellions and provocations, and yet it begins and ends with 
Hallelujah : for even sorrow for sin must not put us out of tune for praising God. 
Some think it was penned at the time of the captivity in Babylon, and the disper- 
sion of the Jewish nation thereupon, because of that prayer in the close, ver. 47. 

1 rather think it was penned by David, at the same time with the foregoing psalm, 
because we find the first verse and the two last in that psalm which David delivered 
to Asaph, at the bringing up of the ark to the place he had prepared for it, 1 Chr. 
xvi. 34 — 36, Gather us from among the heathen ; for we may suppose in Saul's time 
there was a great dispersion of pious Israelites when David was forced to wander. 
In the psalm we have, I. The preface to the narrative, speaking honour to God, 
ver. 1, 2; comfort to the saints, ver. 3; and the desire of the faithful towards God's 
favours, ver. 4, 5. II. The narrative itself of the sins of Israel, aggravated by the 
great things God did for them, an account of which is intermixed. Their provocation 
at the Red sea, ver. 6 — 12. Lusting, ver. 13 — 15. Mutinying, ver. 16 — 18. Worshipping 
the golden calf, ver. 19 — 23. Murmuring, ver. 24 — 27. Joining themselves to Baal- 
peor, ver. 28 — 31. Quarrelling with Moses, ver. 32, 33. Incorporating themselves 
with the nations of Canaan, ver. 34 — 39. To which is added an account how God had 
rebuked them for their sins, and yet saved them from ruin, ver. 40 — 46. III. The 
conclusion of the psalrn with prayers and praise, ver. 47, 48. It may be of use to us 
to sing this psalm, that, being put in mind by it of our sins, the sins of our land, 
and the sins of our fathers, we may be humbled before God, and yet not despair 
of mercy, which even rebellious Israel often found with God. 

PRAISE ye the Lord. 
0 give thanks unto the Lord ; for he is good ; 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord ? 
Who can shew forth all his praise ? 

3 Blessed are they that keep judgment, 

And he that cloeth righteousness at all times. 

4 Remember me, 0 Lord, with the favour that thou 

bear est unto thy people : 
0 visit me with thy salvation ; 

5 That I may see the good of thy chosen, 

That I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, 
That I may glory with thine inheritance. 

We are here taught, 

First. To bless God; ver. 1,2, "Praise ye the Lord," that is, 1. Give him thanks 
for his goodness, the manifestation of it to us, and the many instances of it. 
" He is good, and his mercy endureth for ever ;" let us, therefore, own our 
obligations to him, and make him a return of our best affections and services. 
2. Give him the glory of his greatness; his mighty acts, proofs of his Almighty 
power, wherein he has done great things, and such as would be opposed. 



512 PSALM CYI. 

Who can utter these? Who is worthy to do it? Who is able to do it ? They 
are so many they cannot be numbered, so mysterious they cannot be described ; 
when we have said the most we can of the mighty acts of the Lord, the one 
half is not told, still there is more to be said ; it is a subject that cannot be 
exhausted. We must shew forth his praise ; we may shew forth some of it, but 
who can shew forth all? Not the angels themselves. This will not excuse us 
in not doing what we can, but should quicken us to do all we can. 

Secondly. To bless the people of God, to call and count them happy, ver. 3. 
They that keep judgment are blessed, for they are fit to be employed in 
praising God. God's people are they whose principles are sound : they keep 
judgment, they adhere to the rules of wisdom and religion, and their prac- 
tices are agreeable; they do righteousness, are just to God and to all men, and 
herein they are steady and constant, they do it at all times, in all manner of 
conversation, at every turn, in every instance, and herein persevering to the end. 

Thirdly. To bless ourselves in the favour of God, to place our happiness 
in it, and to seek it accordingly with all seriousness, as the psalmist here, 
ver. 4, 5. 1. He has an eye to the lovingkindness of God, as the fountain of all 
happiness ; " Remember me, O Lord," to give me that mercy and grace which 

I stand in need of, "with the favour which thou bearest to thy people." As 
there is a people in the world that are in a peculiar manner God's people, so 
there is a peculiar favour which God bears to that people, which all gracious 
souls desire an interest in, and we need desire no more to make us happy. 2. 
Pie has an eye to the salvation of God, the great salvation, that of the soul, as 
the foundation of happiness, " O visit me with thy salvation." * Afford me,' saith 
Dr. Hammond, 'that pardon and that grace which I stand in need of, and can 
hope for from none but thee.' Let that salvation be my portion for ever, and 
the pledges of it my present comfort. 3. He has an eye to the blessedness of 
the righteous as that which includes all good ; ver. 5, " That I may see the good 
of thy chosen," and be as happy as thy saints are, and happier I do not desire 
to be. God's people are here called his chosen, his nation, his inheritance, for 
he hath set them apart for himself, incorporated them under his own govern- 
ment, is served by them and glorified in them. This chosen people of God 
have a good which is peculiar to them, which is the matter both of their glad- 
ness and of their glorying, which is their pleasure and their praise. God's 
people have reason to be a cheerful people, and to boast in their God all the 
day long ; and they that have that gladness, that glory, need not envy any of 
the children of men their pleasure or pride. The gladness of God's nation and 
the glory of his inheritance is enough to satisfy any man, for it has everlasting 
joy and glory at the end of it. 

6 We have sinned with our fathers, 

We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. 

7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt ; 
They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies ; 
But provoked him at the sea, even at the Ked sea. 

8 Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, 
That he might make his mighty power to be known. 

9 He rebuked the Ked sea also, and it was dried up : 

So he led them through the depths, as through the 
wilderness. 

10 And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, 
And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 

I I And the waters covered their enemies : 
There was not one of them left. 

12 Then believed they his words ; 
They sang his praise. 

Here begins a penitential confession of sin, which was in a special manner 
seasonable now the church was in distress, for thus we must justify God in 
all that he brings upon us, acknowledging that therefore he hath done right, 
because we have done wickedly; and the remembrance of former sins, not- 
withstanding which God did not cast off his people, is an encouragement to us 



PSALM CVI. 



513 



to hope that, though we are justly corrected for our sins, yet we shall not be 
utterly abandoned. 

First. God's afflicted people here own themselves guilty before God; ver. 6, 
"We have sinned with our fathers," that is, like our fathers, after the simi- 
litude of their transgression. We have added to the stock of hereditary guilt, 
and filled up the measure of our fathers' iniquity, to "augment yet the tierce 
anger of the Lord," Num. xxxii. 14; Mat. xxiii. 32. And see how they lay load 
upon themselves, as becomes penitents: "We have committed iniquity;'' that 
which is in its own nature sinful, and " we have done wickedly," we have sinned 
with a high hand presumptuously. m Or this is a confession not only of their 
imitation of, but their interest in, their fathers' sins ; " We have sinned with our 
fathers," for we were in their loins, and we bear their iniquity, Lam. v. 7. 

Secondly. They bewail the sins of their fathers, when they were first formed 
into a people ; which, since children often smart for, they are concerned to sor- 
row for, even farther than to the third and fourth generation. Even we now 
ought to take an occasion from the history of Israel's rebellions to lament the 
pravity and perverseness of man's nature, and its unaptness to be amended by 
the most probable means. Observe here, 

1. The strange stupidity of Israel in the midst of the favours God bestowed 
upon them ; ver. 7, " They understood not thy wonders in Egypt." They saw 
them, but they did not rightly apprehend the meaning and design of them ; 
blessed are they that have not seen and yet have understood. They thought, 
the plagues of Egypt were intended for their deliverance, whereas they were 
intended also for their instruction and conviction; not only to force them out 
of their Egyptian slavery, but to cure them of their inclination to Egyptian 
idolatry, by evidencing the sovereign power and dominion of the God of Israel 
above all gods, and his particular concern for them. We lose the benefit ot" 
providences for want of understanding them. And as their understandings 
were dull, so their memories were treacherous; though one would think such 
astonishing events should never have been forgotten, yet they remembered 
them not, at least they remembered not the multitude of God's mercies in them. 
Therefore God is distrusted, because his favours are not remembered. 

2. Their perverseness, arising from this stupidity; " They provoked him at 
the sea, even at the Red sea." The provocation was despair of deliverance 
because the danger was great, and wishing they had been left in Egypt still, 
Ex. xiv. 11, 12. Quarrelling with God's providence and questioning his power, 
goodness, and faithfulness, are as great provocations to him as any whatsoever. 
The place aggravated the crime ; it was " at the sea, at the Red sea." When 
they were newly come out of Egypt, and the wonders God had wrought for 
them were fresh in their minds, yet they reproach him, as if that power had no 
mercy in it, but that he brought them out of Egypt on purpose to kill them in 
the wilderness. They never lay at God's mercy so immediately as in their 
passage through the Red sea, yet there they affront it and provoke his wrath. 

3. The great salvation God wrought for them, notwithstanding their pro- 
vocations, ver. 8 — 11. 1st. He forced a passage for them through the sea. He 
" rebuked the Red sea " for standing in their way, and retarding their march, 
"and it was dried up" immediately, as in the creation, at God's rebuke, the 
waters fled, Ps. civ. 7. Nay, he not only prepared them a way, but by the pillar 
of cloud and fire he led them into the sea, and, by the conduct of Moses, led 
them through it as readily as through the wilderness; he encouraged them to 
take those steps, and subdued their fears when those were their most dangerous 
and threatening enemies : see Isa. lxiii. 12 — 14. 2nd. He interposed between them 
and their pursuers, and prevented them from cutting them off, as they designed. 
The Israelites were all on foot, and the Egyptians had all of them chariots 
and horses, with which they were likely to overtake them presently, but God 
"saved them from the hand of him that hated them, ' namely, Pharaoh, who 
never loved them, but now hated them the more from the plagues he had 
suffered on their account; from the hand of his enemy, which was just ready 
to seize them, God redeemed them, ver. 10, interposing himself, as it were, in 
the pillar of fire, between the persecuted and the persecutors. 3rd. To com- 
plete the mercy, and turn the deliverance into a victory, the Red sea, that 
was a lane to them, was a grave to the Egyptians, ver. 11. " The waters covered 
their enemies," so as to slay them, but not so as to conceal their shame, 
for the next tide they were thrown up dead upon the shore, Ex. xiv. 30. 
There was not one of them left alive to bring tidings what was become of the 
rest. And why did God do this for them ? nay, why did he not cover them 
as he did their enemies, for their unbelief and murmuring? He tells us, 
ver. 8, it was for his name's sake. Though they did not deserve this favour, he 
designed it, and their undeservings should not alter his designs, nor break his 
measures, or make him withdraw his promise, or fail in the performance of it. 
He did this for his own glory, " that he might make his mighty power to be 
known," not only in dividing the sea s but in doing it notwithstanding their 

2 K 



514 PSALM CYL 

provocations. Moses prays, A'mto. xii. 17—19, "Let the power of my Lord be 
great, and pardon the iniquity of this people." The power of the God of 
grace in pardoning sin and sparing sinners, is as much to be admired as the 
power of the God of nature in dividing the waters. 

4. The good impression this made upon them for the present : ver. 12, 
"Then believed they his words," and acknowledged that God was with them 
of a truth, and had in mercy to them brought them out of Egypt, and not 
with any design to slay them in the wilderness; then "they feared the Lord 
and his servant Moses," Ex. xiv. 31. Then they sang his praise in that song of 
Moses, penned on this great occasion, Ex. xv. 1. See in what a gracious and 
merciful way God sometimes silenceth the unbelief of his people, and turns 
their fears into praises ; and so it is written, " They that erred in spirit shall 
come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine," 
Isa. xxix. 24. 

13 They soon forgat his works; 
They waited not for his counsel : 

14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, 
And tempted God in the desert. 

1 5 And he gave them their request ; 
But sent leanness into their soul. 

1 6 They envied Moses also in the camp, 
And Aaron the saint of the Lord. 

1 7 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, 
And covered the company of Abiram. 

18 And a fire was kindled in their company ; 
The flame burned up the wicked. 

19 They made a calf in Horeb. 

And worshipped the molten image. 

20 Thus they changed their glory 

Into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. 




MOUNT HOREB. — L& Bc^dc 



PSALM CVL 



515 



2 1 They forgat God their saviour, 

Which had done great things in Egypt ; 

22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, 
And terrible things by the Eed sea. 

23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, 

Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, 
To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. 

24 Yea, they despised the pleasant land, 
They believed not his word : 

25 But murmured in their tents, 

And hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. 

26 Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, 
To overthrow them in the wilderness : 

27 To overthrow their seed also among the nations, 
And to scatter them in the lands. 

28 They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, 
And ate the sacrifices of the dead. 

29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: 
And the plague brake in upon them. 

30 Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment : 
And so the plague was stayed. 

31 And that was counted unto him for righteousness 
Unto all generations for evermore. 

32 They angered him also at the waters of strife, 
So that it went ill with Moses for their sakes : 

33 Because they provoked his spirit, 

So that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. 

This is an abridgment of the history of Israel's provocations in the wilder- 
ness, and of the wrath of God against them for those provocations; and this 
abridgment is abridged by the apostle with application to us Christians, 
1 Cor. x. 5, &c, for "these things were written for our admonition," that we 
sin not like them, lest we suffer like them. 

First. The cause of their sin was disregard to the works and word of God, 
ver. 13, 1. They minded not what he had done for them. " They soon forgat 
his works," and lost the impressions they had made upon them. They that 
do not improve God's mercies to them, nor endeavour, in some measure, to 
render according to the benefit done unto them, do indeed forget them. This 
people soon forgat them : God took notice of this, Ex. xxxii. 8, " They have 
turned aside quickly." 'They made haste, they forgot his works,' (so it is in 
the margin,) which some make out to be two several instances of their sin. 
' They made haste,' that is, their expectations anticipated God's promises ; they 
expected to be in Canaan presently, and because they were not they ques- 
tioned whether they should ever be there, and quarrelled with all the difficul- 
ties they met with in their way; whereas "he that believeth doth not make 
haste," Isa. xxviii. 16. And, withal, " they forgat his works," which were the 
undeniable evidences of his wisdom, power, and goodness, and denied the 
conclusion as confidently as if they had never seen the premises proved. This 
is mentioned again, ver. 21, 22, "They forgat God their saviour," that is, they 
forgat that he had been their saviour. Those that "forget the works of God," 
forget God himself, who makes himself known by his works. They forgat 
what was done but a few days before, which we may suppose they could not 
but talk of, even then when, because they did not make a good use of it, they 
are said to forget it ; it was what God did for them in Egypt, in the land of 



MS 



PSALM CVL 



Ham, and by the Red sea, things which we at this distance cannot or should 
not be unmindful of. They are called great things, (for, though the great God 
doth nothing mean, yet he doth some things that are in a special manner great,) 
wondrous works, out of the common road of providence, therefore observable, 
therefore memorable and terrible things, awful to them and dreadful to their 
enemies, and yet soon forgotten; even miracles that were seen passed away 
with them as tales that are told. 2. They minded not what God had said to 
them, nor would they depend upon it ; they waited not for his counsel, did not 
attend his word, though they had Moses to be his mouth to them; they took 
up resolves, about which they did not consult him, and made demands without 
calling upon him. They would be in Canaan presently, and had not patience 
to tarry God's time; the delay was intolerable, and therefore the difficulties 
were looked upon as insuperable. This is explained, ver. 24, " They believed 
not his word," his promise that he would make them masters of Canaan; and 
ver. 25, " they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord," who gave them counsel, 
which they would not wait for, not only by Moses and Aaron, but by Caleb 
and Joshua, Num. xiv. 6, &e. Those that will not wait for God's counsel shall 
justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts to walk in their own counsels. 

Secondly. THe sins themselves are many of them here mentioned, together 
with the tokens of God's displeasure which they fell under for those sins. 

1. They would have flesh, and yet would not believe that God could give it 
them ; ver. 14, ' They lusted a lust' (so the word is) 'in the wilderness.' There 
where they had bread enough and to spare, yet nothing would serve them but 
they must have flesh to eat. They were now purely at God's finding, so that 
this w r as a reflection upon the wisdom and goodness of their Creator. They 
were now, in all probability, within a step of Canaan, yet had not patience to 
stay for dainties till they came thither. They had flocks and herds of their 
own, but they will not kill them, God must give them flesh as he gave them 
bread, or they will never give him credit or their good word. They did not 
only wish for flesh, but they lusted exceedingly after it. A desire, even of 
lawful things, when it is inordinate and violent, becomes sinful; and therefore 
this is called lusting after evil things, 1 Cor. x. 6, though the quails, as God's 
gift, were good things, and were so spoken of, Ps. cv. 40. Yet this was not all, 
"they tempted God in the desert," where they had had such experience of his 
goodness and power, and questioned whether he could and would gratify them 
herein : see Ps. lxxviii. 19, 20. 

Now how did God shew his displeasure against them for this? We are here 
told how ; ver. 15, " He gave them their request," but gave it them in anger, and 
with a curse, for "he sent leanness into their soul;" that is, he filled theni with 
uneasiness of mind, and terror of conscience, and a self-reproach, occasioned 
by their bodies being sick with the surfeit, such as sometimes drunkards expe- 
rience after a great debauch. Or this is put for that great plague with which 
the Lord smote them ; " while the flesh was yet between their teeth," as we 
read, Num. xi. 33, it was the consumption of the life. Note, 1st. What is asked 
in passion is often given in wrath. 2nd. Many that fare deliciously every day, 
and whose bodies are healthful and fat, yet at the same time have leanness in 
their souls : no love to God, no thankfulness, no appetite to the bread of life, 
and then the soul must needs be lean. Those wretchedly forget themselves 
that feast their bodies and starve their souls. Then God gives the good things 
of this life in love, when with them he gives grace to glorify him in the use of 
them, for then the soul delights itself in fatness. Isa. Iv. 2. 

2. They quarrelled with the government which God had set over them, both 
in church and state; ver. 16, "they envied Moses" his authority "in the camp," 
as generalissimo of the armies of Israel, and chief justice in all their courts. 
And they envied Aaron his power, as saint of the Lord, consecrated to the 
office of high priest. And Korah would needs put in for the pontificate, while 
Dathan and Abiram, as princes of the tribe of Reuben, (Jacob's eldest son,) 
would claim to be chief magistrates by the so-much-admired right of primo- 
geniture. Note, They are preparing ruin for themselves who envy those whom 
God has put honour upon, and usurp the dignities they were never designed 
for. And justly will contempt be poured upon them who put contempt upon 
any of the saints of the Lord. 

And how did God shew his displeasure for this? We are told how, and it is 
enough to make us tremble, ver. 17, 18; we have the story. Num. xvi. 32, 35. 
1st. They that flew in the face of the civil authority were punished by the 
earth, which opened and swallowed them up, as not fit to go upon God's 
ground, because they would not submit to God's government. 2nd. They that 
would usurp the ecclesiastical authority in things pertaining to God, on them 
Heaven took vengeance, for " fire came out from the Lord and consumed them," 
and the pretending sacrificers were themselves sacrificed to Divine justice; 
"The flame burned up the wicked;" for though they vied with Aaron, the 
saint of the Lord, for holiness, Num. xvi. 3, 5, yet God adjudged them wicked, 



PSALM CVI. 



and as such cut them off, as in due time he will destroy the man of sin, that 
wicked one, notwithstanding his proud pretensions to holiness. 

3. They made and worshipped the golden calf, and this in Horeb, there where 
the law was given, and God had expressly said, Thou shalt neither make any 
graven image, nor bow down to it; they did both, they made a calf and wor- 
shipped it, ver. 19. Herein they bade defiance to, and put an affront upon, the 
two great lights which God has made to rule the little world. 1st. That of 
human reason, for " they changed their glory," their God, at least the manifes- 
tation of him, which always had been in a cloud (either a dark cloud or a bright 
one) without any manner of visible similitude, "into the similitude of" Apis, 
one of the Egyptian idols, "an ox that eateth grass," than which nothing could 
be more grossly and scandalously absurd, ver. 20. Idolaters are perfectly 
besotted, and put the greatest disparagement possible both upon God. in repre- 
senting him by the image of a beast, and upon themselves in worshipping it when 
they had done so. That which is here said to be the changing of their glory 
is explained by St, Paul, Rom. i. 23, to be the changing of the glory of the 
incorruptible God. 2nd. That of Divine revelation, which was afforded to 
them, not only in the words God spake to them, but the works he wrought for 
them, wondrous works, which spake loud, that the Lord Jehovah is the only 
true and living God, and is alone to be worshipped, ver. 21, 22. 

For this God shewed his displeasure by declaring the decree, that he would 
cut them off from being a people, as they had, as far as lay in their power, in 
effect cut him off from being a God ; he spake of destroying them, ver. 23, and 
certainly he had done it, "if Moses, his chosen, had not stood before him in the 
breach," ver. 23, that is, if he had not seasonably interposed to deal with God 
as an advocate about the breach or ruin God was about to devote them to. and 
wonderfully prevailed to turn away his wrath. See here the mercy of God, 
and how easily his anger is turned away, even from a provoking people. See 
the power of prayer, and the interest which God's chosen have in heaven. See 
a type of Christ, God ; s chosen, his elect, in whom his soul delighteth, who 
stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath from a provoking world, 
and ever lives, for this end, making intercession. 

4. They gave credit to the report of the evil spies concerning the land of 
Canaan, in contradiction to the promise of God; ver. 24, "They despised the 
pleasant land." Canaan was a pleasant land, Deu. viii. 7. They undervalued 
it when they thought it not worth venturing for, no, not under the conduct of 
God himself, and therefore were for making a captain and returning to Egypt 
again. They beLieved not God's word concerning it, but murmured in their 
tents, basely charging God with a design upon them, in bringing them thither, 
that they might become a prey to the Canaanites, Num. xiv. 2, 3 ; and, when 
they were minded of God's power and promise, were so far from hearkeningto 
that voice of the Lord, that they attempted to stone those that spake to them, 
Num. xiv. 10. The heavenly Canaan is a pleasant land ; a promise is left us of 
entering into it, but there are many that despise it, that neglect and refuse 
the offer of it, that prefer the wealth and pleasure of this world before it, and 
grudge the pains and hazards of this life to obtain that. 

This also was so displeasing to God that he " lifted up his hand against them,' 9 
in a way of threatening, " to destroy them in the wilderness;" nay, in a way of 
swearing, for he sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest, 
Ps. xcv. 10; Num. xiv. 28. Nay, and he threatened that their children also 
should be overthrown and scattered, ver. 26, 27, and the whole nation dispersed 
and disinherited ; but Moses prevailed for mercy for their seed, that they might 
enter Canaan. Note, Those who despise God's favours, and particularly the 
pleasant land, forfeit his favours, and will be shut out for ever from the plea- 
sant land. 

5. They were guilty of a great sin in the matter of Peor ; and this was the sin 
of the new generation when they were within a step of Canaan, yer. 28, " They 
joined themselves to Baal-peor," and so were entangled both in idolatry and in 
adultery, in corporeal and spiritual whoredom, Num. xxv. 1—3. They that 
did often partake of the altar of the living God, now " ate the sacrifices of the 
dead," of the idols of Moab, that were dead images, or dead men canonized or 
deified ; or sacrifices to the infernal deities on the behalf of their dead friends. 
" Thus they provoked God to anger with their inventions," ver. 29, in contempt 
of him and his institutions, his commands and threatenings. The iniquity 
of Peor was so great, that long after it is said they were not cleansed from it, 
Jos. xxii. 17. 

God testified his displeasure at this, 1st. By sending a plague among them, 
which in a little time swept away twenty-four thousand of those impudent 
sinners. 2nd. By stirring up Phinehas to use his power as a magistrate, for the 
suppressing of the sin, and checking the contagion of it. He stood up in his 
zeal for the Lord of hosts, and executed judgment upon Zimri and Cozbi, 
sinners of the first rank, genteel sinners; he put the law in execution upon 
them, and this was a service so pleasing to God, that upon it the plague was 



618 PSALM CVL 

stayed, ver. 30. By this, and some other like acts of public justice on that occa- 
sion, {Num. xxv. 4, 5) the guilt ceased to be national, and the general contro- 
versy was let fall. When the proper officers did their duty, God left it to them, 
and did not any longer keep the work in his own hands by the plague. Note, 
National justice prevents national judgments. But Phinehas herein signalizing 
himself, a special mark of honour was put upon him, for what he did was 
"counted to him for righteousness to all generations," ver. 31, and in recom- 
pense of it the priesthood was entailed on his family. He shall make an atone- 
ment by offering up the sacrifices, that had so bravely made an atonement (so 
some read it, ver. 30) by offering up the sinners. Note, It is the honour of 
saints to be zealous against sin. 

6. They continued their murmurings to the very last of their wanderings ; for 
in the fortieth year they "angered God at the waters of strife," ver. 32, which 
refers to that story, Num. xx. 3 — 5. And that which aggravated it now was 
that "it went ill with Moses for their sakes ;" for, though he was the meekest 
of all the men in the earth, yet their clamours at that time were so very peevish 
and provoking, that they put him into a passion, and being now grow 7 n very old, 
and off his guard, "he spake unadvisedly > with his lips," ver. 33, and not as 
became him upon that occasion; for he said in a heat, " Hear now, ye rebels, 
must we fetch water out of this rock for you?" This was Moses' infirmity, and 
is written for our admonition, that we may learn when we are in the midst of 
provocation to keep our mouth as with a bridle, Ps. xxxix. 1 — 3; and to take 
heed to our spirits, that they admit not resentments too much, for w r hen the 
spirit is provoked, it is much ado even for those that have a great deal of 
wisdom and grace not to speak unadvisedly. But it is charged upon the people 
as their sin, they provoked his spirit with that with which they angered God 
himself. Note, We must answer not only for our own passions, but for the 
provocation which by them we give to the passions of others, especially of 
those who, if not greatly provoked, would he meek and quiet. 

God shews his displeasure against this sin of theirs by shutting Moses and 
Aaron out of Canaan, for their miscarriage upon this occasion; by which, 
1st. God discovered his resentment of all such intemperate heats, even in the 
dearest of his servants. If he deals thus severely with Moses for one unadvised 
word, what doth their sin deserve who had spoken so many presumptuous 
wicked words? " If this was done in the green tree, what shall be done in the 
dry?" 2nd. God deprived them of the blessing of Moses' conduct and govern- 
ment at a time when they most needed it, so that his death was more a punish- 
ment to them than to himself. It is just with God to remove those relations 
from us that are blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them, 
and grieve their spirits. 

84 They did not destroy the nations, 
Concerning whom the Lord commanded them : 

85 But were mingled among the heathen, 
And learned their works. 

36 And they served their idols : 
Which were a snare unto them. 

37 Yea, they sacrificed then- sons 
And their daughters unto devils, 

38 And shed innocent blood, 

Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, 
Whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan . 
And the land was polluted with blood. 

39 Thus were they defiled with their own works. 
And went a whoring with their own inventions. 

40 Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his 

people, 

Insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. 

41 And he gave them into the hand of the heathen ; 
And they that hated them ruled over them. 



PSALM CVI. 



519 



42 Their enemies also oppressed them, 

And they were brought into subjection under then' hand. 

43 Many times did he deliver them ; 

But they provoked him with their counsel, 
And were brought low for their iniquity, 

44 Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, 
When he heard their cry : 

45 And he remembered for them his covenant, 

And repented according to the multitude of his mercies. 

46 He made them also to be pitied 

Of all those that carried them captives. 

47 Save us, 0 Lord our God, 

And gather us from among the heathen, 
To give thanks unto thy holy name, 
And to triumph in thy praise. 

48 Blessed he the Lord God of Israel 
From everlasting to everlasting : 
And let all the people say, Amen. 
Praise ye the Lord. 

Here, First. The narrative concludes with an account of Israel's carriage in 
Canaan, which was of a piece with that in the wilderness, and God's dealings 
with them, wherein, as all along, both justice and mercy appeared. 

1. They were very provoking to God. The miracles and mercies which 
settled them in Canaan made no more deep and durable impressions upon 
them than those that fetched them out of Egypt ; for by that time they were 
well warm in Canaan they corrupted themselves, and forsook God. Observe 
the steps of their apostacy, 

1st. They spared the nations which God had doomed to destruction, ver. 34. 
When they had got the good land God had promised them, they had no zeal 
against the wicked inhabitants, whom the Lord commanded them to extirpate, 
pretending pity ; but so merciful is God, that no man needs to be in any case 
more compassionate than he. 

2nd. When they spared them, they promised themselves that for all this they 
would not join in any dangerous affinity with them ; but the way of sin is down- 
hill. Omissions make w r ay for commissions. When they neglect to destroy the 
heathen, the next news we hear is, they " were mingled among the heathen," 
made leagues with them, and contracted an intimacy with them, so that they 
"learned their works," ver. 35. That which is rotten will sooner corrupt that 
which is sound than be cured or made sound by it. 

3rd. When they mingled with them, and learned some of their works that 
seemed innocent diversions and entertainments, yet they thought they would 
never join with them in their worship ; but by aegrees they learned that too ; 
ver. 36, " They served their idols" in the same manner and with the same rites 
that they served them ; and they became " a snare to them." That sin drew on 
many more, and brought the judgments of God upon them, which they them- 
selves could not but be sensible of, and yet knew 7 not how to recover themselves. 

4th. When they joined with them in some of their idolatrous services, which 
they thought had least harm in them, they little thought that ever they should 
be guilty of that barbarous and inhuman piece of idolatry, the sacrificing of 
their living children to their dead gods; but they came to that at last, ver. 37, 38 ; 
in which Satan triumphed over his worshippers, and regaled himself in blood 
and slaughter. " They sacrificed their sons and daughters," pieces of them- 
selves, "to devils," and added murder, the most unnatural murder, to their 
idolatry. m One cannot think of it without horror. They " shed innocent blood," 
the most innocent; for it was infant blood, nay, it was "the blood of their sons 
and their daughters." See the power of the spirit that works in the children 
of disobedience, and see his malice. The beginning of idolatry and superstition 
like that of strife, is as the letting forth of water; and there is no villany which 
Ihey that venture upon it can be sure they shall stop short of, for God justly 
gives them up to a reprobate mind, Rom. i. 28. 



520 PSALM CVL 

Tneir sin was in part their own punishment ; for by it, First. They wronged 
their country. " The land was polluted with blood/' ver. 38. That pleasant 
land, that holy land, was rendered uncomfortable to themselves, and unfit to 
receive those kind tokens of God's favour and presence in it, which were 
designed to be its honour. Secondly. They wronged their conscience ; ver. 33, 
they "went a whoring with their own inventions," and so debauched their own 
minds, and were " defiled with their own works," and rendered odious in the 
eyes of the holy God, and perhaps of their own consciences. 

2. God brought his judgments upon them ; and what else conld be expected? 
for his name is Jealous, and he is a jealous God. 1st. He fell out with them for 
it ; ver. 40, He was angry with them ; " the wrath of God," that consuming fire, 
"was kindled against his people;" for from them he took it more heinously 
than from the heathen that never knew him. Nay, he was sick of them; "he 
abhorred his own inheritance." which^ when time was he had taken pleasure 
in ; yet the change was not in nim, but in them. This is the worst thing in sin, 
that it makes us loathsome to God; and the nearer any are to God in posses- 
sion the more loathsome are they if they rebel against him, like a dunghill at 
our door. 2nd. Their enemies then fell upon them, and, their defence being 
departed, made an easy prey of them: ver. 41, 42, "He gave them into the 
hands of the heathen." Observe here now the punishment answ r ered the sin ; 
"they mingled themselves with the heathen, and learned their works." From 
them they willingly took the infection of sin ; and therefore God justly made 
use of them as the instruments of their correction. Sinners often see them- 
selves ruined by those by whom they have suffered themselves to be de- 
bauched. Satan, that is a tempter, will be a tormentor. The heathen hated 
them. Apostates lose all the love on God's side, and get none on Satan's; and 
w T hen "they that hated them ruled over them, and they were brought into 
subjection under them," no marvel they oppressed them, and ruled them with 
rigour; and thus God made them know the difference between "his service 
and the service of the kings of the countries," 2 Chr. xii. 8. 

3. When God granted them some relief, yet they went on in their sins, and 
their troubles also were continued, ver. 43. This refers to the days of the 
judges; when God many times raised up deliverers, and wrought deliverances 
for them, and yet they relapsed to idolatry, "provoked God with their counsel/' 
their idolatrous inventions, to deliver them up to some other oppressors, so 
that at last "they were brought very low for their iniquity." Those that by 
sin disparage themselves, and will not by repentance humble themselves, it is 
j nst with God to debase them, and humble them, and bring them low by his 
judgments. 

4. At length they cried unto God, and God returned in favour to them, 
ver. 44 — 46. They were chastened for their sins, but not destroyed ; cast dow r n, 
but not cast off. God appeared for them, # 1st. As a God of mercy; that looked 
upon their grievances, * regarded their affliction, beheld when distress was upon 
them,' (so some;) that looked over their complaints, for he heard their cry with 
tender compassion, Ex. hi. 7; and overlooked their provocation; for though 
he had said, and had reason to say it, that he would destroy them, yet he 
" repented according^ to the multitude of his mercies," and reversed the sen- 
tence. Though " he is not a man that he should repent," so as to change his 
mind, yet he is a gracious God that pities us and changeth his way. 2nd. As 
a God of truth, that " remembered for them his covenant "and made good every 
word that he had spoken, and therefore, as bad as they were, would not break 
with them, because he would not break his own promise. 3rd. As a God of 
power, who has all hearts in his hand, and turns them which way soever he 
pleaseth. "He made them to be pitied even of those that carried them captives," 
and had hated them, and ruled them with rigour. He not only restrained the 
remainder of their enemies' wrath, that it should not utterly consume them, but 
he infused compassion, even into their stony hearts, and made them relent, 
which was more than any art of map could have done with the utmost force of 
rhetoric. Note, God can change lions into lambs; and "when a man's ways 
please the Lord" will make even his enemies to pitv him, and "be at peace 
with him." When God pities, men shall. Tranquillus l)eus, tranquillat omnia, — 
i A God at peace with us makes every thing at peace.' 

Secondly. The psalm concludes with prayer and praise. 

1. Prayer for the completing of his people's deliverance. Even then when 
the Lord brought back the captivity of his people, still there was occasion to 
pray; "Lord, turn again our captivity," Ps. cxxvi. 1, 4. So here, ver. 47, 
" Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen." We may 
suppose, that many who were forced into foreign countries in the times of the 
judges, (as Naomi was, Ru. i. 1J were not returned in the beginning of David s 
reign, Saul's time being discouraging; and therefore it was seasonable to pray, 
" Lord, gather the dispersed Israelites from among the heathen, to give thanks 
to thy holy name;" not only that they may have cause to give thanks, and 



PSALM CYIL 



521 



hearts to give thanks, but that they may have opportunity to do it in the courts 
of the Lord's house, from which they were now banished ; and so may "triumph 
in thy praise," over those that had in scorn challenged them to sing the Lord's 
song in a strange land. 

2. Praise for the beginning and progress of it; "ver. 48, "Blessed be the 
Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting." He is a blessed God from 
eternity, and will be so to eternity, and so let him be praised by all his wor- 
shippers. Let the priests say this, and then "let all the people say, Amen, 
Hallelujah," in token of their cheerful concurrence in all these prayers, praises^ 
and confessions. According to this rubric or directory, we find that when 
this psalm, (or at least the closing verses of it.) was sung, "all the people said 
Amen, and praised the Lord," by saying, " Hallelujah." By these two compre- 
hensive words, it is very proper in religious assemblies to testify their joining 
with their ministers in the prayers and praises, which as their mouth they offer 
up to God according to his wiil, saying Amen to the prayers, and Hallelujah to 
the praises. 

PSALM CVII. 

The psalmist having in the two foregoing psalms celebrated the wisdom, power, and 
goodness of God, in his dealings with his church in particular, here observes some of 
the instances of his providential care of the children of men in general, especially in 
their distresses; for he is not only King of saints, but King of nations, not only the God 
of Israel, but the God of the whole earth, and a common Father to all mankind. Though 
this may especially refer to Israelites, in their personal capacity, yet there were those that 
pertained not to the commonwealth of Israel, and yet were worshippers of the true God: 
and even those that worshipped images yet had some knowledge of a Supreme Xumen. 
to whom, when they were in earnest, they looked above all their false gods. Arid of 
these, when they prayed in their distresses, God took a particular care. I. He instances 
in some of the most common calamities of human life ; and shews how God succours 
those that labour under them, in answer to their prayers. 1. Banishment and disper- 
sion, ver. 2 — 9 ; 2. Captivity and imprisonment, ver. 10 — 16; 3. Sickness and distemper 
of body, ver. 17 — 22 ; 4. Danger and distress at sea, ver. 23 — 32. And these are put 
for all the like perils, in which those that cry unto God have ever found him a very 
present help. II. He instanceth in the varieties and vicissitudes of events, concerning 
nations and families; in all which God's hand is to be eyed by his own people, with joyful 
acknowledgments of his goodness, ver. 33 — 13. "When we are in any of these or the like 
distresses, it will be comfortable to sing this psalm with application; but if we be not, 
others are and have been, of whose deliverances it becomes us to give God the glory, 
for we are members one of another. 

OGIVE thanks unto the Lord, for he is good : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, 

Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy ; 

3 And gathered them out of the lands, 
From the east, and from the west, 
From the north, and from the south. 

4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way ; 
They found no city to dwell in. 

5 Hungry and thirsty, 
Their soul fainted in them. 

6 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, 
And he delivered them out of their distresses. 

7 And he led them forth by the right way, 
That they might go to a city of habitation. 

8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, 
And for his wonderful works to the children of men ! 

9 For he satisfleth the longing soul, 

And filleth the hungry soul with goodness. 



522 PSALM CVII. 

Here is, 1. A general call to all to give thanks to God, ver. 1. Let all that 
sing this psalm, or pray it over, set themselves therein to give thanks to the 
Lord ; and those that have not any special matter for praise may furnish them- 
selves with matter enough from God's universal goodness ; in the fountain " he 
is good," in the streams "his mercv endureth for ever," and never faileth. 
2. A particular demand hereof from "the redeemed of the Lord;" which may 
well be applied spiritually to those that have an interest in the great Redeemer, 
and are saved by him from sin and hell. They have of all people most reason 
to say, that God is good, and his mercy everlasting. These are the " children of 
God that were scattered abroad," whom Christ died to gather together in one, 
out of all lands, Jno. xi. 52 ; Mat. xxiv. 31. But it seems here to be meant of a 
temporal deliverance wrought for them when in their distress "they cried 
unto the Lord," ver. 6. " Is any afflicted? let him pray." Doth any pray ? God 
will certainly hear and help. When troubles are in extremity, that is man's time 
to cry; those who but whispered prayer before then cried aloud, and then 
it is God's time to succour; in the mount he will be seen. 

First. They were in an enemy's country, but God wrought out their rescue ; 
"He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy." ver. 2 ; not by might or power, 
it may be. Zee. iv. 6, nor by price or reward, lsa. xlv. 13, but by the Spirit of 
God, working on the spirits of men. 

Secondly. They were dispersed as outcasts; but God gathered them out of 
all the countries whither they were scattered in the cloudy and dark day, that 
they might again be incorporated, ver. 3 : see Deu. xxx. 4 ; Eze. xxxiv. 12. God 
knows those that are his, and where to find them. 

Thirdly. They were bewildered, had no road to travel in, no dwelling-place 
to rest in, ver. 4. When they were redeemed out of the hand of the enemy, and 
gathered out of the lands, they were in danger of perishing in their return home 
through the dry and barren deserts. "They wandered in the wilderness," 
where there was no trodden path, no company, but "a solitary way," no lodg- 
ing, no conveniencies, no accommodations, no inhabited city where they might 
have quarters of refreshment. But " God led them forth by the right way," 
ver. 7 ; directed them to an inn ; nay, directed them to a home, that they might 
"go to a city of habitation," which was inhabited, nay, which they themselves 
should inhabit. This may refer to poor travellers in general, those particularly 
whose way lies through the wilds of Arabia, where we may suppose they were 
often at a loss ; and yet many in that distress were wonderfully relieved, so 
that few perished. Note, We ought to take notice of the good hand of God's 
providence over us in our journeys, going out, and coming in, directing us in 
our way and providing for us places, both to bait in and rest in. t Or (as some 
think) it has an eye to the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilder- 
ness for forty years; it is said, Deu. xxxii. 10, " God led them about," and yet 
here " he led them by the right way." God's way, though to us it seems about, 
will appear at last to have been the right way. It is applicable to our condition 
in this world ; we are here as in a wilderness, have here no continuing city, but 
dwell in tents as strangers and pilgrims ; but we are under the conduct of his 
wise and good providence, which, if we commit ourselves to, we shall be led in 
the right way to the city that hath foundations. 

Fourthly. They were ready to perish for hunger; ver. 5, "Their soul" even 
"fainted in them." spent with the fatigues of their journey, and ready to drop 
down for want of refreshment. They that have constant plenty, and are every 
day fed to the full, know not what a miserable case it is to be hungry and thirsty 
and have no supply. This was sometimes the case of Israel in the wilderness, 
and perhaps of other poor travellers; but God's providence finds out ways to 
" satisfy the longing soul, and fill the hungry soul with goodness." ver. 9; Israel's 
•wants were reasonably supplied, and many have been wonderfully relieved when 
they were ready to perish. The same Go'd that has led us has fed us all our life 
long unto this day; has fed us with food convenient; has provided food for the 
soul, and "filled the hungry soul with goodness." "They that hunger and 
thirst after righteousness," after God, the living God, and communion with 
him, shall be abundantly replenished with the goodness of his house, both in 
grace and glory. 

Now, for all this, they who receive mercy are called upon to return thanks; 
ver. 8, "O that men" (it is meant especially of these men whom God has graci- 
ously relieved) " would praise the Lord for his goodness "to them in particular, 
" and for his wonderful works to" others of " the children of men." Note, 1. 
God's works of mercy are wonderful works; works of wonderful power 5> con- 
sidering the weakness, and of wonderful grace, considering the un worthiness, 
of those he shews mercy to. 2. Those who receive mercy from God, it is 
expected they return praise to him. 3. We must acknowledge God's goodness 
to the children of men, as well as to the children of God; to others as well as to 
ourselves. 



PSALM CVIL 523 

10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 
Being bound in affliction and iron ; 

1 1 Because they rebelled against the words of God, 
And contemned the counsel of the most High : 

12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour ; 
They fell down, and there was none to help. 

1 3 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, 
And he saved them out of their distresses. 

14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, 
And brake their bands in sunder. 

15 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, . 
And for his wonderful works to the children of men ! 

1 6 For he hath broken the gates of brass, 
And cut the bars of iron in sunder. 

We are to take notice of the goodness of God towards prisoners and captives. 
Observe, 

First. A description of this affliction. Prisoners are said to " sit in darkness," 
ver. 10; in dark dungeons, close prisons. It intimates that they are desolate 
and disconsolate; they sit "in the shadow of death," which intimates not only 
great distress and trouble, but great danger. Prisoners are many times 
appointed to die ; they sit despairing to get out, but resolving to make the best 
of it. They are "bound in affliction, and" many times "in iron," as Joseph. 
Thus sore a calamity is imprisonment, which should make us prize liberty, and 
be thankful for it. 

Secondly. The cause of this affliction, ver. 11; it is "because they rebelled 
against the words of God." Wilful sin is rebellion against the words of God: 
it is a contradiction to his truths, and a violation of his laws. Thev "contemned 
the counsel of the Most High," and thought they neither needed it nor could 
be the better for it; and they that will not be counselled cannot be helped. 
They that despise prophesying, that regard not the admonitions of their own 
consciences, nor the just reproofs of their friends, contemn the counsel of 
the Most High ; and for this they are bound in affliction, both to punish them 
for, and to reclaim them from, their rebellions. 

Thirdly. The design of this affliction, and that is to bring down their heart, 
ver. 12; to humble them for sin, to make them low in their own eyes, to cast 
down every high, proud, aspiring thought. Afflicting providences must be 
improved as humbling providences; and we not only lose the benefit of them, 
but thwart God's design, and walk contrary to him in them, if our hearts be 
unhumbled and unbroken, as high and hard as ever under them. Is the estate 
brought down with labour? the honour sunk? Are those that exalted them- 
selves fallen down, and is there none to help them ? Let this bring down the 
spirit to confess sin, to accept the punishment of it, and humbly to sue for 
mercy and grace. 

Fourthly. The duty of this afflicted state, and that is to pray; ver. 13, " Then 
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble," though before, perhaps, they had 
neglected him. Prisoners have time to pray, who when they are at liberty could 
not find time ; they see they have need of God's help who formerly thought 
they could do well enough without him. Sense will make men cry when they 
are in trouble, but grace will direct them to cry unto the Lord, from whom the 
affliction comes, and who alone can remove it. 

Fifthly. Their deliverance out of the affliction. " They cried unto the Lord, 
and he saved them," ver. 13; "He brought them out of darkness" into light, 
welcome light, and then doubly sweet and pleasant; brought them " out of the 
shadow of death " to the comforts of life, and their liberty was to them life 
from the dead, ver. 14. Were they fettered? " He broke their bands asunder." 
Were they imprisoned in strong castles? He "broke the gates of brass;" and 
the bars of iron, wherewith those gates were made fast, he did not put back, 
but cut in sunder. Note, When God will work deliverance, the greatest difficul- 
ties that lie in the way shall be made nothing of. Gates of brass, and bars of 
iron, as they cannot keep him out from his people, (he was with Joseph in the 
prison,) so they cannot keep them in, when the time, the set time, for their 
enlargement is come. 



§24 PSALM CVIL 

Sixthly. The return that is required from those whose bands God has loosed; 
ver. 15, " Let them praise the Lord for his goodness," and take occasion from 
their own experience of it, and share in it. to bless him for that goodness which 
the earth is full of, " the world and they that dwell therein." 

i 7 Fools because of their transgression, 

And because of their iniquities, are afflicted. 

18 Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat ; 
And they draw near unto the gates of death. 

19 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, 
And he saveth them out of their distresses. 

20 He sent his word, and healed them, 

And delivered them from their destructions. 

21 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, 
And for his wonderful works to the children of men ! 

22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, 
And declare his works with rejoicing. 

Bodily sickness is another of the calamities of this life which gives us an 
opportunity of experiencing the goodness of God in recovering us ; and of that 
the psalmist speaks in these Terses, where we may observe, 

First. That we, by our sins, bring sickness upon ourselves, and then it is our 
duty to pray, ver. 17—19. 

1. It is the sin of t the soul that is the cause of sickness. We bring it upon 
ourselves both meritoriously and efficiently. " Fools, because of their trans- 
gression, are" thus "afflicted," they are thus corrected fur the sins they have 
committed, and thus cured of their evil inclinations to sin. If we knew no sin. 
we should know no sickness ; but the transgression of our life, and the iniquity 
of our heart, makes it necessary. Sinners are fools, they wrong themselves, 
and all against their own interest ; not only their spiritual, but their secular 
interest ; they prejudice their bodily health by their intemperance, and endanger 
their lives by indulging their appetites. This their way is their folly, and they 
need the rod of correction to drive out the foolishness that is bound up in 
their hearts. 

2. The weakness of the body is the effect of sickness, ver. 18. When people 
are sick, "their soul abhorreth all manner of meat;" they not only have no 
desire to it, nor power to digest it, but they nauseate it, and their stomach is 
turned against it. And here they may read their sin in their punishment ; they 
that aoated most on the meat that perisheth, when they come to be sick are sick 
of it, and the dainties they loved are loathed. What they took too much of, 
now they can take nothing of, which commonly follows upon the overcharging 
of the heart with surfeiting and drunkenness. And when the stomach is gone 
the life is as good as gone, " thev draw near unto the gates of death:" they are 
in their own apprehension, ana in the apprehension of all about tnem, at the 
brink of the grave, and ready to be turned to destruction. 

3. Then is a proper time for prayer. " Then they cry unto the Lord," ver. 19. 
" Is any sick ? let him pray," let him be prayed for. Prayer is a salve for every 
sore. 

Secondly. That it is by the powder and mercy of God that we are recovered 
from sickness, and then it is our duty to be thankful. Compare with this 
Job xxxiii. 18, 28. 

1. When those that are sick call upon God, he returns them an answ r er of 
peace. They cry unto him, and " he saveth them out of their distresses, 5 ' ver. 19 ; 
he removes their griefs, and prevent their fears. 1st. He doth it easily. " He 
sent his word and healed them," ver. 20. This may be applied to the miraculous 
cures which Christ wrought when he was upon earth, by a word's speaking. 
He said. Be clean^ be whole, and the w^ork was done ; and to the spiritual 
cures wnich the Spirit of grace works in regeneration. He sends his w r ord and 
heals souls ; convinceth, converteth, sanetifieth them, and all by the word. In 
the common instances of recovery from sickness, God in his providence doth 
but speak it, and it is done. 2nd. He doth it effectually. " He delivereth them 
out of their destructions," that they shall neither be destroyed, nor distressed 
with the fear of being so. Nothing is too hard for that God to do who kills and 
makes alive again, brings down to the grave, and raises up ; who turneth man 
almost to destruction, and yet saith, Return. 

2. When those that have been sick are recovered, they must return to God 
an answer of praise; ver. 21, 22, "Let all men praise the Lord for his goodness/ 



PSALM CVII. 525 

and let them particularly to whom Gcd has thus granted a new life spend it in 
his service; "Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving," not only bring 
a thank offering to the altar, but a thankful heart to God. Thanksgivings 
are the best thank offerings, and shall please the Lord better than an ox or 
bullock. And let them "declare his works with rejoicing'' to his honour, and 
for the encouragement of others. "The living, the living, they shall praise him." 

23 They that go down to the sea in ships, 
That do business in great waters ; 

24 These see the works of the Lord, 
And his wonders in the deep. 

25 For he commandeth, and raise th the stormy wind, 
Which lifteth up the waves thereof. 

26 They mount up to the heaven, 
They go down again to the depths : 
Their soul is melted because of trouble. 

27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, 
And are at their wit's end. 

28 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, 
And he bringeth them out of their distresses. 

29 He maketh the storm a calm, 

So that the waves thereof are still. 
80 Then are they glad because they be quiet ; 
So he bringeth them unto their desired haven. 

31 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, 
And for his wonderful works to the children of men ! 

32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the peeple, 
And praise him in the assembly of the elders. 

The psalmist here calls upon those to give glory to God who are delivered 
from dangers at sea. Though the Israelites dealt not much in merchandise, yet 
their neighbours the Tyrians and Sidonians did, and for them perhaps this part 
of the psalm was especially calculated. 

First. Much of the power of God appears at all times in the sea; ver. 23, 24, 
" They that go down to the sea in ships," as mariners, merchants, fishermen, or 
passengers, "that do business in great waters, 1 ' (and sure none will expose 
themselves there, but those that have business, — among all Solomon's pleasant 
things, we do not read of any^ pleasure-boat he had, — but those that go on 
business, lawful business, may, in faith, put themselves under the Divine pro- 
tection,) "these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders," which are the 
more surprising, because most are born and bred upon land, and what passeth 
at sea is 'new to them. The deep itself is a wonder ; its vastness, its saltness, its 
ebbing and flowing. The great variety of living creatures in the sea is won- 
derful. m Let those that go to sea, by all the wonders they observe there, be led 
to consider and adore the infinite perfections of that God whose the sea is, for 
he made it, and manageth it. 

Secondly. It especially appears in storms at sea, which are much more terrible 
than on land. Ooserve here, 

1. How dangerous and dreadful a tempest at sea is. Then wonders begin to 
appear in the deep, when God commandeth and raiseth the strong winds, which 
fulfil his word, Ps. cxlviii. 8. He raiseth the winds, as a prince by his com- 
mission raiseth forces. Satan pretends to be the prince of the power of the air, 
but he is a pretender ; the powers of the air are at God's command, not at his. 
When the wind becomes stormy, it " lifteth up the waves of the sea," ver. 25. 
Then the ships are kicked like tennis balls on the tops of the waves ; they seem 
to mount up to the heavens, and then couch again, as if they would go down to 
the depths, ver. 26. # A stranger that had never seen it would not think it pos- 
sible for a ship to live at sea as it will in a storm, and ride it out, but would 
expect that the next wave should bury it, and it should never come up again ; 



52G 



PSALM CVII. 



and yet God, who taught man discretion to make ships that should so strangely 
keep above water, doth by his special providence preserve them, that they 
answer the end to admiration. When the ships are thus tossed, the soul of the 
seaman melts because of trouble ; and when the storm is very nigh, even those 
that are used to the sea can neither shake off nor dissemble their fears, but they 
reel to and fro ; the tossing makes them giddy, and they stagger and are sick, it 
may be, like a drunken man. The whole ship's crew is in confusion, and quite 
at their wit's end, ver. 27, not knowing what to do more for their own preserva- 
tion. All their wisdom is swallowed up, and they are ready to give up them- 
selves for gone, Jonah i. 5, &c. 

2. How seasonable it is at such a time to pray. They that go to sea must 
expect such perils as are here described, and the best preparation they can 
make for them, is to make sure a liberty of access to God by prayer, for then 
they will cry unto the Lord, ver. 28. We used to say, 4 They that will learn to 
pray, let them go to sea.' I say, ' They that will go to sea, let them learn to 
pray, and use to pray,' that they may come with the more boldness to the 
throne of grace when they are in trouble. Even heathen mariners in a storm 
cried every man to his god ; but they that have the Lord for their God have a 
present and powerful nelp in that and every other time of need, so that when 
they are at their wit's end they are not at their faith's end. 

3. How wonderfully God sometimes appears for those that are in distress at 
sea, in answer to their prayers. He bringeth them out of the danger ; and, 
1st. The sea is still. He " maketh the storm a calm," ver. 29. The winds fall, 
and only by their soft and gentle murmurs serve to lull the waves asleep again, 
so that the surface of the sea becomes smooth and smiling. By this Christ- 
proved himself to be more than a man, that even the winds and the seas obeyed 
him. 2nd. The seamen are made easy. " They are glad because they be quiet," 
quiet from the noise, quiet from the fear of evil. Quietness after a storm is a 
very desirable thing, and sensibly pleasant. 3rd. The voyage becomes pros- 
perous and successful. " So he bringeth them to their desired haven," ver. 30. 
Thus he carries his people safe through all the storms and tempests that they 
meet with in their voyage heavenwards, and lands them at length in the desirea 
harbour. 

4. How justly it is expected that all those who have had a safe passage over 
the sea, and especially that have been delivered from remarkable perils at sea, 
should acknowledge it -with thankfulness go the glory of God. Let them do it 
privately in their closets and families, ver. 31. Let them "praise the Lord for 
his goodness" to themselves and others. Let them do it publicly ; ver. 32, "in 
the congregation of the people, and in the assembly of the eiders. There let 
them erect the memorials of their deliverance, to the honour of God, and for the 
encouragement of others to trust in him. 

33 He turneth rivers into a wilderness, 
And the watersprings into dry ground ; 

34 A fruitful land into barrenness, 

For the wickedness of them that dwell therein. 

35 He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, 
And dry ground into watersprings. 

36 And there he rnaketh the hungry to dwell, 
That they may prepare a city for habitation ; 

37 And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, 
Which may yield fruits of increase. 

38 He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; 
And suffereth not their cattle to decrease. 

39 Again, they are minished and brought low 
Through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. 

40 He poureth contempt upon princes, 

And causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where 
tliere is no way. 

41 Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, 
And maketh him families like a flock. 



PSALM CVII. 



527 



42 The righteous shall see it, and rejoice : 
And all iniquity shall stop her mouth. 

43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, 

Even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the 
Lord. 

The psalmist, having given God the glory of the providential reliefs granted 
to persons in distress, here gives him the glory of the revolutions of providence, 
and the surprising changes it sometimes makes in the affairs of the children 
of men. 

First. He gives some instances of these revolutions. 

1 . Fruitful countries are made barren, and barren countries are made fruitful. 
Much of the comfort of this life depends upon the soil in which our lot is cast. 
Now, 1st. The sin of man has often marred the fruitfulness of the soil, and 
made it unserviceable, ver. 33, 34. Land watered with rivers is sometimes 
turned into a wilderness, and that which had been full of water springs now 
has not so much as water streams ; it is turned into dry and sandy ground, 
that has not consistency and moisture enough to produce any thing valuable. 
Many a fruitful land is turned into saltness, not so much from natural causes 
as from the just judgment of God, who thus punisheth " the wickedness of them 
that dwell therein," as the vale of Sodom became a salt sea. Note, If the land 
be bad, it is because the inhabitants are so. Justly is the ground made unfruit- 
ful to them that bring not forth fruit unto God, but serve Baal with their corn 
and wine. 2nd. The goodness of God has often mended the barrenness of the 
soil, and turned a wilderness, a land of drought, into water springs, ver. 35. 
The land of Canaan, which was once the glory of all lands, for fruitfulness, 
is said to be at this day a fruitless, useless, worthless spot of ground, as was 
foretold, Deu. xxix. 23. This land of ours, which formerly was much of it an 
uncultivated desert, is now full of all good things, and more abundant honour 
is given to that part which lacked. Let the plantations in America, and the 
colonies settled there, compared with the desolations of many countries in Asia 
and Europe, that formerly were famous, expound this. 

2. Necessitous families are raised and enriched, while prosperous families are 
impoverished and go to decay. If we look abroad in the world, 1st. We see 
many greatly increasing, whose beginningwas small, and whose ancestors were 
mean and made no figure, ver. 36 — 38. Those that were hungry are made to 
dwell in fruitful lands; there they take root ; gain a settlement, and "prepare 
a city for habitation " for themselves and theirs after them. Providence puts 
good land under their hands, and they build upon it. Cities took rise from 
rising families. But as lands will not serve for men without lodgings, and there- 
fore they must prepare a city of habitation, so lodgings, though never so conve- 
nient, will not serve without lands, and therefore they must "sow the fields and 
plant vineyards," ver. 37, for the king himself is served of the field. And yet 
the fields, though favoured with water springs, will not yield fruits of increase, 
unless they be sown, nor will vineyards be had, unless they be planted. Man's 
industry must attend God's blessing, and then God's blessing will crown man's 
industry. The fruitfulness of the soil should engage, for it doth encourage, 
diligence 5 and ordinarily the hand of the diligent, by the blessing of God, 
maketh rich ; ver. 38, " He blesseth them also, so that they are," in a little time, 
" multiplied greatly, and he diminisheth not their cattle." As in the beginning, so 
still it is by the blessing of God, that the earth and all the creatures increase and 
multiply, Gen. i. 22. And we depend upon God for the increase of the cattle, as 
well as tor the increase of the ground. Cattle would decrease many ways, if God 
should but permit it, and men would soon suffer by it. 2nd. We see many that 
have thus suddenly risen, as suddenly sunk and brought to nothing ; ver. 39, 
" Again, they are minished and brought low," by cross providences, and end 
their days as low as they began them; or their families after them lose as fast 
as they got, and scatter what they heaped together. Note, Worldly wealth is 
an uncertain thing ; and many times those that are filled with it, ere they are 
aware, grow so secure and sensual with it, that ere they are aware they lose it 
again. Hence it is called deceitful riches, and the mammon of unrighteousness. 
God has many ways of making men poor ; he can do it by " oppression, affliction, 
and sorrow," as he tempted Job, and brought him low. 

3. Those that were high and great in the world are abased, and those that 
were mean and despicable are advanced to honour, ver. 40, 41. W r e have seen, 
1st. Princes dethroned and reduced to straits. "Hepoureth contempt " upon 
them, even among those that have idolized them. They that exalt themselves 
God will abase, and, in order thereunto, will infatuate, "He maketh them to 
wander in the wilderness, where there is no way." He baffles those counsels by 
which they thought to support themselves, and their own power and pomp, and 



528 



PSALM CYIIL 



turns them headlong, so that they know not what course to steer, or what 
measures to take. We met with this before, Job xii. 24, 25. 2nd. Those of low 
degree advanced to the posts of honour ; ver. 41, " Yet setteth he the poor on 
high," raiseth from the dust to the throne of glory, 1 Sam. ii. 8; Ps. cxiii. 7, S. 
Those that were afflicted and trampled on, are not only delivered, but set on 
high, out of the reach of their troubles, above their enemies, and have dominion 
over those to whom they had been in subjection. And that which adds to their 
honour, and strengthens^ them in their elevation, is, the multitude of their 
children; "He maketh him families like a flock*' of sheep, so numerous, so 
useful, so sociable witli one another, and so meek and peaceable. He that sent 
them meat sent them mouths. Happy is the man that has his quiver filled with 
arrows, for he shall boldly speak with the enemy in the gate, Ps. cxxvii. 5. 
God is to be acknowledged both in setting up and building up of families. 
Let not princes be envied, nor the poor despised, for God has many ways of 
changing the condition of both. 

Secondly. He makes some improvement of these remarks. Such surprising 
turns as these are of use, 

1. For the solacing of saints. They observe these dispensations with pleasure; 
ver. 42, " The righteous shall see it and rejoice " in the glorifying of God's attri- 
butes, and the manifesting of his dominion over the children of men. It is a 
great comfort to a good man to see how God manageth the children of men, 
as the potter doth the clay, so as to serve his own purposes by them ; to see 
despised virtue advanced, and impious pride brought low to the dust ; to see it 
evinced beyond dispute that "verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth." 

2. For the silencing of sinners. "All iniquity shall stop her month," that is, 
it shall be a full conviction of the folly of atheists, and of those that deny the 
Divine providence ; and, forasmuch as practical atheism is at the bottom of all 
sin, it shall in effect stop the mouth of all iniquity. When sinners see how their 
punishment answers their sin, and how justly God deals with them, in taking 
away from them those gifts of his which they had abused, they shall not have 
one word to say for themselves; for God will he justified, he will be clear. 

3. For the satisfying of all concerning the Divine goodness; ver. 43, "Whoso 
is wise, and will observe these things," these various dispensations of Divine 
providence, "even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord." Here 
is, 1st. A desirable end proposed, and that is, rightly to "'understand the 
lovingkindness of the Lord." It is of great use to us in religion to be fully 
assured of God's goodness, to be experimentally acquainted and duly affected 
with it, that his lovingkindness may be before our eyes, Ps. xxvi. 3. 2nd, A 
proper means prescribed for attaining this end, and that is, a due observing of 
God's providence. We must lay up these things — mind them, and keep them 
in mind, Lu. ii. 19. 3rd. A commendation of the use of this means, as an 
instance of true wisdom : " Whoso is wise," let him by this both prove his 
wisdom and improve it. A prudent observation of the providences of God 
will contribute very much to the accomplishing of a good Christian. 



PSALM CVHI. 

This psalm begins with praise, and concludes with prayer, and faith is at work in both. 
I. David here gives thanks to God for mercies to himself, ver. 1 — 5. II. He prays to 
God for mercies for the land, pleading the promises of God, and putting them in suit, 
ver. 6 — 13. The former part is taken out of Ps. lvii. 7, &c, the latter out of Ps. lx. 5, 
&c. ; and both with very little variation ; to teach us that we may in prayer use the 
same words that we have formerly used, provided it be with new affections. It intimates 
likewise that it is not only allowable, but sometimes convenient, to gather some verses 
out of one psalm, and some out of another, and to put them together to he sung to 
the glory of God. In singing this psalm we must give glory to God, and take comfort 
to ourselves. 

A Song or Psalm of David. 

OGOD, my heart is fixed ; 
I will sing and give praise, 
Even with my glory. 

2 Awake, psaltery and harp : 
I myself will awake early. 

3 I will praise thee, 0 Lord, among the people : 

And I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. 



PSALM CYIIL 529 

4 For thy mercy is great above the heavens : 
And thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. 

5 Be thou exalted, 0 God, above the heavens : 
And thy glory above all the earth ; 

We may here learn how to praise God from the example of one who was 
master of the art. 

First. We must praise God with fixedness of heart. Our heart must be 
employed in the duty, else we make nothing of it, and engaged to the duty ; 
ver. 1,"" O God, my heart is fixed," and then " 1 will sing and give praise." 
Wandering, straggling thoughts must be gathered in, and kept close to the 
business; for they must be told here is work enough for them all. 

Secondly. We must praise God with freeness of expression. I will praise 
him with my glory, that is, with my tongue. Our tongue is our glory, and 
never more so than when it is employed in praising God. When the heart 
is inditing this good matter, our tongue must be as the pen of a ready writer, 
Ps. xlv. 1. David's skill in music was his glory, it made him famous ; and this 
should be consecrated to the praise of God ; and therefore it follows, " Awake, 
my psaltery and harp." Whatever gift we excel in we must praise God with. 

Thirdly. We must praise God with fervency of affection, and must stir up 
ourselves to do it, that it may be done in a lively manner, and not carelessly ; 
ver. 2, " Awake, psaltery and harp." Let it not be done with a dull and sleepy 
tune, but let the airs be all lively. " I myself will awake early " to do it with 
all that is within me, and all little enough. Warm devotions honour God. 

Fourthly. We must praise God publicly, as those that are not ashamed to 
own our obligations to him, and our thankful sense of his favours, but desire 
that others also may be in like manner affected with the Divine goodness ; 
ver. 3, "I will praise thee among the people" of the Jews; nay, "I will sing 
to thee among the nations "of the earth. Whatever company we are in we 
must take all occasions to speak well of God; and we must not be shy of 
singing psalms, though our neighbours hear us, for it looks like being ashamed 
of our Master. 

Fifthly. We. must in our praises magnify the mercy and truth of God in a 
special manner, ver. 4 ; mercy in promising, truth in performing. The heavens 
are vast, but the mercy of God is more capacious; the skies are high and 
bright, but the truth of God is more eminent, more illustrious. We cannot 
see farther than the heavens and clouds; whatever we see of God's mercy and 
truth, there is still more to be seen, more reserved to be seen in the other 
world. 

Sixthly. Since we find ourselves so defective in glorifying God, we must beg 
of him to glorify himself, to do all, to dispose all, to his own glory, to get himself 
honour, and make himself a name ; ver. 6, " Be thou exalted, O God, above the 
heavens ;" higher than the angels themselves can exalt thee with their praises ; 
and let thy glory be spread over all the earth. " Father, glorify thine own. 
name ;" thou hast glorified it, glorify it yet again. It is to be our first petition, 
" Hallowed be thy name." 

6 That thy beloved may be delivered : 
Save with thy right hand, and answer me. 

7 God hath spoken in his holiness ; I will rejoice, 
I will divide Shechem, 

And mete out the valley of Succoth. 

8 Gilead is mine ; Manasseh is mine ; 
Ephraim also is the strength of mine head ; 
Judah is my lawgiver ; 

9 Moab is my washpot; 

Over Edom will I cast out my shoe ; 
Over Philistia will I triumph. 

10 Who will bring me into the strong city ? 
Who will lead me into Edom ? 

11 Wilt not thou, 0 God, who hast cast us off? 

And wilt not thou, 0 God, go forth with our hosts ? 

2 L 



530 PSALM CVIII. 

12 Give us help from trouble : 
For vain is the help of man. 

1 3 Through God we shall do valiantly : 

For he it is that shall tread down our enemies. 

We may here learn how to pray as well as praise. 

First. We must be public spirited in prayer, and bear upon our hearts at the 
throne of grace the concerns of the church of God; ver. 6, it isGod's beloved, 
and therefore must be ours : and therefore we must pray for its deliverance, 
and reckon we are answered if God grant what we ask for his church, though 
he delay to give us what we ask for ourselves. Save thy church, and thou 
answerest me ; I have what I would have. " Let the earth be tilled with * 
God's glory, and the prayers of David are ended," Ps. lxxii. 20; he desires 
no more. 

Secondly. We must in prayer act faith upon the power and promise of God ; 
upon his power, " Save with thy right hand," which is mighty to save ; and upon 
his promise, " God hath spoken in his holiness^" in his holy word, to which he 
hath sworn by his holiness, and therefore " I will rejoice," ver. 7. W r hat he has 
promised he will perform ; for it is the word both of his truth and of his power. 
An active faith can rejoice in what God hath said, though it be not yet done; 
for with him saying and doing are not two things, whatever they are with us. 

Thirdly. W r e must, in prayer, take the comfort of what God has secured to 
us, and settled upon us, though we are not yet put in the possession of it. God 
had promised David to give him, 1. The hearts of his subjects; and therefore 
he surveys the several parts of the country as his own already : Shechem and 
Succoth, Gilead and Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah, they are all my own, 
ver. 8. With such assurance as this may we speak of the performance of what 
God has promised to the Son of David. He will, without fail, give him the 
heathen for his inheritance^ and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession; 
for so hath he spoken in his holiness. Nay, of all the particular persons that 
were given him, he will lose none; he also, as David, shall have the hearts of 
his subjects, Jno. vi. 37. And, 2. The necks of his enemies. These are pro- 
mised, and therefore David looks upon Moab and Edom and Philistia as his own 
already; ver. 4, "Over Philistia will I triumph," which explains, Ps. Ix. 8, 
" Philistia, triumph thou because of me;" which some think should be read, 
* O my soul, triumph thou over Philistia.' Thus the exalted Redeemer is set 
down at God's right hand in a full assurance that all "his enemies shall" in due 
time "be made his footstool, though all things are not yet put under him," 
Heb. ii. 8. 

Fourthly. W r e must take encouragement from the beginnings of mercy to 
pray and hope for the perfecting of it; ver. 10, 11, "Who will bring me into the 
strong cities "that are yet unconquered? Who will make me master of the 
country of Edom, which is yet unsubdued? This question probably was to be 
debated in his privy council, or a council of war, what methods they should take 
to subdue the Edomites, and to reduce that country; but he brings it into his 
prayers, and leaves it in God"s hands ; "Wilt not thou, O God?" certainly thou 
wilt. It is probable he spoke with the more assurance concerning the conquest 
of Edom, because of the ancient oracle concerning Jacob and Esau, that the 
elder should serve the younger," and the blessing of Jacob, by which he was i 
made Esau's lord, Gen. xxvii. 37. 

Fifthly. W r e must not be discouraged in prayer nor beaten off from our hold I 
of God, though providence has in some instances frowned upon us. Though 
"thou hast cast us off," yet thou wilt now "go forthwith our hosts," ver. 11. 

hou wilt comfort us again, after the time that thou hast afflicted us. Cross J 
events are sometimes intended for the trial of the > constancy of our faith and \ 
prayer, which we ought to persevere in, whatever difficulties we meet with, and i 
not to faint. 

Sixthly. We must seek help from God, renouncing all confidence in the crea- \ 
ture ; ver. 12, " Lord, give us help from trouble,'' prosper our designs, and 
defeat the designs of our enemies against us. _ It is not unseasonable to talk 
of trouble at the same time that we talk of triumphs, especially w r hen it is to 
quicken prayer for help from heaven ; and it is a good plea, s " Vain is the help 
of man." It is really so, and therefore we are undone if God do not help us ; 
we apprehend it so, and therefore depend upon thee for help, and have the more 
reason to expect it. 

Seventhly. We must depend entirely upon the favour and grace of God, both 
for strength and success in our work and warfare, ver. 13. 1. We must do our 
part ; but we can do nothing of ourselves, it is only " through God that we shall 
do valiantly." Blessed Paul will own that even he can do nothing, nothing to 
purpose, but through Christ's strengthening him, Phil. iv. 13. 2. W r hen we 



PSALM CIX: 531 

have acquitted ourselves never so well, yet we cannot speed by any merit or 
might of our own ; it is God himself that treads down our enemies, else w e, with 
all our valour, cannot do it. Whatever we do, whatever we gain, God must 
have all the glory. 

PSALM CIX. 

Whether David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul, or when his son 
Absalom rebelled against him, or upon occasion of some other trouble that was given 
him, is uncertain ; and whether the particular enemy he prays against was Saul, or 
Doeg, or Ahithophel, or some other not mentioned in the story, we cannot determine; 
but it is certain that in penning it he had an eye to Christ, his sufferings and his perse- 
cutors ; for that imprecation, ver. 8, is applied to Judas, Acts i. 20. And the rest of the 
prayers here against his enemies were the expressions not of passion, but of the spirit ct 
prophecy. I. He lodgeth a complaint in the court of heaven of the malice and base 
ingratitude of his enemies, and with it an appeal to the righteous God, ver. 1 — 1. 
II. He prays against his enemies, and devotes them to destruction, ver. 6—20. III. 
He prays for himself, that God would help and succour him in his low condition, 
ver. 25—29. IV. He concludes with a joyful expectation that God would appear for 
him, ver. 30, 31. In singing this psalm we must comfort ourselves with the believing 
foresight of the certain destruction of all the enemies of Christ and his church, and 
the certain salvation of all those that trust in God, and keep close to him. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 

HOLD not thy peace, 0 God of my praise ; 
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the 
deceitful are opened against me : 
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. 

3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred ; 
And fought agdinst me without a cause. 

4 For my love they are my adversaries : 
But I give myself unto prayer. 

5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, 
And hatred for my love. 

It is the unspeakable comfort of all good people that, whoever is against 
them, God is for them, and to him they may apply themselves as to one that is 
pleased to concern himself for them. Thus David here. 

First. He refers himself to God's judgment ; ver. 1, " Hold not thy peace,*' 
but "let my sentence come forth from thy presence," Ps. xvii. 2. \ Delay not to 
give judgment upon the appeal made to thee. God saw what his enemies did 
against him, but seemed to connive at it, and to keep silence. Lord, saith he, 
do not always do so. The title he gives to God is observable: " O God of my 
praise;" the God in whom I glory, and not in any wisdom or strength of my 
own ; from whom I have every thing that is my praise ; or, the God whom I 
have praised, and will praise, and hope to be for ever praisings He calls God, 
j the God of his mercy, Ps. lix. 10; here, the God of his praise; forasmuch as 
God is the God of our mercies, we must make him the God of our praises. If 
all is of him and from him, all must be to him and for him. 

Secondly. He complains of his enemies, shewing that they were such as it 
was fit for the righteous God to appear against. 1. They were very spiteful 
and malicious. They are wicked, they delight in doing mischief, ver. 2. Their 
words are words of hatred, ver. 3. They had an implacable enmity to a good 
man, because of his goodness. They open their mouths against me to swallow 
me up, and fight against me, to cut me off if they could. 2. They were noto- 
rious liars ; and that is two of the seven things which the Lord hates. They are 
deceitful in their protestations and professions of kindness, while at the same 
time they speak against me, behind my back, with a lying tongue. They were 
I equally false in their flatteries and in their calumnies. 3. They were both 
j politic and restless in their designs. They compassed me about on all sides, so 
| that which way soever I looked I could see nothing but what made against me. 
j 4. They were unjust. Their accusations of him, and sentence against him, were 
all groundless; they have fought against me without cause, I never gave them 
any provocation. Nay, which was worst of all, 5. They were very ungrateful, 
and rewarded him evil for good, ver. 5. Many a kindness he had done them, 
and was upon all occasions ready to do them, and yet he could not Work upon 



532 PSALM CIX. 

them to abate their malice against him ; but, on the contrary, they were the 
more exasperated because they could not provoke him to give them some occa- 
sion against him; ver. 4, "For my love they are my adversaries." The more 
he endeavoured to gratify them, the more they hated him. We may wonder 
that it is possible any should be so wicked ; anci yet, since there have been so 
many instances of it, we should not wonder if any be so wicked against us. 

Thirdly. He resolves to keep close to his duty, and take the comfort of that. 
" But I give myself unto prayer," ver. 4. * I prayer,' so it is in the original ; I 
am for prayer; I am a man of prayer; I love prayer, and prize prayer, and 
practise prayer, and make a business of prayer, and am in my element when I 
am at prayer. A good man is made up of prayer, gives himself to prayer, as 
the apostles, Acts vi. 4. When David's enemies falsely accused him, and mis- 
represented him, he applied himself to God, and by prayer committed his cause 
to him. Though they were his adversaries for his love, yet he continued to 
pray for them. If others are abusive and injurious to us, yet let not us fail 
to do our duty to them, nor sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for them, 

I Sam. xii. 23. > Though they hated and persecuted him for his religion, yet he 
kept close to it ; they laughed at him for his devotion, but they should not 
laugh him out of it. Let them say what they will, " I give myself unto prayer." 
Now herein David was a type of Christ, who was compassed about with words 
of hatred, and lying words ; whose enemies not only persecuted him without 
cause, but for his love, and his good works, Jno. x. 32; and yet he gave himself 
to prayer, to pray for them, " Father, forgive them." 

6 Set thou a wicked man over him : 
And let Satan stand at his right hand. 

7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned : 
And let his prayer become sin. 

8 Let his days be few ; 

And let another take his office. 

9 Let his children be fatherless, 
A nd his wife a widow. 

10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: 
Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. 

I I Let the extortioner catch all that he hath ; 
And let the strangers spoil his labour. 

12' Let there be none to extend mercy unto him : 

Neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. 

13 Let his posterity be cut off ; 

And in the generation following let their name be blotted 
out. [Lokd ; 

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the 
And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. 

15 Let them be before the Lord continually, 

That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. 

16 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, 
But persecuted the poor and needy man, 

That he might even slay the broken in heart. 

17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him : 

As he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. 

18 As he clothed himself with ciirsinglike as with his garment. 
So let it come into his bowels like water, 

And like oil into his bones. 



PSALM CIX\ 533 

19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, 
And for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. 

20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, 
And of them that speak evil against my soul. 

David here fastens upon some one particular person that was worse than the 
rest of his enemies, and the ringleader of them, and in a devout and pious 
manner, not from a principle of malice and revenge, but in a holy zeal for God, 
and against sin, and v\ ith an eye to the enemies of Christ, particularly Judas 
who betrayed him, whose sin was greater than Pilate's that condemned him, 
Jno. xix. 11, he imprecates and predicts his destruction : foresees and pronounces 
him completely miserable, and such a one as our Saviour calls him, " A son of 
perdition." Calvin speaks of it as a detestable piece of sacrilege, common in his 
time, among Franciscan friars, and other monks, that, if any one had malice 
against a neighbour, he might hire some of them to curse him every day, which 
he would do in the words of these verses ; and' particularly he tells of a lady 
in France, that being at variance with her own and only son, she hired a parcel 
of friars to curse him in these words. And greater impiety can scarce be 
imagined than to vent a devilish passion in the language of Sacred Writ, to 
kindle strife with coals snatched from God's altar, and to call for tire from 
heaven with a tongue set on fire of hell. 

First. The imprecations here are very terrible ; woe and a thousand woes to 
that man against whom God saith Amen to them. And they are all in full force 
against the implacable enemies and persecutors of God's church and people, 
that will not repent to give him glory. It is here foretold concerning this 
ill man, 

1. That he should be cast and sentenced as a criminal, with all the dreadful 
pomp of a trial, conviction, and condemnation ; ver. 6, 7, " Set thou a wicked 
man over him," to be as cruel and oppressive to him as he hath been to others ; 
for God often makes one wicked man a scourge to another, to spoil the spoilers, 
and to deal treacherously with those that have dealt treacherously, feet the 
wicked one over him, so some ; that is, Satan, as it follows. And then it was 
fulfilled in Judas, into whom Satan entered to hurry him into sin first, and then 
into despair. Set his own wicked heart over him, set his own conscience against 
him, let that fly in his face. " Let Satan stand on his right hand," and be let 
loose against him to deceive him as he did Ahab to his destruction, and then 
to accuse him, and resist him, and then he is certainly cast, having no interest 
in that Advocate who alone can say, " The Lord rebuke thee, Satan," Zee. iii. 1,2. 
AVhen he shall be judged at men's bar let not his usual arts to evade justice do 
him any service : but let his sin find him out, and let him be condemned. Nor 
shall he escape before God's tribunal, but be condemned there when the day 
of inquisition and recompense shall come. "Let his prayer become sin," as the 
clamours of a condemned malefactor not only find no acceptance, but are 
looked upon as an affront to the court. The prayers of the wicked now become 
sin, because soured with the leaven of hypocrisy and malice ; and so they will 
in the great day, because then it will be too late to cry, " Lord, Lord, open to 
us." Let every thing be turned against him, and improved to his disadvantage, 
even his prayers. 

2. That, being condemned, he should be executed as a most notorious male- 
factor. 1st. That he should lose his life, and the number of his months be cut 
off in the midst by the sword of justice. " Let his days be few," or shortened ; 
as a condemned criminal has but a few days to live, ver. 8. Such "bloody and 
deceitful men shall not live out half their days." 2nd. That consequently all 
his places should be disposed of to others, and they should enjoy his prefer- 
ments and employments. " Let another take his office." This St. Peter applies 
to the filling up of Judas's room in the truly sacred college of the apostles, by 
the choice of Matthias, Acts i. 20. Those that mismanage their trusts will justly 
have their office taken from them, and given to those that will approve them- 
selves faithful. 3rd. That his family should be beheaded and beggared; that 
his wife should be made a widow, and his children fatherless, by his untimely 
death, ver. 9. Wicked men, by their wicked courses, bring ruin upon their wives 
and children, whom they ought to take care of and provide for. Yet his child- 
ren, if, when they lost their father, they had a competency to live upon, they 
might do pretty well; but they shall be vagabonds and beg, shall not have 
a house of their own to live in, nor any certain dwelling-place, nor know where 
to have a meal's meat ; but shall creep out of their desolate places with fear and 
trembling, like beasts out of their dens to seek their bread, ver. 10, because they 
are conscious to themselves what reason all mankind has to hate them for their 
father's sake. 4th. That his estate should be ruined, as the estates of malefac- 
tors are confiscated; ver. 11, " Let the extortioner," the officer, " seize all that he 
hath," and let the stranger, that was nothing akin to his estate, spoil his labour, 
either for his crimes or for his debts, Jno. v. 4, 5. 5th. That his posterity should 



534 PSALM CIX. 

be miserable. Fatherless children, though they have nothing of their own, yet 
sometimes are well provided for by the kindness of those whom God inclines 
to pity them ; but this wicked man, having never shewed mercy, there shall be 
none to extend mercy to him, by favouring his fatherless children, when he is 
gone, ver. 12. The children of wicked parents often fare the worse for their 
parents' wickedness this way,— that the bowels of men's compassion are shut 
up from thern; which yet ought not to be; for why should children suffer for 
that which was not their fault, but their infelicity? 6th. That his memory 
should be infamous, and buried in oblivion and disgrace : ver. 13, ' Let his pos- 
terity be cut off; let his end be to destruction/ so Dr. Hammond; and in the 
next generation let their name be blotted out, or remembered with contempt 
and indignation ; and, ver. 15, let an indelible mark of disgrace be left upon it. 

See here what hurries some to shameful deaths, and brings the families and 
estates of others to ruin, makes them and theirs despicable and odious, and 
entails poverty, and shame, and misery upon their posterity. It is sin ; that 
mischievous, destructive thing. The learned Dr. Hammond applies this to the 
final dispersion and desolation of the Jewish nation for their crucifying Christ. 
Their princes and people were cut off, their country laid waste, their posterity 
made fugitives and vagabonds. 

Secondly. The ground of these imprecations speaks them very just, though 
they sound very severe. 

1. To justify the imprecations of vengeance upon the sinner's posterity, the 
sin of his ancestors is here brought into the account ; ver. 14, 15, The iniquity 
of his fathers, and the sin of his mother." These God often visits, even upon the 
children's children, and is not unrighteous therein. When wickedness has long 
run in the blood, justly doth the curse run along with it. Thus all the innocent 
blood that had been shed upon the earth from that of righteous Abel was 
required from that persecuting generation who, by putting Christ to death, 
tilled up the measure of their fathers, and left as long a train of vengeance 
to follow them as the train of guilt was that went before them, which they 
themselves agreed to, by saying, " His blood be upon us and on our children/' 

2. To justify the imprecations of vengeance upon the sinner himself, bis own 
sin is here charged upon him, which called aloud for it. 

1st. He had loved cruelty; and therefore give him blood to drink; ver. 16, 
" He remembered not to shew mercy," remembered not those considerations 
which would have induced him to shew mercy, remembered not the objects 
of compassion that had been presented to him ; but persecuted the poor, whom 
he should have protected and relieved, and "slew the broken in heart," whom 
he should have comforted and healed. Here is a barbarous man indeed, not fit 
to live. 

2nd. He had loved cursing; and therefore let the curse come upon his head, 
ver. 17 — 19. These that were out of the reach of his cruelty he let fly at with 
his curses, which were impotent and ridiculous, but they shall return upon him. 
He "delighted not in blessing;" that is, he took no pleasure in wishing well, 
to others, nor in seeing others do well ; he would give nobody a good word 
or a good wish, much less would he do any body a good turn ; and so let all 
gopd be far from him. "He clotheth himself with cursing," was proud of it 
as an ornament, that he could frighten all about him with the curses he was 
liberal of; he confided in it as armour, which would secure him from the insults 
of those he feared. And let him have enough of it. Was he fond of cursing ? 
Let God's curse " come into his bowels like water," and swell him as with a 
dropsy, and let it soak " like oil into his bones." The word of the curse is quick 
and powerful, and divides between the joints and the marrow ; it works power- 
fully and effectually, it fastens on the soul, it is a piercing thing, and there is no 
antidote against it. Let it compass him on every side as a garment, ver. 19. Let 
God's cursing him be his shame, as his cursing his neighbour was his pride; let 
it cleave to him as a girdle, and let him never be able to get clear of it. Let it 
be to him like the waters of jealousy, which caused the belly to swell and the 
thigh to rot. This points at the utter ruin of Judas, and the spiritual judgments 
which fell on the Jews for crucifying Christ. The psalmist concludes his 
imprecation with a terrible Amen, which signifies not only, I wish it may be 
so, but, I know r it shall be so. "Let this be the reward of mine adversaries 
from the Lord," ver. 20. And this will be the reward of all the adversaries 
of the Lord Jesus ; his enemies that will not have him to reign over them shall 
be brought forth and slain before him. And he will one day recompense tribu- 
lation to them that trouble his people. 

21 But do thou for me, 0 God the Lord, 
For thy name's sake : 

Because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. 



PSALM CIX. 535 

22 For I am poor and needy, 

And my heart is wounded within me. 

23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth : 
I am tossed up and down as the locust. 

24 My knees are weak through fasting ; 
And my flesh faileth of fatness. 

25 I became also a reproach unto them: 

When they looked upon me they shaked their heads. 

26 Help me, 0 Lord my God : 

0 save me according to thy mercy : 

27 That they may know that this is thy hand ; 
That thou, Lord, hast done it. 

28 Let them curse, but bless thou: 
When they arise, let them be ashamed ; 
But let thy servant rejoice. 

29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, 

And let them cover themselves with their own confusion, 
as with a mantle. 

30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth ; 
Yea, I will praise him among the multitude. 

81 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, 
To save him from those that condemn his soul. 

David, having denounced God's wrath against his enemies, here takes God's 
comforts to himself, but in a very humble manner, and without boasting. 

First. He pours out his complaint before God concerning the low condition 
he was in, which, it is probable, gave advantage to his enemies to insult over 
him. "I am poor and needy," and therefore a proper object of pity, and one 
that needs and craves thy help. 1. He was troubled in mind; ver. 22, "My 
heart is wounded within me;" not only broken with outward troubles, which 
sometimes prostrate and sink the spirits, but wounded with sense of guilt, and 
"a wounded spirit who can bear?" who can heal? 2. He apprehended himself 
drawing near to his end; "I am gone like the shadow when it declineth," as 
good as gone already. Man's life, at best, is like a shadow ; sometimes it is like 
the evening shadow, the presage of night approaching, like the shadow when 
it declines. 3. He was unsettled, "tossed up and down like the locust," his 
mind fluctuating and unsteady, still putting him upon new counsels ; his out- 
ward^ condition far from any fixation, but still upon the remove, hunted like a 
partridge on the mountains. 4. His bodywas wasted and almost worn away; 
ver. 24, " My knees are weak through fasting ; " either forced fasting for want 
of food when he was persecuted, or for want of appetite when he w^as sick, or 
voluntary fasting, when he chastened his soul either for sin or affliction, his own 
or others, Ps. xxxv. 13; Ixix. 10. My flesh failed of fatness; that is, it has lost 
the fatness it had, so that I am become a skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. 
But better have this leanness in the body, while the soul prospers and is in 
health, than, like Israel, have leanness sent into the soul while the body is 
feasted. 5. He was riaiculed and reproached by his enemies, ver. 25. His 
devotions and his afflictions they made the matter of their laughter, and upon 
both those accounts God's people have been exceedingly filled with the scorning 
of those that are at ease. In all this David was a type of Christ, who, in his 
humiliation was thus wounded, thus weakened, thus reproached. He was also 
a type of the church, which is often afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not 
comforted. 

Secondly. He prays for mercy for himself. In general; ver. 21, " Do thou for 
me, O God the Lord ;" appear for me, act for me. If God be for us, he will do 
for us, will do more abundantly for us than we are able either to ask or think. 
He doth not prescribe to God what he should do for him, but refers himself 
to his wisdom ; Lord, do for me what seemeth good in thine eyes. Do that 
which thou knowest will be for me, really for me, in the issue for me, though 



536 



PSALM CX. 



for the present it may seem to make against me. More particularly he prays, 
Ter. 26, Help me, O Lord my God, O save me." Help me under my trouble, 
save me out of my troubles. Save me from sin ; help me to do my duty. He 
prays, ver. 28, "Though they curse, bless thou." Here, I. He despiseth the 
causeless curses of his enemies, Let them curse. He said of Shimei. " So let him 
curse." They can but shew their malice, they can do him no more mischief than 
the bird by wandering, or the swallow by flying, Pr. xxvi. 2. 2. He values the 
blessing of God as sufficient to balance their curses ; Bless thou, and then it is 
no matter though they curse. If God bless us, we need not care who curseth 
us; for "How can they curse whom God hath not cursed?" nay, whom he 
hath blessed, Num. xxiii. 8. Men's curses are impotent; God's blessings are 
omnipotent. And those whom we unjustly curse may, in faith, expect and pray 
for God's blessing, his special blessing. When the Pharisees cast out the poor 
man for confessing Christ, Christ found him, Jno. ix. 35. AVhen men, without 
cause, say all the ill they can of us, and wish all the ills they can to us-, we may 
with comfort lift up our heart to God in this petition, "Let them curse, but 
bless thou." He prays, ver. 28, "Let thy servant rejoice." They that know 
how to value God's blessing, let them but be sure of it, and they will be glad 
of it. 

Thirdly. He prays that his enemies might "be ashamed/' ver, 28, "clothed 
with shame," ver. 29, and that they might "cover themselves with their own 
confusion." That they might be left to themselves to do that which would 
expose them, and manifest their folly before alL men ; or rather, that they might 
be disappointed in their designs and enterprises against David, and thereby 
might be filled with shame, as the adversaries of the Jews were, Neh. vi. le>„ 
Nay, in this, he prays that they might be brought to repentance, which is the 
chief thing we should beg of God for our enemies. Sinners indeed bring 
shame upon themselves, but they are true penitents that take shame to them- 
selves, and " cover themselves with them own confusion." 

Fourthly. He pleads God's glory, the honour of his name ; " Do for me, for 
thy name's sake, ver. 21, especially the honour of his goodness, by which he 
hath proclaimed his name; "Deliver me," because " thv mercy is good," that 
is, it is what thou thyself dost delight in, and it is what I do depend upon. 
Save me, not according to my merit, for 1 have none to pretend to, but accord- 
ing to thy mercy ; let that be the fountain, the reason, the measure of my 
salvation. 

Fifthly. He concludes the psalm with joy, the joy of faith,— joy in assurance 
that his present conflicts would end in triumphs. 1. He promiseth God that he 
will praise him ; ver. 30, " I will greatly praise the Lord," not only with my 
heart, but " with my mouth, 1 will praise him," not in secret only, but " among 
the multitude." 2. He promiseth himself that he shall have cause to praise God ; 
ver. 31, " He shall stand at the right hand of the poor," — nigh to him, a present 
help. He shall stand at his right hand as his patron and advocate, to plead his 
cause against his accusers, and to bring him off; "to save him from those that 
condemn his soul," and would execute it if they could. God was David's pro- 
tector in his sufferings, and was present also with the Lord Jesus in his, stood 
at his right hand, so that he was not moved, Ps. xvi. 8; saved his soul from 
those that pretended to be the judges of it, and received it into his own hands. 
Let all those that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of 
their souls to him. 



PSALM CX. 

This psalm is pure Gospel; it is only and wholly concerning Christ the Messiah, promised 
to the fathers, and expected by them. It is plain the Jews of old, even the worst of them, 
so understood it, however the modern Jews have endeavoured to pervert it, and to rob 
us of it ; for when the Lord Jesus proposed a question to the Pharisees upon the first 
words of this psalm, where he takes it for granted that David in spirit calls Christ his 
Lord, though he were his son, they chose rather to say nothing, and to own themselves 
gravelled, than to make it a question whether David doth indeed speak of the Messiah, 
or no ; for they freely yield so plain a truth, though they foresee it will turn to their 
own disgrace, Ma t. xxii. 41, &c. Of him, therefore, no doubt the prophet here speaks, 
of him, and of no other man. Christ as our Redeemer executes the office of a prophet, 
of a priest, and of a king, both in his state of humiliation and exaltation ; and of each 
of these we have here an account: I. His prophetical office, ver. 2. II. His priestly 
office, ver. 4. III. His kingly office, ver. 1, 3, 5, 6. IV. His estates of humiliation 
and exaltation, ver. 7. In singing this psalm we must act faith upon Christ, submit 
ourselves entirely to him, to his grace and government, and triumph in him as our 
prophet, priest, and king, by whom we hope to be ruled and taught, and saved for ever ; 
and as the prophet, priest, and king of the whole church, who shall reign till he has put 
down all opposing rule, principality and power, and delivered up the kingdom to God 
the Father. 



PSALM CX. 



537 



A Psalm of David. 

THE Lord said unto my Lord, 
Sit thou at my right hand, 
Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. 

2 The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion : 
Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. 

3 Thy people shall he willing in the day of thy power, 

In the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning : 
Thou hast the dew of thy youth. 

4 The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, 

Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. 

Some have called this psalm David's creed ; almost all the articles of the 
Christian faith being found in it. The title calls it David's psalm; for in the 
believing foresight of the Messiah he both praised God and solaced himself ; 
much more may we in singing of it, to whom that is fulfilled, and therefore 
more clearly revealed, which is here foretold. Glorious things are here spoken 
of Christ, and such as oblige us to consider how great he is. 

First, fie is David's Lord. We must take special notice of this, because he 
himself doth ; Mat. xxiv. 44, " David in spirit calleth him Lord." And as the 
apostle proves the dignity of Melchizedek, and in him of Christ, by this, that 
so great a man as Abraham was paid him tithes, Heb. vii. 4, so we may with 
this prove the dignity of the Lord Jesus, that David, that great man, called him 
his Lord. By him that king acknowledges himself to reign, and to him to be 
acceptable as a servant to his Lord. Some think he calls him his Lord because 
he was the Lord that was to descend from him ; his Son, and yet his Lord. 
Thus his immediate mother calls him her Saviour, Lu. vii. 47 ; even his parents 
were his sublets, — his saved ones. 

Secondly. 'He is constituted a sovereign Lord by the counsel and decree of 
God himself ; " The Lord, Jehovah, said unto him, ' Sit as a king. He receives 
of the Father this honour and glory, 2 Pet. i. 17, from him who is the fountain 
of honour and power, and takes it not to himself. He is therefore rightful 
Lord, and his title is incontestable ; for what God hath said cannot be gainsaid. 
He is therefore everlasting Lord; for what God hath said shall not be unsaid, 
He will certainly take and keep possession of that kingdom which the Father 
has committed to him, and none can hinder. 

Thirdly. He was to be advanced to the highest honour, and intrusted with 
an absolute sovereign power, both in heaven and in earth ; " Sit thou at my right 
hand." Sitting is a resting posture. After his services and sufferings, he 
entered into rest from all his labours. It is a ruling posture, fit to give law, 
to give judgment. It is a remaining posture ; he sits like a king for ever. 
Sitting at the right hand of God notes both his dignity and his dominion ; the 
honour put upon him, and the trusts reposed in him by the Father. All the 
favours that come from God to man, and all the service that comes from man 
to God, passeth through his hand. 

Fourthly. All his enemies were in due time to be made his footstool, and not 
till then ; but then also he must reign, in the glory of the Mediator, though the 
work of the Mediator will be much at an end. Note, 1. Even Christ himself 
has enemies that fight against his kingdom and subjects — his honour and 
interest in the world. There are those that will not have him to reign over 
them, and thereby they join themselves to Satan, who will not have him to 
reign at all. 2. Ihese enemies will be made his footstool. He will subdue 
them, and triumph over them ; he will do it easily, as easily as we put a foot- 
stool in its proper place ; and such a decorum there will be in it. He will make 
himself easy by the doing it, as a man that sits with a footstool under his feet ; 
he will subdue them in such a way as shall be most for his honour, and their 
perpetual disgrace ; he will tread down the wicked, Ma-, iv. 3. 3. God the 
Father has undertaken to do it, " I will make them thy footstool," who can do 
it. 4. It will not be done presently. All his enemies are now in a chain, but 
not yet made his footstool. This the apostle observes, Heb. ii. 8, " We see not 
yet all things put under him." Christ himself must wait for the completing of 
his victories and triumphs. 5. He shall reign till it is done, and all their might 
and malice shall not give the least disturbance to his government. His sitting 
at God"s right hand is a pledge to Mm of his setting his feet at last on the 
necks of all his enemies. 



538 PSALM CX. 

Fifthly. That he should have a kingdom set up in the world, beginning at 
Jerusalem ; ver. 2, " The Lord shall send the rod," or sceptre, " of thy strength 
out of Zion," by which thy kingdom shall be erected, maintained, and adminis- 
tered. The Messiah, when he sits on the right hand of the Majesty in the 
heavens, will have a church on earth, and will have an eye to it; for he is 
" King upon the holy hill of Zion," Ps. ii. 6, in opposition to mount Sinai, that 
frightful mountain, on which the law was given, Heb. xii. 18, 24 ; Gal. iv. 24, 25. 
The kingdom of Christ took rise from Zion, the city of David; for he was the 
Son of David, and was to have the throne of his father David. By the rod of 
his strength, or his strong rod, is meant his everlasting Gospel, and the power 
of the Holy Ghost going along with it ; the report of the Word, and the arm 
of the Lord accompanying it, Isa. liii. 1; Rom. i. 16; the Gospel coming both 
in word and in power, and in the Holy Ghost, 1 Thes. i. 5. By the Word and 
Spirit of God souls were to be reduced first and brought into obedience to God. 
and then ruled and governed according to the will of God. This strong rod 
God sent forth; he poured out the Spirit, and gave both commissions and 
qualifications to them that preached the Word, and ministered the Spirit, 
Gal. iii. 5. It was sent out of Zion ; for there the Spirit was given, and there 
the preaching of the Gospel among all nations must begin, at Jerusalem : see 
Lu. xxiv. 47, 49. Out of Zion must go forth the law of faith, Isa. ii. 3. Note, 
The Gospel of Christ being sent of God. is mighty through God to do won- 
ders, 2 Cor. x. 4 ; it is the rod of Christ's strength. Some make it to allude 
not only to the sceptre of a prince, noting the glory of Christ shining in his 
Gospel, but to a shepherd's crook; his rod and staff, noting the tender care 
Christ takes of his church, for he is both the great and the good Shepherd. 

Sixthly. That this kingdom being set up, shall be maintained and kept up in 
the world in despite of all the oppositions of the power of darkness. 1. Christ 
shall rule, shall give laws, and govern his subjects by them, shall perfect them, 
and make them easy and happy ; snail do his own will, fulfil his own counsels, 
and maintain his own interests among men. His kingdom is of God, and it shall 
stand; his crown sits fast on his head, and there it shall flourish. 2. He shall 
rule in the midst of his enemies. He sits in heaven in the midst of his friends ; 
his throne of glory there is surrounded with none but faithful worshippers or 
him, Rev. v. 11. But he rules on earth in the midst of his enemies, and his 
throne of government here is surrounded with those that hate him, and fight 
against him. Christ's church is a lily among thorns, and his disciples are sent 
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. He knows where they dwell, even 
where Satan's seat is, Rev. ii. 13. And this redounds to his honour, that he not 
only keeps his ground, but gains his point, maugre all the malignant policies 
and powers of hell and earth, which cannot shake the rock on which the 
church is built. ' Great is the truth, and will prevail.' 

Seventhly. That he should have a great number of subjects, that should be 
to him for a name and a praise, ver. 3. 

1. That they should be his own people, and such as he should have an incon- 
testable title to. They are given to him by the Father, who gave them their 
lives and beings, and to whom their lives and beings were forfeited ; " Thine 
they were, and tnou gavest them me," Jno. xvii. 6. They are redeemed by him ; 
he has purchased them to be to himself a peculiar people, Tit. ii. 14. They are 
his by right, antecedent to their consent ; he had much people in Corinth before 
they were converted, Acts xviii. 10. 

2. That they should be a willing people, a people of willingness; alluding to 
servants that choose their service, and are not captivated to it ; they love their 
masters, and w r ould not go out free. To soldiers that are volunteers, and not 
pressed men ; Here am I, send me. To sacrifices that are free-will offerings, 
and not offered of necessity ; we present ourselves living sacrifices. Note, 
Christ's people are a willing people. The conversion of a soul consists in its 
being willing to be Christ's, coming under his yoke, and into his interests, with 
an entire compliancy and satisfaction. 

3. That they should be so "in the day of his power;" 'in the day of thy 
muster,' so some. When thou art listing soldiers, thou shalt find a multitude 
of volunteers forward to be listed ; let but the standard be set up and the 
Gentiles will seek to it, Isa. xi. 10; lx. 3. Or, when thou art drawing them out 
to battle, they shall be willing to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes, 
Rev. xiv. 4. 1 In the day of thine armies,' so some. When the first preachers 
of the Gospel were sent forth, as Christ's armies, to reduce apostate men, and 
to ruin the kingdom of apostate angels, then all that are " thy people shall be 
willing," that will be thy time of setting up thy kingdom. ' In the day of thy 
strength/ so we take it. There is a general power, which goes along with the 
Gospel to all, proper to make them willing to be Christ's people, arising 
from the supreme authority of its great Author, and the intrinsic excellency 
of the things themselves contained m it, besides the undeniable miracles that 
were wrought for the confirmation of it. And there is also a particular power, 
the power of the Spirit, going along with the power of the Word to the people 



PSALM CX. 539 

of Christ, which is effectual to make them willing. The former leaves sinners 
without matter of excuse ; this leaves saints without matter of boasting. Who- 
ever are willing to be Christ's people, it is the free and mighty grace of God 
that makes them so. 

4. That they should be so "in the beauty of holiness ;" that is. 1st. They 
shall be allured to him by "the beauty of holiness ;" they shall be charmed into 
a subjection to Christ, by the sight given them of his beauty, who is the holy 
Jesus, and the beauty of the church, which is the holy nation. 2nd. They shall 
be admitted by him into the beauty of holiness, as spiritual priests, to minister 
in his sanctuary ; for by the blood of Jesus we have boldness to enter into the 
holiest. 3rd. They shall attend upon him in the beautiful attire or ornaments 
of grace and sanctification. Note, Holiness is the livery of Christ's family, and 
that which becomes his house for ever. Christ's soldiers are all thus clothed ; 
these are the colours they wear. The armies of heaven follow him in fine linen, 
clean and white, Rev. xix. 14. 

5. That he should have great numbers of people devoted to him. The multi- 
tude of the people is the honour of the prince, and that shall be the honour of 
this prince. " From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth," 
that is abundance of young converts, like the drops of dew in a summer's 
morning. In the early days of the Gospel, in the morning of the New Testa- 
ment, the youth of the church, great numbers flocked to Christ, and there were 
multitudes that believed ; a remnant of Jacob, that was as a dew from the Lord, 
Mic. v. 7 ; Isa. lxiv. 4, 8. Or thus, "From the womb of the morning," that is, 
from their very childhood, thou hast the dew of thy people's youth ; that is, 
their hearts and affections when they are young ; it is thy youth, because it is 
dedicated to thee. The dew of the youth is a numerous, illustrious, hopeful 
show of young people flocking to Christ, which should be to the world as 
dew to trie ground, to make it fruitful. Note, The dew of our youth, even 
in the morning of our days, ought to be consecrated to our Lord Jesus. 

Eighthly. That he should be not only a king, but a priest, ver. 4. The same 
Lord that said, " Sit thou at my right hand, sware, and will not repent. Thou 
art a priest;" that is, Be thou a priest; for by the word of this oath ne was 
consecrated. Note, 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a priest. He was appointed 
to that office, and faithfully executes it. He is " ordained for men, in things 
pertaining to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin," Heb. v. 1 ; to make 
atonement for our sins, and to recommend our services to God's acceptance. 
He is God's minister to us, and our advocate with God, and so is a Mediator 
between us and God. 2. He is "a priest for ever." He was designed for a 
priest in God's eternal counsels ; he was a priest to the Old Testament saints, 
and will be a priest for all believers to the end of time, Heb. xiii. 8. He is said 
to be a priest" for ever, not only because we are never to expect any other 
dispensation of grace but this by the priesthood of Christ, but because the 
blessed fruits and consequences of it will remain to eternity. 3. He is made 
a priest with an oath, which the apostle urgeth to prove the preeminence of his 
priesthood above that of Aaron, Heb. vii. 20, 21. " The Lord hath sworn," to 
shew that in the commission there was no implicit reserve of a power of 
revocation, for he " will not repent," as he did concerning Eli's priesthood, 
1 Sam. ii. 30. This was intended for the honour of Christ, and the comfort 
of Christians. The priesthood of Christ is confirmed by the highest ratifica- 
tions possible, that it may be an unshaken foundation for our faith and hope 
to build upon. 4. He is a priest, not of the order of Aaron, but that of Mel- 
chizedek, which, as it was prior, so it was upon many accounts superior, to that 
of Aaron, and a more lively representation of Christ's priesthood ; Melehizedek 
was a priest upon his throne, so is Christ, Zee. vi. 13; king of righteousness 
and king of peace. Melehizedek had no successor, nor hath Christ ; his is an 
unchangeable priesthood. The apostle comments largely upon these words, 
Heb. vii., and builds on them his discourse of Christ's priestly office, which he 
shews was no new notion, but built upon this most sure word of prophecy ; 
for as the New Testament explains the Old so the Old Testament confirms the 
New, and Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of both. 

5 The Lord at thy right hand 

Shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. 

6 He shall judge among the heathen, 

He shall fill the ^places with the dead bodies ; 
He shall wound the heads over many countries. 

7 He shall drink of the brook in the way ; 
Therefore shall he lift up the head. 



540 PSALM CX. 

Here we have our great Redeemer, 

First. Conquering his enemies, ver. 5, 6, in order to the making them his foot- 
stool, ver. I. > Our Lord Jesus will certainly bring to nought all the opposition 
made to his kingdom, and bring to ruin all those who make that opposition, and 
persist in it. He will be too hard for those, whoever they be, that fight against 
him, against. his subjects, and the interests of his kingdom among men, either by 
persecutions or by perverse disputings. Observe here, 

1. The conqueror, "The Lord," Adonai ; the Lord Jesus, he to whom all 
judgment is committed, he shall make his own part good against his enemies ; 
" The Lord at thy right hand,"0 church (so some) ; that is, the Lord that is nigh 
unto his people, and a very present help to them, that is at their right hand to 
strengthen and succour them, shall appear for them against his and their enemies : 
see Ps. cix. 31, " He shall stand at the right hand of the poor ;" Ps. xvi. H, 
Some observe, that when Christ is said to do his work at the right hand of his 
church, it intimates that if we would have Christ to appear for us, we must 
bestir ourselves, 2 Sam. v. 24. Or, rather, "At thy right hand," O God, 
referring to ver. 1, in the dignity and dominion to which he is advanced. Note, 
Christ sitting at the right hand of God speaks as much terror to his enemies as 
happiness to his people. 

2. The time fixed for this victory ; " In the day of his wrath," that is, the time 
appointed for it ; when the measure of their iniquities is full, and they are ripe 
for ruin. When the day of his patience is expired, then the day of his wrath 
comes. Note, 1st, Christ has wrath of his own as well as grace. It concerns 
us to kiss the Son, for he can be angry, Ps. ii. 12. And we read of the wrath uf 
the Lamb, Rev. vi. 16. 2nd. There is a day of wrath set ; " a year of recompences 
for the controversy of Zion, the year of the redeemed." The time is set for the 
destruction of particular enemies, and when that time is come it shall be done, 
how unlikely soever it may seem; but the great day of his wrath will be at the 
end of time. Rev. vi. 17. 

3. The extent of this victory. 1st. It shall reach very high. He "shall strike 
through kings." The greatest of men that set themselves against Christ shall 
be made to fall before him; though they be kings of the earth, and rulers, that 
use to carry their point, they cannot carry it against Christ, they do but make 
themselves ridiculous by the attempt, Ps. ii. 1 — 5. Be their power among men 
never so despotic, Christ will call them to account ; be their strength never so 
great, their policies never so deep, Christ will be too hard for them, and above 
them, wherein they deal proudly. Satan is the prince of this world, Death the 
king of terrors, and we read of kings that make war with the Lamb ; but tbey 
shall all be brought down and broken. 2nd. It shall reach very far. The 
trophies of Christ's victories will be set up among the heathen, and in many 
countries, wherever any of his enemies are ; not his eye only, but his hand shall 
find them out, Ps. xxi. 8, and his wrath shall follow them. He will plead with 
all nations, Joel iii. 2. 

4. The equity of this victory. "He shall judge among them." It is not a 
military execution, which is done in fury, but a judicial one. Before he con- 
demns and slays he will judge, that is, he will make it to appear that they have 
brought this ruin upon themselves, and have themselves rolled the stone w hich 
returns upon them, that he may be justified w T hen he speaks, and the heavens 
may declare his righteousness : see Rev. xix. 1, 2. 

5. The effect of this victory. It shall be the complete and utter ruin of all 
his enemies. He shall strike them through, for he strikes home, and gives an 
incurable wound; "he shall wound the heads," which seems to refer to the first 
promise of the Messiah, Gen. iii. 11, that he should bruise the serpent's head. 
He shall wound the head of his enemies, Ps. lxviii. 21. Some read it, He shall 
wound him that is the head over many countries ; either Satan or Antichrist, 
whom " the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth." He shall make 
such destruction of his enemies, that "he shall fill the places with the dead 
bodies." "The slain of the Lord shall be many:" see Isa. xxxiv. 3. &c; 
JEze. xxxix. 12 — 14 ; Rev. xiv. 20, xix. 17. The filling of the valley (for so some 
read it) with dead bodies, perhaps notes the filling of hell, (which is sometimes 
compared to the valley of Hinnom, Isa. xxx. 33 ; Jer. vii. 32,) with damned 
souls, for that will be the portion of those that persist in their enmity to Christ. 

Secondly. We have here the Redeemer saving his friends and comforting 
them, ver. 7 ; for their benefit, 

l. He shall be humbled. " He shall drink of the brook in the way :" that is, 
that bitter cup which the Father put into his hand. He shall be so abased and 
impoverished, and withal so intent upon his work, that he shall drink puddle- 
water out of the lakes in the highway, so some. The wrath of God, running in 
the channel of the curse of the law, was " the brook in the w r ay," in the way of 
his undertaking, which he must go through with ; or which ran in the way of our 
salvation, and obstructed it, which lay between us and heaven. Christ drank of 
this brook when he was made a curse for us \ and therefore, when he entered 



p 



PSALM CXI. 541 

upon his suffering, he " went over the brook Kidron " Jno. xviii. 1. He drank 
deep of this black brook, (so Kidron signifies,) this bloody brook ; so drank of 
the brook in the way, as to take it out of the way of our redemption and sal- 

Vl 2 10 He shall be exalted ; " Therefore shall he lift up the head." When he died 
he bowed the head, Jno. xix. 30, but he soon lifted up the head by his own power 
in his resurrection, He lifted up the head as a conqueror, yea, more than a 
conqueror This notes not only his exaltation, but his exultation ; not only his 
elevation, but his triumph in it; Col. ii. 15, " Having spoiled principalities and 
powers, he made a show of them." David spoke as a type of him in this, 
Ps xxvii. 6 " Now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies. _ His 
exaltation was the reward of his humiliation; because "he humbled himself 
therefore God also has highly exalted him," Phil. ii. 9. Because he drunk of 
the brook in the way. therefore he lifted up his own head, and so lilted up 
the heads of all his faithful followers, who if they suffer with him shall also 
reign with him. 

PSALM CXI. 

This, and divers of the psalms that follow it, seem to have been penned by David, for the 
service of the church in their solemn feasts, and not upon any particular occasion. This 
is a psalm of praise; the title of it is "Hallelujah ; Praise ye the Lord;" intimating, that 
we must address ourselves to the use of this psalm with hearts disposed to praise God. 
It is composed alphabetically, each sentence beginning with a several letter of the 
Hebrew alphabet, in order exactly; two sentences to each verse, and three a piece to the 
two last. The psalmist exhorting to praise God, I. Sets himself for an example, ver. 1. 
1L Furnishes us with matter for praise from the works of God: 1. The greatness of 
his works, and the glory of them; 2. The righteousness of them; 3. The goodness of 
them; 4. The power of them ; 5. The conformity of them to his word of promise; 
6. The perpetuity of them. These observations are intermixed, ver. 2—9. III. He 
recommends the holy fear of God, and a conscientious obedience to his commands, as 
the most acceptable way of praising God, ver. 10. 

EAISE ye the Loeu. 

I will praise the Lord with ?ny whole heart, 
In the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. 

2 The works of the Lord are great, 

Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. 

3 His work is honourable and glorious : 
And his righteousness endureth for ever. 

4 He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered : 
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. 

5 He hath given meat unto them that fear him : 
He will ever be mindful of his covenant. 

The title of the psalm being " Hallelujah the psalmist, as every author 
ought to have, has an eye to his title, and keeps to his text. 

First. He resolves to praise God himself, ver. 1. What duty we call others 
to, we must oblige and excite ourselves to; nay, whatever others do, whether 
they will praise God or no, we and our houses must determine to do it— we and 
our hearts ; for such is the psalmist's resolution here, " I will praise the Lord 
with my whole heart." My heart, my whole heart, being devoted to his honour, 
shall be employed in this work ; and this "in the assembly," or secret, "of 
the upright," in the cabinet council, "and in the congregation" of Israelites. 
Note, W e must praise God both in private and in public, in lesser and greater 
assemblies, in our own families, and in the courts of the Lord's house; but in 
both it is most comfortable to do it in consort with the upright, who will 
heartily join in it. Private meetings for devotion should be kept up as well as 
more public and promiscuous assemblies. 

Secondly. He recommends to us the works of God, as the proper subject of 
our meditations when we are praising him; the dispensations of his providence, 
both towards the world and towards the church, and particular persons. 

1. God's works are very magnificent ; great like himself. There is nothing in 
them that is mean or trifling ; they are the products of infinite wisdom and 
power; and we must say this upon the first view of them, before we come to 
inquire more particularly into them, that "the works of the Lord are great," 
ver. 2. There is something in them surprising, and that strikes an awe upon 
us. All the works of the jLord are spoken of as one, ver. 3. It is his work; 



512 



PSALM CXI. 



such is the beauty and harmony of providence, and so admirably do all its 
dispensations centre in one design. It was " cried to the wheels, O wheel," 
Eze. x. 13. Take all together, and it is honourable and glorious, and such as 
becomes him. 

2. They are entertaining and exercising to the inquisitive. They are " sought 
out of all them that have pleasure therein." Note, 1st. All that truly love God 
have pleasure in his works, and reckon all well that he doeth; nor do their 
thoughts dwell upon any subject with more delight than on the works of God, 
which the more they are looked into the more they give us of a pleasing surprise. 
2nd. They that have pleasure in the works of God will not take up with a super- 
ficial transient view of them, but will diligently search into and observe them. 
In studying both natural and political history, we should have this in our eye, 
to discover the greatness and glory of God's works. 3rd. These works of God 
that are humbly and diligently sought into shall be sought out ; they that seek 
shall find, so some read it ; ' found of all them that have pleasure in them,' or 
found in all their parts, designs, purposes, and several concernments, so Dr. 
Hammond ; for " the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him," Ps. xxv. 14. 

3. They are all just and holy ; " His righteousness endureth for ever." What- 
ever he doth, he never did nor never will do any wrong to any of his creatures ; 
and therefore his works endure for ever, Eccl. iii. 14, because the righteousness 
of them doth so. 

4. They are admirable and memorable, fit to be registered, and kept on 
record. Much that we do is so trifling, that it is not fit to be spoken of, or 
told again, the greatest kindness is to forget it; but notice is to be taken of 
God's works, and an account to be kept of them ; ver. 4, " He hath made his 
wonderful works to be remembered," that is, he hath done that which is 
worthy to be remembered, which cannot but be remembered ; and he hath 
instituted ways and means for the keeping of some of them in remembrance, 
as the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the passover. ' He hath made him 
a memorial by his wonderful works,' so some read it : see Isa. lxiii. 12; by that 
which God did with his glorious arm, he made himself an everlasting name. 

5. They are very kind. In them the Lord shews that he is " gracious and full 
of compassion." As of the works of creation, so of the works of providence^ 
we must say they are not only all very great, but all very good. Dr. Hammond 
takes this to be the name which God has made to himself by his wonderful 
works, the same with that which he proclaimed to Moses, "The Lord God 
is gracious and merciful," Ex. xxxiv. 6. God's pardoning sin is the most won- 
derful of his w r orks, and which ought to be remembered to his giory. It is a 
farther instance of his grace and compassion, that "he hath given meat to them 
that fear him," ver. 5. He gives them their daily bread, food convenient for 
them \ so he doth to others by common providence, but to them that fear him 
he gives it by covenant, and in pursuance of the promise ; for it follows, " he 
will be ever mindful of his covenant," so that they can taste covenant love even 
in common mercies. Some refer this to the manna, with which God fed his 
people Israel in the wilderness; others to the spoil they got from the Egyptians 
when they came out with great substance, according to the promise, Gen. xv. 1*. 
When God brake the heads of leviathan, he gave him to be meat to his people, 
Ps. lxxiv. 14. 'He hath given prey to them that fear him,' so the margin has 
it ; not only fed them, but enriched them, and given their enemies to be a prey- 
to them. 

6. They are earnests of what he will do according to his promise. "He will 
ever be mindful of his covenant," for he has ever been so ; and as he never did 
so he never will let one jot or tittle of it fall to the ground. Though God's 
people have their infirmities, and are often unmindful of his commands, yet 

he will be ever mindful of his covenant." 

6 He hath shewed his people the power of his works, 
That he may give them the heritage of the heathen. 

7 The works of his hands are verity and judgment ; 
All his commandments are sure. 

8 They stand fast for ever and ever, 
And are done in truth and uprightness. 

9 He sent redemption unto his people : 

He hath commanded his covenant for ever : 
Holy and reverend is his name. 
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginmng of wisdom: 



PSALM CXI. 543 
A good understanding have all they that do his com 

mandments : 
His praise endureth for ever. 

We are here taught to give glory to God, 

First. For the great things he has done for his people, for his people Isra©- 
of old and of late. " He hath shewed his people the power of his works,' 
ver. 6, In what he hath wrought for them, many a time, he hath given proofs 
of his omnipotence, and shewed them what he can do, and that there is nothing 
too hard for him to do. Two things are instanced in, to shew the power of his 
works : 

1. The possession God gave to Israel in the land of Canaan ; " That he might 
give them," or " in giving them, the heritage of the heathen." This he did in 
Joshua's time, when the seven nations were subdued; and in David's^ time, 
when the neighbour nations were many of them brought into subjection to 
Israel, and became tributaries to David. Herein God shewed his sovereignty, 
in disposing kingdoms as he pleaseth, and his might in making good his dis- 
posals. If God will make the heritage of the heathen to be the heritage of 
Israel, who can either arraign his counsel or stay his hand? 

2. The many deliverances which he wrought for his people, when by their 
iniquities they had sold themselves into the hand of their enemies ; ver. 9, " He 
sent redemption unto his people," not only out of Egypt at first, but often 
afterwards. And these redemptions were typical of the great redemption, 
which in the fulness of time was to be wrought out by the Lord Jesus, that 
redemption in Jerusalem which so many waited for. 

Secondly. For the stability both of his word and of his works, which assure 
us of the great things he will do for them. 

1. What God hath done shall never be undone. He will not undo it himself, 
and men and devils cannot ; ver. 7, " The works of his hand are verity and 
judgment," that is, ver. 8, " they are done in truth and uprightness ; " all he 
doth is consonant to the eternal rules and reasons of equity, all according to 
the counsel of his wisdom, and the purpose of his will; all well done, and 
therefore there is nothing in them to be altered or amended, but they are firm 
and unchangeable. Upon the beginning of his works we may depend for the 
perfecting of them ; work that is done true will last, will neither go to decay 
nor sink under the stress that is laid upon it. 

What God hath said shall never be unsaid. "All his commandments are 
sure," all straight, and therefore all steady. His purposes, the rule of his 
actions, shall all have their accomplishment ; " hath he spoken, and shall he not 
make it good? " No doubt he shall; whether he commands light or darkness, 
it is done as he commands. His precepts, the rule of our actions, are unques- 
tionably just and good, and therefore unchangeable, and not to be repealed. 
His promises and threatenings are all sure, and will be made good; nor shall 
the unbelief of man make either the one or the other of none effect. They are 
established, and therefore they stand fast for ever and ever, and the Scripture 
cannot be broken. The wise God is never put upon new counsels, nor obliged 
to take new measures, either in his laws or in his providences. All is said as all 
is done, in truth and uprightness, and therefore it is immutable. Men's folly 
and falsehood make them unstable in all their ways ; but infinite wisdom and 
truth for ever exclude retractation and revocation. " He has commanded his 
covenant for ever." God's covenant is commanded, for he has made it as one 
that hath an incontestable authority to prescribe both what we must do and 
what we must expect; and an unquestionable ability to perform both what ht 
has promised in the blessings of the covenant and what he has threatened is* 
the curses of it, Ps. cv. 8. 

Thirdly, For the setting up and establishing religion among men. Because 
holy and reverend is his name, and the fear of him is the beginning of wisdom, 
therefore his praise endureth for ever, that is, he is to be everlastingly praised- 

1. Because the discoveries of religion tend so much to his honour. Review 
what he has made known of himself in his word and in his works, and you 
will see and say that God is great, and greatly to be feared, for his name is 
holy; his infinite purity and rectitude appears in all that whereby he has made 
himself known, and because it is holy, therefore it is reverend, and to be 
thought of and mentioned with a holy awe. Note, What is holy is reverend ; 
the angels have an eye to God's holiness, when they cover their faces before 
him, and nothing is more man's honour than his sanctification. It is in his holy 
places that God appears most terrible, Ps. lxviii. 35 ; Lev. x. 3. 

2. Because the dictates of religion tend so much to man's happiness. We 
have reason to praise God that the matter is so well contrived, that our 
reverence of him and obedience to him is as much our interest as it is our duty. 



544 



PSALM CXIL 



1st. Our reverence of him is so ; " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
wisdom." It is not only reasonable itself that we should fear God because his 
name is reverend and his nature holy, but it is advantageous to us. It is 
wisdom; it will direct us to speak and act as becomes us, in a consistency with 
ourselves, and for our own benefit. It is the head of wisdom, that is, as we 
read it, it is the beginning of wisdom. Men never begin to be wise till they 
begin to fear God. All true wisdom takes its rise from true religion, and has 
its foundation in it : or, as some understand it, it is the chief wisdom and the 
most excellent, the first in dignity. It is the principal wisdom and the prin- 
ciple of wisdom, to worship God and give honour to him as our Father and 
Master. They manage well that always act under the government of his 
holy fear. 

2nd. Our obedience to him is so; "A good understanding have all they that 
do his commandments." Where the fear of the Lord rules in the heart, there 
will be a constant conscientious care to keep his commandments, not to talk of 
them, but to do them, and such have a good understanding ; that is, First. 
They are well understood, their obedience is graciously accepted, as a plain 
indication of their mind, that they do indeed fear God: compare Pr. iii. 4. 
" So shalt thou find favour and good understanding." God and man will 
look upon such as meaning well, and approve of them, who make conscience 
of their duty, though they have their mistakes; what is honestly intended shall 
be well taken. Secondly. They understand well. 1st. It is a sign they do under- 
stand well. The most obedient are accepted as the most intelligent ; those 
understand themselves and their interest best that make God's law their rule, 
and are in every thing ruled by it. A great understanding they have that know 
God's commandments, and can discourse learnedly of them ; but a good under- 
standing have they that do them, and walk according to them. 2nd. It is the 
way to understand better. 'A good understanding are they to all that do 
them;' that is, the fear of the Lord and the laws of that, give men a good 
understanding, and are able to make them wise unto salvation. " If any man 
will do his will, he shall know" more and more clearly "of the doctrine" 
of Christ, Jno. vii. 17. Good success have all they that do them, (so the 
margin,) according to what was promised Joshua, if he would observe to do 
according to the law, Jos. i. 8, " Then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, 
and shalt have good success." We have reason to praise God, to praise him 
for ever, for putting man into such a fair way to happiness. Some apply the 
Jnst words rather to the good man who fears the Lord than to the good God; 
" His praise endures for ever ;" it is not of men, perhaps, but it is of God, 
Rom. ii. 29. And that praise which is of God endures for ever, when the 
praise of men is withered and gone. 



PSALM CXIL 

This psalm is composed alphabetically as the former is, and is (like the former) entitled 
Hallelujah, though it treats of the happiness of the saints, because it redounds to the 
glory of God ; and whatever we have the pleasure of he must have the praise of. It 
is a comment upon the last verse of the foregoing psalm, and fully shews how much it 
is our wisdom to fear God, and do his commandments. We have here, I. The character 
of the righteous, ver. 1. II. The blessedness of the righteous. 1. There is a blessing 
entailed on their posterity, ver. 2. 2. There is a blessing conferred upon themselves : 
1st. Prosperity, outward and inward, ver. 3 ; 2nd. Comfort, ver. 4; 3rd. Wisdom, ver. 5 ; 
4th. Stability, ver. 6—8 ; 5th. Honour, ver. 6—9. II. The misery of the wicked, 
ver. 10. So that here is good and evil set before us, the blessing and the curse. In 
singing this psalm we must not only teach and admonish ourselves and one another 
to answer the characters here given of the happy, but comfort and encourage ourselves 
and one another with the privileges and comforts here secured to the holy. 

PEAISE ye the Lord. 
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, 
That delighteth greatly in his commandments. 

2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth : 

The generation of the upright shall be blessed. 

3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house : 
And his righteousness endureth for ever. 

4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness : 
ITe is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. 



PSALM CXII. 



545 



5 A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth : 
He will guide his affairs with discretion. 

The psalmist begins with a call to us to praise God, but immediately applies 
himself to praise the people of God, for whatever glory is acknowledged to be 
on them, it comes from God, and must return to him. As he is their praise, 
so they are his. We have reason to praise the Lord that there is a people in 
the world that fear him and serve him, and that they are a happy people, both 
which are owing entirely to the grace of God. Now here we have, 

First. A description of those who are here pronounced blessed, and to whom 
these promises are made. 

1. They are well principled with pious and devout affections. Those have 
the privileges of God's subjects, not that cry, Lord, Lord, but are indeed well 
affected to his government. 1st. They^ are such as stand in awe of God, and 
have a constant reverence for his majesty and deference to his will. The 
happy man is he " that feareth the Lord," ver. 1. 2nd. They are such as take 
a pleasure in their duty. He " that feareth the Lord," as a Father, with the dis- 
position of a child, not of a slave, " delighteth greatly in his commandments ;" 
is well pleased with them, and with the equity and goodness of them. They 
are written in his heart; it is his choice to be under them, and he caLls them 
an easy, a pleasant yoke; it is his delight to be searching into and conversing 
with God 5 s commandments, by reading, hearing, and meditation, Ps. i. 2. He 
not only delights in God's promises but in his precepts, and thinks himself 
happy under God's government as well as in his_ favour. It is a pleasure to 
him to be found in the way of his duty, and he is in his element when lie is 
in the service of God. Herein he delights greatly, more than in any of the 
employments and enjoyments of this world. And what he duth in religion is 
done from principle, because he sees amiableness in religion and advantage 
by it. 

2. They are honest and sincere in their professions and intentions. They 
are called the upright, ver. 24, that are really as good as they seem to be, ana 
deal faithfully both with God and man. There is no true religion without 
sincerity ; that is gospel perfection. 

3. They are both just and kind in all their dealings. "He is gracious, full 
of compassion, and righteous," ver. 4; dares not do any wrong to any man, but 
doth to every man all the good he can, and that from a principle of compassion 
and kindness. It was said of God in the foregoing psalm, ver. 4, he is 
gracious and full of compassion ; and here it is said of the good man that he 
is so, for herein we must be followers of God, as dear children, be merciful, 
as he is. He is full of compassion, and yet righteous; what he doth good 
with is what he came honestly by , God hates robbery for burnt offerings, 
and so doth he. One instance is given of his beneficence, ver. 5, "He shews 
favour and lendeth." Sometimes there is as much charity in lending as in 
giving, as it obligeth the borrower both to industry and honesty. He is 
gracious and lendeth, Ps. xxxvii. 26, that is, he doth it from a right principle, 
Lot as the usurer lends for his own advantage, nor merely out of generosity, 
but out of pure charity ; he doth it in a right manner, not grudgingly, but 
pleasantly, and with a cheerful countenance. 

Secondly. The blessedness that is here entailed upon those that answer these 
characters; "Happiness, all happiness, to the man that feareth the Lord/' 
Yv'hatever men think or say of them, God saith they are blessed, and his 
saying so makes them so. 

1. The posterity of a good man shall fare the better for his goodness; ver. 2, 
"His seed shall be mighty on earth ;" perhaps he himself shall not be so great 
in the world, nor make such a figure as his seed after him shall for his sake. 
Religion has been the raising of many a family, if not so as to advance it high, 
yet so as to found it firm. ^Vhen good men themselves are happy in heaven 
their seed perhaps are considerable on earth, and will themselves own it is bj 
virtue of a blessing descending from them. "The generation of the uprigh; 
shall be blessed." If they tread in their steps, they shall be the more blessed 
for their relation to them ; " beloved for the fathers' sakes," Rom. xi. 28, for so 
runs the covenant, et I will be a God to thee and to thy seed ;" while '* the seed 
of evil-doers shall never be renowmed." Let the children of godly parents value 
themselves upon it, and take heed of doing any thing to forfeit the blessing 
entailed upon the generation of the upright. 

2. They shall prosper in the world, and especially their souls shall prosper, 
ver. 3. 1st. They shall be blessed with outward prosperity, as far as is good 
for them. Wealth and riches shall be in the upright man's house, not in his 
heart, for he is none of those in whom the love of money reigns; perhaps not 
much in his hand, (for he only begins to raise the estate,; but in his house, h»s 
family shall grow rich when he is gone. But, 2nd. That which is much better 
is, that they shall be blessed with spiritual blessings, which are the true riches. 
•His wealth shall be in his house, for he must leave that to others ; but fc* 

2 M 



54S PSALM CXIL 

righteousness he himself shall have the comfort of to himself, it endureth for 
ever. Grace is better than gold, for it will outlast it. He shall have wealth 
and riches, and yet shall keep up his religion, and in a prosperous condition 
shall still hold fast his integrity, which many, that kept it in the storm, throw 
off and let go in the sunshine. Then worldly prosperity is a blessing when 
it doth not make men cool in their piety, but they still persevere in that; and 
when this endures in the family and goes along with the wealth and riches, and 
the heirs of his father's estate inherit his virtues too, that is a happy family 
indeed. However, the good man's righteousness endureth for ever, in the 
crown of righteousness which fades not away. 

3. They jhali have comfort in affliction; ver. 4, "Unto the upright there 
ariseth light in the darkness." It is here implied that good men may be in 
affliction ; the promise doth not exempt them from that, they shall have their 
share in the common calamities of human life; but "when they sit in dark- 
ness, the Lord shall be a light to them," Mic. vii. 8. They shall be supported 
and comforted under their troubles; their spirits shall be lightsome, when 
their outward condition is clouded ; Sat lucis intus — 1 There is light enough 
within.' In Egyptian darkness the Israelites had light in their dwellings. 
They shall be in due time, and perhaps when they least expect it, delivered out 
of their troubles; when the night is darkest the day dawns; nay, "at evening 
time," when night was looked for, "it shall be light." 

4. They shall have wisdom for the management of all their concerns, ver. 5. 
He that doth good with his estate God's providence shall increase it, not by 
miracle but by his prudence; "He shall guide his affairs with discretion," and 
"his God doth instruct him to discretion, and teach him," tea. xxviii. 26. 
It is part of the character of a good man, that he will use his discretion in 
managing his affairs, in getting and saving, that he may have to give. It may 
be understood of the affairs of his charity ; ne sheweth favour and lendeth, but 
then it is with discretion, that his charity may not be misplaced, that he may 
give to proper objects what is proper to be given, and in due time and pro- 
portion. And it is part of the promise to him that thus useth discretion, that 
God will give him more. They that most use their wisdom, see most of their 
need of it, and ask it of God, who hath promised to give it liberally, J as. i. 5. 
' He will guide his words with judgment,' so it is in the original ; and there is 
nothing in which we have more occasion for wisdom than in the government 
of the tongue. Blessed is he to whom God gives that wisdom. 

6 Surely he shall not be moved for ever : 

The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. 

7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: 
His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. 

8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, 
Until he see his desire upon his enemies. 

9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor ; 
His righteousness endureth for ever ; 

His horn shall be exalted with honour. 
10 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved ; 

He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away : 
The desire of the wicked shall perish. 

In these verses we have, 

First. The satisfaction of saints and their stability. It is the happiness of a 
good man, that " he shall not be moved for ever," ver. 6. Satan and his instru- 
ments endeavour to move him, but his foundation is firm, and he shall never 
be moved, at least not moved for ever; but if he be shaken for a time, yet he 
settles again presently. 

i. A good man will have a settled reputation, and that is a great satisfaction. 
A good man shall have a good name, that is. a name for good things with God 
and good people. " The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance," 
ver. 6; and in this sense "his righteousness endures for ever," that is, the 
memorial of it, ver. 9. There are those that do all they can to sully his repu- 
tation, and to load him with reproach, but his integrity shall be cleared up, and 
the honour of it shall survive him. Some that have been eminently righteous 
are had in a lasting remembrance on earth ; wherever the Scripture is read, 
their good deeds are told for a memorial of them. And the memory of many a 



PSALM CXII. 



547 



good man that is dead and gone is still blessed; but in heaven their remem- 
brance shall be truly everlasting, and the honour of their righteousness shall 
there endure for ever with the reward of it, in the crown of glory that fadeth 
not away. They that are forgotten on earth and despised are remembered 
there and honoured, and their righteousness found unto praise, and honour, 
and glory, 1 Pet. i. 7. Then at farthest shall the horn of a good man be 
exalted with honour, as that of the unicorn when he is a conqueror. Wicked 
men now in their pride lift up their horns on high, but they shall all be cut off, 
Ps. lxxv. 5 — 10. The godly, in their humility and humiliation, have defiled 
their horn in the dust, Job xvi. 15, but the day is coming when it shall be 
exalted with honour. That which shall especially turn to the honour of good 
men is, their liberality and bounty to the poor. " He hath dispersed, he hath 
given to the poor ;" he hath not suffered his charity to run all in one channel, 
or directed it to some few objects that he had a particular kindness for ; but 
he has dispersed it, given a portion to seven and also to eight, hath sown 
beside all waters, and by thus scattering he hath increased. And this is his 
righteousness which endureth for ever. Alms are called righteousness, not 
because they will justify us by making atonement for our evil deeds, but 
because they are good deeds, which we are obliged to; so that if we are not 
charitable we are not just; we withhold good from those to whom it is due. 
The honour of this endureth for ever, for it shall be taken notice of in the 
great day, " I was an hungry, and ye gave me meat." This is quoted as an 
inducement and encouragement to charity, 2 Cor. ix. 9. 

2. A good man shall have a settled spirit, and that is a much greater satis- 
faction than the former ; for " so shall a man have rejoicing in himself alone, 
and not in another." "Surely he shall not be moved," whatever happens ; not 
moved either from his duty, or from his comfort, for "he shall not be afraid; 
his heart is established," ver. 7, 8. This is a part both of the character and of 
the comfort of good people. It is their endeavour to keep their mind stayed 
upon God, and so to keep them calm, and easy, and undisturbed, and God lias 
promised them both cause to do so and grace to do so. Observe, 1st. It is 
the duty and interest of the people of God not to be afraid of evil tidings, not 
to be afraid of hearing bad news, and when they do, not to be put into con- 
fusion by it, and into an amazing expectation of worse and worse; but whatever 
happens, whatever threatens, to be able to say with blessed Paul, "None of 
these things move me," neither will I fear though the earth be removed, 
Ps. xlvi. 2. 2nd. The fixedness of the heart and the establishment of that is 
a sovereign remedy against the disquieting fear of evil tidings. If we keep our 
thoughts composed and ourselves masters of them, our wills resigned to the 
holy will of God, our tempers sedate, and our spirits even under all the 
unevennesses of providence, we are well fortified against the tosses of the 
timorous. 3rd. Trusting in the Lord is the best and surest way of fixing and 
establishing the heart. By faith we must cast anchor in the promise, in the 
Word of God, and so return to him, and repose in him as our rest. The 
heart of man cannot fix anywhere to its satisfaction but in the truth of God, 
and there it finds firm footing. 4th. They whose hearts are established by faith 
will patiently wait till they have gained their point. " He shall not be afraid 
until he see his desire upon his enemies," that is, till he come to heaven, where 
he shall see Satan and all his spiritual enemies trodden under his feet, and as 
Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore. 1 Until he look upon his 
oppressors,' (so Dr. Hammond,) that is, till he behold them securely, and look 
boldly in their faces, as being now no longer under their power. It will com- 
plete the satisfaction of the saints when they shall look back upon their 
troubles and pressures, and be able to say with St. Paul, when he had recounted 
the persecutions he endured, 2 Tim. iii. 11, "But out of them all the Lord 
delivered me." 

2. The vexation of sinners, ver. 10. Two things shall fret them: 1st. The 
felicity of the righteous. "The wicked shall see" the righteous in prosperity 
and honour, "and shall be grieved;" it will vex them to see their innocency 
cleared, and their low estate regarded, and those whom they hated and despised, 
and whose ruin they sought, and hoped to see, the favourites of Heaven, and 
advanced to have dominion over them, Ps. xlix. 14. This will make them gnash 
with their teeth and pine away. This is often fulfilled in this world. The 
happiness of the saints is the envy of the wicked, and that envy is the rotten- 
ness of their bones. But it will be most fully accomplished in the other world, 
when it shall make damned sinners gnash with their teeth to see Abraham afar 
off, and Lazarus in his bosom; to see all the prophets in the kingdom of God, 
and themselves thrust out. 2nd. Their own disappointment. "The desire of 
the wicked shall perish;" their desire was wholly to the world and the flesh, 
and they ruled over them ; and therefore when these perish their joy is gone, 
and their expectations from them are cut off, to their everlasting confusions 
their hope is as a spider's web. 



548 PSALM CXIII. 

This psalm begins and ends with Hallelujah; for, as many others, it is designed to pro- 
mote the great and good work of praising God. I. We are here called upon and urged 
to praise God, ver. 1—3. II. We are here furnished with matter for praise, and words 
are put into our mouths ; in singing which we must with holy fear and love give to God 
the glory of, 1. The elevations of his glory and greatness, ver. 4, 5; 2. The condescen- 
sions of his grace and goodness, ver. 6—9, which very much illustrate one another, 
that we may be duly affected with both. 

PRAISE ye the Lord. 
Praise, 0 ye servants of the Lord, 
Praise the name of the Lord. 

2 Blessed be the name of the Lord 

Prom this time forth and for evermore. [same 

3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the 
The Lord's name is to be praised. 

4 The Lord is high above all nations, 
And his glory above the heavens. 

5 Who is like unto the Lord our God, 
Who dwelleth on high, 

6 Who humbleth himself to behold 

The things that are in heaven, and in the earth ! 

7 He raise th up the poor out of the dust, 
And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill ; 

8 That he may set him with princes, 
Even with the princes of his people. 

9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, 
And to be a joyful mother of children. 
Praise ye the Lord. 

In this psalm, 

First. We are exhorted to give glory to God, to give him the glory due to his 
name. The invitation is very pressing, "Praise ye the Lord;" and again, and 
again, "Praise him, praise him: blessea be his name," for it is to be praised, 
ver. 1 — 3. This intimates, 1. That it is a necessary and most excellent duty, 
greatly pleasing to God, and has a large room in religion. 2. That it is a duty 
which we should much abound in, in which we should be frequently employed, 
and greatly enlarged. 3. That it is work we are very backward to, and which 
we need to be engaged and excited to by precept upon precept, and line upon 
line. 4. That those who are much in praising God themselves will court others 
to it, both because they find the weight of the work, and that there is need of 
all the help they can fetch in — there is employment for all hearts, all hands, and 
all little enough— and because they find the pleasure of it, which they wish all 
their friends may share in. Observe, 

1. Prom whom God hath praise. _ From his own people; they are here called 
upon to praise God as those that will answer the call, "Praise, O ye servants of 
the Lord." They have most reason to praise him ; for they that attend him as his 
servants know him best, and receive most of his favours ; and it is their busi- 
ness to praise him. That is the work required of them as his servants ; it is easy, 
pleasant work, to speak well of their Master, and do him what honour they can. 
If they do not, who should? Some understand it of the Levites ; but if so, all 
Christians are " a royal priesthood, to shew forth the praises of him that has 
called them," 1 Pet. ii. 9. The angels are " the servants of the Lord," who. 
though they need not be called upon by us to praise God, yet it is a comfort to 
us that they do it better than we can. _ 

2. From whom he ought to have praise. < 

1st. From all ages ; ver. 2, " From this time forth for evermore." Let not this 
work die with us, but let us be doing it in a better world, and let those that 
come after us be doing it in this. Let not our seed degenerate, but let God be 
praised through all the generations of time, and not in this only. We must 



PSALM CXIII. 549 

bless the Lord in our day, by saying with the psalmist, Blessed be his name now 
and always. 

2nd. From all places: "From the rising of the sun to the going down of the 
same," that is, throughout all the habitable world. Let all that enjoy the 
benefit of the sun-rising, (and those that do so must count upon it that he will 
set,) give thanks for that light to the Father of lights. " God's name is to be 
praised," that is, it ought to be praised by all nations; for in every place, from 
east to west, there appear the manifest proofs and products of his wisdom, 
power, and goodness ; and it is to be lamented that so great a part of mankind 
are ignorant of him, and give that praise to others which is due to him alone. 
But perhaps there is more in it : as the former verse gave us a glimpse of the 
kingdom of glory, intimating that God's name shall be blessed for ever, when 
time shall be no more, that praise shall be the work of heaven, so this verse 
gives us a glimpse of the kingdom of grace in the Gospel dispensation of it, 
when the church shall no longer be confined to the Jewish nation, but shall 
spread itself all the world over, when " in every place" spiritual "incense shall 
be offered to our God," Mai. i. 11 ; then "from the rising to the setting of the 
sun the Lord's name shall be praised" by some in all countries. 

Secondly. We are here directed what to give him the glory of. 

1. Let us look up with an eye of faith, and see how high his glory is in the upper 
world, and mention that to his praise, ver. 4, 5. We are in our praises to exalt 
his name; for he is high, his glory is high. 1st. High above all nations ; their 
kings, though never so pompous ; their people, though never so numerous. 
Whether it be true of an earthly king or no, that though he is major singulis, — 
'greater than individuals,' he is minor universis, — 'less than the whole.' we will 
not dispute; but we are sure it is not true of the King of kings. Put all the 
nations together and he is above them all ; and they are before him as " the 
drop of the bucket, and the small dust of the balance," Isa. xl. 15, 17. Let all 
nations think and speak highly of God, for he is high above them all. 2nd. High 
above the heavens; the throne of his glory is in the highest heavens; which 
should raise our hearts in praising him, Lam. iii. 41. " His glory is above the 
heavens," that is, above the angels ; he is above what they are, their brightness 
is nothing to his ; above what they do. for they are under his command, and do 
his pleasure; and above what even tney can speak him to be. He is " exalted 
above all blessing and praise," not only all ours, but all theirs. We must there- 
fore say with a holy admiration, "Who is like unto the Lord our God?" 
Who of all the princes and potentates of the earth ? Who of all the bright and 
blessed spirits above? None can equal him, none dare compare with him. 
God is to be praised as transcendently, incomparably, and infinitely great; for 
he dwelleth on high, and from on high sees all, and rules all, and justly attracts 
all praise to himself. 

2. Let us look round with an eye of observation, and see how extensive his 
goodness is in the lower world, and mention that to his praise. He isa God 
* who exalteth himself to dwell, who humbleth himself in heaven, and in earth.' 
Some think here is a transposition, ' He exalteth himself to dwell in heaven, he 
humbleth himself to behold on earth :' but the sense is plain enough as we take 
it; only observe, God is said to exalt himself, and to humble himself; both are 
his own act and deed ; as he is self-existent, so he is both the fountain of his 
own honour and the spring of his own grace. God's condescending goodness 
appears, 

1st. In the cognizance he takes of the world below him. His glory is above 
the nations and above the heavens, and yet neither are neglected by him; God 
is great, yet he despiseth not any, Job xxxvi. 5. " He humbleth himself to 
behold" all his creatures, all his subjects, though he be infinitely above them. 
Considering the infinite perfection, sufficiency and felicity of the Divine nature, 
it must be acknowledged an act of wonderful condescension that God is 
pleased to take into the thoughts of his eternal counsel, and into the hand of 
his universal providence, both the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the 
earth, Dan. iv. 35. Even in this dominion he humbleth himself. First. It is 
condescension in him to behold the things in heaven, to support the beings, 
direct the motions, and accept the praises and services of the angels them- 
selves; for he needs them not, nor is benefited by them. Secondly. Much more 
is it condescension in him to behold the things that are in the earth, to visit the 
sons of men, and regard them, to order and overrule their affairs, and to take 
notice of what they say and do, that he may fill the earth with his goodness, 
and so set us an example of stooping to do good, of taking notice of and con- 
cerning ourselves about our inferiors. If it be such condescension for God to 
behold things in heaven and earth, what an amazing condescension was it for 
the Son of God to come from heaven to earth, and take our nature upon him, 
that he might seek and save them that were lost! Herein indeed he humbled 
himself. 

2nd. In the particular favour he sometimes shews to the least and lowest oi 



660 PSALM CXIV. 

the inhabitants of this lesser lower world. He not only beholds the great 
things in the earth, but the meanest, and those things which great men com- 
monly overlook. Nor doth he only behold them, but doth wonders for them, 
and things that are very surprising, out of the common road of providence and 
chain of causes; which shews that the world is governed not by a course of 
nature, for that would always run in the same channel, but by a God of nature, 
who delights in doing things we looked pot for. 

First. Those that have been long despicable are sometimes on a sudden made 
honourable ; ver. 7, 8, " He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, that he may set 
him with princes." 1st. Thus God doth sometimes magnify himself, and his 
own wisdom, power, and sovereignty. When he hath some great work to do, he 
chooseth to employ those in it that were least likely, and least thought of, for 
it, by themselves or others, to the highest post of honour; Gideon is fetched 
from threshing, Saul from seeking the asses, and David from keeping the sheep : 
the apostles from fishing sent to be fishers of men. The treasure of the Gospel 
is put into earthen vessels, and the weak and foolish ones of the world pitched 
upon to be the preachers of it, to confound the wise and mighty, 1 Cor. i. 27, 28; 
that the excellency of the power may be of God, and all may see that promo- 
tion comes from him. 2nd. Thus God doth sometimes reward the eminent 
piety and patience of his people that have long groaned under the burthen of 
poverty and disgrace. When Joseph's virtue was tried and manifested, he was 
raised from the prison dust, and set with princes. They that are wise will 
observe such returns of Providence, and will understand by them the loving- 
kindness of the Lord. Some have applied this to the work of redemption by 
Jesus Christ, and not unfitly, for through him poor fallen men are raised out 
of the dust, (one of the Jewish rabbins applies it to the resurrection of the 
dead,) nay, out of the dunghill of sin, and set among princes, among angels, 
those princes of his people. Hannah had sung to this purpose, 1 Sam. ii. 6 8. 

Secondly. Those that have been long barren are sometimes on a sudden made 
fruitful, ver. 9. This may look back to Sarah, and Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, 
and Samson's mother, or forward to Elizabeth ; and many such instances there 
have been, in which God has looked on the affliction of his handmaids, and 
taken away their reproach. "He maketh the barren woman to keep house," 
not only builds up the family, but thereby finds the heads of the family some- 
thing to do. Note, They that have the comfort of a family must take the care 
of it; bearing children and guiding the house are put together, 1 Tim. v. 14. 
When God sets the barren in a family, he expects that she look well to the 
ways of her household, Pr. xxxi. 27. She is said to be "a joyful mother of 
children," not only because even in common cases the pain is forgotten for joy 
that a man child is born into the world, but there is particular joy when a 
child is born to those that have been long childless, as Lu. i. 14, and therefore 
there ought to be particular thanksgiving ; " Praise ye the Lord." Yet in this 
case rejoice with trembling, for though the sorrowful mother be made joyful, 
the joyful mother may be made sorrowful again, if the children be either 
removed from her or embittered to her. This therefore may be applied to the 
Gospel church among the Gentiles, the building of which is illustrated by this 
similitude, Isa. liv. I, " Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear;" Gal. iv. 27. 
For which we, that being sinners of the Gentiles are children of the desolate, 
have reason to say, " Praise ye the Lord." 



PSALM CXIV. 

The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt gave birth to their church and nation, which was 
then founded, then formed ; that work of wonder ought therefore to be had in everlast- 
ing remembrance. God gloried in it in the preface to the ten commandments, and 
Hos. xi. 1, " Out of Egypt have I called my son." In this psalm it is celebrated in 
lively strains of praise; it was fitly therefore made a part, of the great Hallelujah, or 
song of praise which the Jews were wont to sing at the close of the passover supper. It 
must never be forgotten, I. That they were brought out of slavery, ver. 1. II. That 
God set up his tabernacle among them, ver. 2. III. That the sea and Jordan were 
divided before them, ver. 3 — 5. IV. That the earth shook at the giving the law, when 
God came down on mount Sinai, ver. 4, 6, 7. V. That God gave them water out of the 
rock, ver. 8. In singing this we must acknowledge God's power and goodness in what 
he did for Israel, applying it to the much greater work of wonder, our redemption by 
Christ, and encouraging ourselves and others to trust in God in the greatest straits. 

WHEN Israel went out of Egypt, 
The house of Jacob from a people of strange language; 
2 Judah was his sanctuary, 
And Israel his dominion. 



PSALM CXIY. 



551 



3 The sea saw it, and fled : 
Jordan was driven back. 

4 The mountains skipped like rams, 
And the little hills like lambs. 

5 What ailed thee, 0 thou sea, that thou fleddest ? 
Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back ? 

6 Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams ; 
And ye little hills, like lambs ? 

7 Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, 
At the presence of the God of Jacob ; 

8 Which turned the rock into a standing water, 
The flint into a fountain of waters. 

The psalmist is here remembering the days of old, the years of the right hand 
of the Most High, and the wonders which their fathers told them of, Jud. vi. 13, 
for time, as it doth not wear out the guilt of sin, so it should not wear out the 
sense of mercy. Let it never be forgotten, 

First. That God brought Israel out of the house of bondage with a high 
hand, and a stretched-out arm. " Israel went out of Egypt," ver. 1. They did 
not steal out clandestinely, nor were they driven out, but fairly went out; 
marched out with all the marks of honour. They went out from a barbarous 
people, that had used them barbarously; " from a people of a strange language," 
IPs. ixxxi. 5. The Israelites, it seems, preserved their own language pure 
among them, and cared not for learning the language of their oppressors. By 
which distinction from them they kept up an earnest of their deliverance. 

Secondly. That he himself framed their civil and sacred constitution ; ver. 2, 
"Judah and Israel were his sanctuary, his dominion," that is, when he delivered 
them out of the hand of their oppressors, it was that they might serve him. 
both in holiness and in righteousness, in the duties of religious worship, ana 
in obedience to the moral law in their whole conversation. "Let my people go 
that they may serve me." In order to this, 1. He set up his sanctuary among 
them, in which he gave them the special tokens of his presence with them, and 
promised to receive their homage and tribute. Happy the people that have 
God's sanctuary among them, (see Ex. xxv. 8; Eze. xxxvii. 26,) much more they 
that, like Judah here, are his sanctuaries, his living temples, on whom holiness 
to the Lord is written. 2. He set up his dominion among them, was himself 
their lawgiver and their judge; and their government was a theocracy; 'The 
Lord was their king." All the world is God's dominion, but Israel was so in a 

Eeculiar manner. What is God's sanctuary must be his dominion ; those only 
ave the privileges of his house that submit to the laws of it; and for this end 
Christ hath redeemed us, that he might bring us into God's service, and engage 
us for ever in it. 

Thirdly. That the Red sea was divided before them at their coming out of 
Egypt, both for their rescue and the ruin of their enemies ; and the river 
Jordan, when they entered into Canaan, for their honour, and the confusion 
and terror of their enemies; ver. 3, "The sea saw it," saw there Judah was 
God's sanctuary, and Israel his dominion, and therefore fled, for nothing 
could have been more awful. This was it that drove Jordan back, and was 
an invisible dam to his streams. God was at the head of that people, and 
therefore they must give way to them, must make room for them, they must 
retire contrary to their nature when God speaks the word. To illustrate this 
the psalmist asks in a poetical strain, ver. 5, " What ailed thee, O thou sea, 
that thou fleddest?" and furnisheth the sea with an answer, ver. 7, it was "at 
the presence of the Lord." This is designed to express, 1. The reality of the 
miracle, that it was not by any power of nature, or from any natural cause, 
but it was "at the presence of the Lord "who gave the word. 2. The mercy 
of the miracle. "What ailed thee?" Was it in a frolic? was it only to amuse 
men? No, it was "at the presence of the God of Jacob," it was in kindness to 
the Israel of God, for the salvation of that chosen people, that God was thus 
displeased against the rivers, and his wrath was against the sea, as the prophet 
speaks, Hub. iii. 8, 13; ha. li. 10; lxiii. 11, &c. 3. The wonder and surprise of 
the miracle. Who would have thought of such a thing? Shall the course of 
nature be changed, and its fundamental laws dispensed with to serve a turn for 



552 



PSALM CXV 



God's Israel? Well may the dukes of Edom be amazed, and the mighty men : 
of Moab tremble, Ex. xv. 15. 4. The honour hereby put upon Israel, who are 
taught to triumph over the sea and Jordan, as unable to stand before them. 
Note, There is no sea, no Jordan, so deep, so broad, but, when God's time is 
come for the redemption of his people, it shall be divided and driven back, if ic 
stand in their way. Apply this, 1st. To the planting of the Christian church 
in the world. What ailed Satan and the powers of darkness, to tremble and 
truckle as they did? Mar. i. 34; v. 7. What ailed the heathen oracles that they 
were silenced, struck dumb, struck dead? What ailed their idolatries and 
witchcrafts, that they died away before the Gospel, and melted like snow 
before the sun? What ailed the persecutors and opposers of the Gospel to 
give up their cause, to hide their guilty heads, and call to rocks and moun- 
tains for shelter? Rev. vi. 15. It was at the presence of the Lord, and that 
power which went along with the Gospel. 2nd. To the work of grace in the 
heart. What turns the stream in a regenerate soul ? What ails the lusts and 
corruptions that they fly back? that the prejudices are removed, and the 
whole man becomes new? It is at the presence of God's Spirit that imagina- 
tions are cast down, 2 Cor. x. 5. 

Fourthly. That the earth shook and trembled when God came down on 
mount Sinai to give the law ; ver. 4, " The mountains skipped like rams," and 
then the little hills might well be excused if they skipped like lambs, either 
when they are frightened or when they sport themselves. The same power 
that fixed the fluid waters, and made them stand still, s.hook the stable moun- 
tains, and made them tremble ; for ail the powers of nature are under the cheek 
of the God of nature. Mountains and hills are before God but like ranis and 
lambs, even the bulkiest and the most rocky, and as manageable by him as 
they are by the shepherd. The trembling of the mountains before the Lord may 
shame the stupidity and obduracy of the children of men, who are not moved 
at the discoveries of his glory. The psalmist asks the mountains and hills 
what ailed them to skip thus? and answers for them as for the seas. It was , 
" at the presence of the Lord," before whom not only those mountains, but the 
earth itself, may well tremble, ver. 7, since it has Iain undgr a curse for man's 
sin. See Ps. civ. 32; Isa. lxiv. 3, 4. He that made the hills and mountains 
to skip thus, can, when he pleaseth, dissipate the strength and spirit of the 
proudest of his enemies, and make them tremble. 

Fifthly. That God supplied them with water out of the rock, which followed 
them through the dry and sandy deserts. Well may the earth and all its 
inhabitants tremble before that God who "turned the rock into a standing 
water," ver. 8; and what cannot he do who did that? The same Almighty 
power that turned waters into a rock, to be a wall to Israel, Ex. xiv. 22 y 
turned the rock into waters to be a well to Israel. As they were protected, 
so they were provided for by miracles, standing miracles, for such was the 
standing water, that fountain of waters into which the rock, the flinty rock, 
was turned, and that rock was Christ, 1 Cor. x. 4 ; for he is a fountain of living 
waters to his Israel, from whom they receive grace for grace. 



Many ancient translations join this psalm to that which goes next before it ; the Septus- 
gint particularly, and the vulgar Latin ; hut it is in the Hebrew a distinct psalm. In it 
we are taught to give glory, I. To God and not to ourselves, ver. 1. II. To God and 
not to idols, ver. 2 — 8. "We must give glory to God, 1. By trusting in him, and in his 
promise and blessing, ver. 9 — 15 ; 2. By blessing him, ver. 16 — 18. Some think this 
psalm was penned upon occasion of some great distress and trouble that the church of 
God was in, when the enemies were insolent and threatening, in which case the church 
doth not so much pour out her complaint to God, as place her confidence in God, and 
triumph in doing so ; and with such a holy triumph we ought to sing this psalm. 



For thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. 

2 Wherefore should the heathen say, 
Where is now their God ? 

3 But our God is in the heavens : 

He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. 

4 Their idols are si] ver and gold, 
The work of men's hands. 



PSALM CXV. 




PSALM CXV 



553 



5 They have mouths, but they speak not : 
Eyes have they, but they see not : 

6 They have ears, but they hear not : 
Noses have they, but they smell not : 

7 They have hands, but they handle not : 
Feet have they, but they walk not : 
Neither speak they through their throat. 

8 They that make them are like unto them ; 
So is every one that trusteth in them. 

Sufficient care is here taken to answer both the pretensions of self, and the 
reproaches of idolaters. 

First. Boasting is here for ever excluded, ver. 1. Let no oninion of our own 
merits have any room either in our prayers or in our praises; but let both 
centre in God's glory. 1. Have we received any mercy, gone through any 
service, or gained any success? We must not assume the glory of it to our- 
selves, but ascribe it wholly to God. We must not imagine that w^e do any 
thing for God by our own strength, or deserve any thing from God by our own 
righteousness; but all the good we do is done by the power of his grace, and 
all the good we have is the gift of his mere mercy ; and therefore he must have 
all the praise. Say not, 4i The power of my hand lias gotten me this wealth/* 
De.il. viii. 17. Say not, " For my righteousness the Lord" has done these great 
and kind things for me, Deu. ix. 4. No ; ail our songs must be sung to this 
humble tune, "Not unto us, O Lord," and again, *' Not unto us, but to thy 
name let all the glory be given;" for whatever good is wrought in us, or 
wrought for us, it is for his mercy and his truth's sake, because he will glorify 
his mercy, and fulfil his promise. All our crowns must be cast at the feet of 
him that sits upon the throne, for that is the proper place for them. 2. Are 
we in pursuit of any mercy, and wrestling with God for it ? We must take our 
encouragement in prayer from God only, and have an eye to his glory more 
than to our own benefit in it. Lord, do so and so for us, not that we may have 
the credit and comfort of it, but that thy mercy and truth may have the glory 
of it. This must be our highest ;ind ultimate end in our prayers, and there- 
fore it is made the first petition in the Lord's prayer, as that which guides 
all the rest, " Hallowed be thy name,"' and in order to that, " Give us our 
daily bread," &c. This also must satisfy us if our prayers be not answered 
in the letter of them; whatever becomes of us, unto thy name give glory : see 
Jno. xii. 27, 28. 

Secondly. The reproach of the heathen is here for ever silenced, and justly 
retorted. 

1. The psalmist complains of the reproach of the heathen; ver. 2, "Where- 
fore should they say, Where is now their God ?" that is, 1st. Why do they say 
so? Do they not know that our God is every where by his providence, and 
always nigh to us by his promise and grace? 2nd. Why doth God permit 
them to say so? Nay, why is Israel brought so low that they have some 
colour for saying so? Lord, appear for our relief, that thou mayest vindicate 
thyself, and glorify thine own name. 

2. He gives a direct answer to their question, ver. 3. Do they ask where is 
our God ? We can tell where he is. 1st. In the upper world is the presence 
of his glory, " Our God is in the heavens," where the gods of the heathen never 
were; "in the heavens," and therefore out of sight; but, though his majesty be 
unapproachable, it doth not therefore follow that his being is questionable. 
2nd. In the lower world are the products of his power: "He hath done what- 
soever he pleased," according to the counsel of his will ; he hath a sovereign 
dominion, and a universal uncontrollable influence. Do you ask where he is? 
He is at the beginning and end of every thing, and not far from any of us. 

3. He returns their question upon themselves. They asked, Where is the God 
of Israel? because he is not seen. He doth in eifect ask, What are the gods of 
the heathen ? because they are seen 

1st. He shews that their gods, though they are not shapeless things, are 
senseless things. Idolaters at first worshipped the sun and moon, Job xxxi. 26, 
which was bad enough, but not so bad as that which they were now come to, 
for evil men grow worse and worse, which was the worshipping of images, 
ver. 4. The matter of them was silver and gold digged out of the earth, (' Man 
found them poor and dirty in a mine' — Herbert,) proper things to make money 
of, but not to make godsof.^ The make of them was from the artificer; they 
are creatures of men's vain imaginations, and the works of men's hands, and 
therefore can have no divinity in them. If man is the work of God's hands, 
as certainly he is, and it was his honour that he was made in the image of God 



554 



PSALM CXY. 



it is absurd to think that that can be God which is the work of men's hands, or 
that it can be any other than a dishonour to God to make him in the image of 
man. The argument is irrefragable, " The workman made it, therefore it is not 
God," Hos. viii. 6. These idols are represented here as the most ridiculous 
things, a mere jest, that would seem to be something, but were really nothing; 
fitter for a toy shop than a temple, for children to play with, than for men to 
pray to. The painter, the carver, the statuary, did their part w r ell enough ; 
they made them with mouths and eyes, ears and noses, hands and feet, but 
they could put no life into them, and therefore no sense. They had better 
have worshipped a dead carcass, for that had life in it once, than a dead image 
which neither has life nor can have. They speak not in answ er to those that 
consult them ; the crafty priest must do it for them. In Baal's image there was 
" no voice, neither any that answered." They see not the prostrations of their 
worshippers before them, much less their burthens and wants. They hear not 
their prayers, though never so loud; they smell not their incense, though never 
so strong, never so sweet. They handle not the gifts presented to them, much 
less have they any gifts to bestow on their worshippers; they cannot stretch 
forth their hands to the needy. They walk not; they cannot stir a step for 
the relief of those that apply to them. Nay, they do not so much as breathe 
through their throat; they have not the least sign or symptom of life, but are 
as dead things after the priest has pretended to consecrate them, and call a 
deity into them, as they were before. 

2nd. He thence infers the sottishness of their worshippers, ver. 8. They that 
make them images shew their ingenuity, and doubtless are sensible men; but 
they that make them gods shew their stupidity and folly, and are like unto them, 
as senseless blockish things. They see not the invisible things of the true and 
living God in the works of creation ; they hear not the voice of the day and the 
nigh*-, which in every speech and language declare his glory, Ps. xix. 2, 3. By 
worshipping these foolish puppets they make themselves more and more foolish 
like them, and set themselves at a greater distance from every thing that is 
spiritual, sinking themselves deeper into the mire of sense; and withal they 
provoke God to give them up to a reprobate mind, a mind void of judgment, 
Rom. i. 28. They that trust in them act very absurdly, and very unreasonably ; 
are senseless, helpless, useless like them, and they wnll find it so themselves to 
their own confusion. We shall know w here our God is, and so shall they to 
their cost, when theirs are gone, Jer. x. 3, 11 ; Isa. xliv. 9. &c. 

9 O Israel, trust thou in the Lord : 
He is their help and their shield. 

10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord : 
He is their help and their shield. 

1 1 Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord : 
He is their help and their shield. 

12 The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; 
He will bless the house of Israel ; 

He will bless the house of Aaron. 

13 He will bless them that fear the Lord, 
Both small and great. 

1 4 The Lord shall increase you more and more, 
You and your children. 

1 5 Ye are blessed of the Lord 
Which made heaven and earth. 

1 6 The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's : 
But the earth hath he given to the children of men. 

1 7 The dead praise not the Lord, 
Neither any that go down into silence. 

.48 But we will bless the Lord 

From this time forth and for evermore. 
Praise the Lord. 



PSALM CXV. 555 

In these verses, 

First. We are earnestly exnorted, all of us, to repose our confidence in God, 
and not surfer our confidence in him to be shaken by the heathens' insulting over 
us upon the account of our present distresses. It is folly to trust in dead images, 
but it is wisdom to trust in the living God, for he is a help and a shield to those 
that do trust in him ; a help to furnish them with, and forward them in, that 
which is good ; and a shield to fortify them against, and protect them from, 
every thing that is evil. Therefore, 1. Let Israel trust in the Lord; the body 
of the people as to their public interests, and every particular Israelite as to his 
own private concerns, let them leave it to God to dispose of all for them, and 
believe he will dispose of all for the best, and will be their help and shield. 2. Let 
the priests, the Lord's ministers, and all the families of the house of Aaron, trust 
in the Lord, ver. 10. They are most maligned and struck at by the enemies, 
and therefore of them God has particular care. They ought to be examples to 
others of a cheerful confidence in God, and a faithful adherence to him in the 
worst of times. 3. Let the proselytes that are not of the seed of Israel, but fear 
the Lord, that worship him and make conscience of their duty to him, let them 
trust in him, for he will not fail nor forsake them, ver. 11. Note, Wherever 
there is an awful fear of God, there may be a cheerful faith in him. They tliat 
reverence his word may rely upon it. 

Secondly. We are greatly encouraged to trust in God, and good reason is 
given us why we should stay ourselves upon him with an entire satisfaction. 
Consider, 

1. What we have experienced; ver. 12, "The Lord has been mindful of us/' 
and never unmindful ; hath been so constantly, has been so remarkably, upon 
special occasions. He hath been mindful of our case, our wants, and burthens ; 
mindful of our prayers to him, and his promises to us, and the covenant relation 
between him and us. All our comforts must be attributed to this, God's 
thoughts to usward; he hath been mindful us, though we have forgotten him. 
Let this engage us to trust in him, that we have found him faithful. 

2. What we may expect. From what he has done for us, we may infer "he 
will bless us;" he that has been our help and our shield will be so; that has 
remembered us in our low estate, will not forget us ; for he is still the same, his 
power and goodness the same, ana his promise inviolable, so that we have reason 
to hope he that hath delivered, and doth, will yet deliver. Yet this is not all: 
"he will bless us;" that is, he hath promised that he will; he hath pronounced 
a blessing upon all his people. God's blessing us is not only speaking good to 
us, but doing well for us ; those whom he blesseth are blessed indeed. It is 
particularly promised, that he " will bless the house of Israel;" that is, he will 
bless the commonwealth, will bless his pe©ple in their civil secular interests. 
" He will bless the house of Aaron," that is, the church, the ministry ; will bless 
his people in their religious concerns. The priests were to bless the people, it 
was their office, Num. vi. 28; but God blessed them, and so blessed their bless- 
ings. Nay, ver. 13, " he will bless them that fear the Lord," though they be not 
of the house of Israel, or the house of Aaron ; for it was a truth, before Peter 
perceived it, that in every nation he that fears God is accepted of him, and 
blessed, Acts x. 34, 35. He will bless them, both small and great ; that is, both 
young and old. God has blessings in store for them that are good betimes, and 
for them that are old disciples; both those that are poor in the world, and those 
that make a figure ; the greatest need his blessing, and it shall not be denied 
to the meanest that fear him. Both the weak in grace and the strong shall be 
blessed of God, the lambs and the sheep of his flock. It is promised, ver. 14, 
" The Lord shall increase you." Whom God blesseth he increaseth. That 
was one of the earliest and most ancient blessings, " be fruitful and multiply." 
pod's blessing gives an increase.; increase in number, building up the family; 
increase in wealth, adding to the estate and honour ; especially an increase in 
spiritual blessings, with the increasings of God. He will bless you with the 
increase of knowledge and wisdom, of grace, holiness, and joy. Those are 
blessed indeed whom God thus increaseth, who are made wiser, and better, and 
fitter for God and heaven. It is promised that this shall be, 1st. A constant, 
continual increase. " He shall increase you more and more." So long as you 
live you shall still be increasing, till you come to perfection, as the shining light, 
Pr. iv. 18. 2nd. An hereditary increase. " You and your children," you in your 
children. It is a comfort to parents to see their children increasing in wisdom 
and strength. There is a blessing entailed upon the seed of those that fear God, 
even in their infancy ; for, ver. 15, " You are blessed of the Lord," you and your 
children are so ; " all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the 
seed which the Lord hath blessed," Isa. lxi. 9. They that are the blessed of the 
Lord have encouragement enough to trust in the Lord as their help and shield, 
for it is he that made heaven and earth ; therefore his blessings are free, for he 
needs not any thing himself ; and therefore they are rich, for he hath all things 



m PSALM CXYI. 

at command for us, if we fear him and trust in him. He that made heaven and 
earth can, doubtless, make those happy that trust in him, and will do it. 

Thirdly. We are stirred up to praise God by the psalmist's example, who 
concludes the psalm with a resolution to persevere in his praises. 

1. God is to be praised, ver. 16. He is greatly to be praised; for, 1st. His 
glory is high. See how stately his palace is, and the throne he hath prepared in 
the heavens. " The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's." He is the right- 
ful owner of all the treasures of light and bliss in the upper and better world, and 
is in the full possession of them, for he is himself infinitely bright and happy. 
2nd. His goodness is large. For " the earth, he hath given it to the children of 
men," having designed it, when he made it, for their use, to find them with 
meat, drink, and lodging. Not but that still he is proprietor in chief ; " the 
earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" but he has let out that vineyard 
to these unthankful husbandmen, and from them he expects the rents and 
services ; for though he has given them the earth, his eye is upon them, and he 
will call them to an account how they use it. Calvin complains that profane 
wicked people in his days perverted this scripture, and made a jest of it, which 
some in our days do, arguing, in banter, that, God having given the earth to the 
children of men, he will no more look after it, nor after them upon it, but they 
may do what they will with it, and make their best of it as their portion ; and as 
if it were thrown like a prey among them, catch as catch can. It is pity such an 
instance as this gives of God's bounty to man, and such a proof as ariseth from 
it of man's obligation to God, should be thus abused. From the highest heavens 
it is certain God beholds all the children of men ; to them he has given the earth, 
but to the children of God heaven is given. 

2. The dead are not capable of praising him, ver. 17, "nor any that go into 
silence." The soul indeed lives in a state of separation from the body, and is 
capable of praising God ; and the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered 
from the burthen of the flesh, do praise God, are still praising him, for they go 
up to the land of perfect light and constant business ; but the dead body cannot 
praise God. Death puts an end to our glorifying God in this world of trial and 
conflict, to all our services in the field; the grave is a land of darkness and 
silence, where there is no work or device. This they plead with God for deli- 
verance out of the hand of their enemies ; Lord, if they prevail to cut us off, the 
idols will carry the day, and there will be none to praise thee, to bear thy name, 
and to bear a testimony against the worshippers of idols. " The dead praise not 
the Lord," so as we do in the business and for the comforts of this life: see 
Ps. xxx. 9 ; lxxxviii. 9. 

3. Therefore it concerns us to praise him ; ver. 12, " But we," we that are 
alive, ''will bless the Lord;" we and those that shall come after us will do it, 
" from this time forth and for evermore,"' to the end of time ; we, and those we 
shall remove to, from this time forth, and to eternity. " The dead praise not 
the Lord," therefore we will do it the more diligently. 1st. Others are dead, 
and an end is thereby put to their service, and therefore we will lay out our- 
selves to do so much the more for God, that we may fill up the gap. u Moses 
my servant is dead, now therefore, Joshua, arise.]' 2nd. We ourselves must 
shortly go to the land of silence : but while we do live, "we will bless the Lord," 
will improve time, and work that work of him that sent us into the world to 
praise him, before the night comes, and because the night comes, wherein no 
man can work. " The Lord will bless us," ver. 12. He will do well for us, and 
therefore we will bless him, we will speak well of him ; poor returns for rich 
receivings. Nay, we will not only do it ourselves, but will engage others to 
do it. Praise the Lord;" praise him with us ; praise him in your places, as 
we in ours ; praise him when we are gone, that he may be praised for evermore. 
Hallelujah. 

PSALM CXVI. 

This is a thanksgiving psalm; it is not certain whether David penned it upon any par- 
ticular occasion, or upon a general view of the many gracious deliverances God had 
■wrought for him, out of six troubles, and seven, from which he takes rise for many very 
lively expressions of devotion, love, and gratitude ; and with the like pious affections 
our souls should be lifted up to God in singing it. Observe, I. The great distress and 
danger that the psalmist was in, which almost drove him to despair, ver. 3, 10, 11. 
II. The application he made to God in that distress, ver. 4. III. The experience lie 
had of God's goodness to him in answer to prayer. God heard him. ver. 1,2; pitied him, 
ver. 5, 6; delivered him, ver. 8. IV. His care what acknowledgments he should make 
of the goodness of God to him, ver. 12 ; 1. He will love God, ver. 1, 2 ; He will continue 
to call upon him, ver. 2, 13, 17 ; 3. He will rest in him, ver. 7 ; 4. He will w alk before 
him, ver. 9. 5. He will pay his vow of thanksgiving, in which he will own the tender 
regard God had to him, and this publicly, ver. 13 — 15, and ver. 17 — 19. Lastly, He will 
continue God's faithful servant to his life's end, ver. 16. These are such breathings of 
a holy soul as bespeak it very happy. 



PSALM CXVI. 



557 



I LOVE the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and 
my supplications. 

2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, 
Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. 

3 The sorrows of death compassed me, 
And the pains of hell gat hold upon me : 
I found trouble and sorrow. 

4 Then called I upon the name of the Lord ; 

0 Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 

5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous ; 
Yea, our God is merciful. 

6 The Lord preserveth the simple : 

1 was brought low, and he helped me. 

7 Eeturn unto thy rest, 0 my soul ; 

For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. 

8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, 
Mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 

9 I will walk before the Lord 
In the land of the living. 

In this part of the psalm we have, m 

First. A general account of David's experience and his pious resolutions 9 
ver. ), 2, which are as the contents of the whole psalm, and give an idea of it. 

1. He had experienced God's goodness to him in answer to prayer. " He hath 
heard my voice and my supplications." David, in straits, had humbly and ear- 
nestly begged mercy of God, and God had heard him ; that is, had graciously 
accepted his prayer, taken cognizance of his case, and granted him an answer of 
peace. " He hath inclined his ear to me." This intimates his readiness and 
willingness to hear prayer ; he lays his ear as it were to the mouth of prayer to 
hear it, though it be but whispered in groanings that cannot be uttered. He 
hearkens and hears, Jer. viii. 6 ; yet^ it implies also that it is wonderful con- 
descension in God to hear prayer ; it is bowing his ear. Lord, what is man, that 
God should thus stoop to him ? 

2. He resolved, in consideration thereof, to devote himself entirely to God, and 
to his honour. 

1st. He will love God the better. _ He begins the psalm somewhat abruptly, 
with a profession of that which his heart was full of; "I love the Lord/' as 
Ps. xviii. 1 ; and fitly doth he begin with this, in compliance with the first and 
great commandment, and with God's end in all the gifts of his bounty to us. 
1 love him only, and nothing besides him, but what I love for him. God's love 
of compassion towards us justly requires our love of complacency in him. 

2id. He will love prayer the better; " Therefore I will call upon him." The 
experiences we have had of God's goodness to us in answer to prayer are great 
encouragements to us to continue praying. We have sped well, notwithstand- 
ing Gur un worthiness, and our praying infirmities, and therefore why may we 
not ? God therefore answers prayer to make us love it, and expects this from 
us in return for his favour. Why should we glean in any other field when we 
have been so well treated in this '? Nay, " I will call upon him as long as I 
live;" Heb., £ in my days/ every day, to the last day. Note, As long as we con- 
tinue living, we must continue praying. This breath we must breathe till we 
breathe our last, because then we shall take our leave of it, and till then we 
have continual occasion for it. 

Secondly. A more particular narrative of God's gracious dealings with him 5 
and the good impressions thereby made upon him. 

1. God in his dealings with him shewed himself a good God, and therefore he 
bears this testimony to him, and leaves it upon record ; ver. 5, " Gracious is the 
Lord, and righteous." He is righteous, and did me no wrong in afflicting me ; he 
is gracious, and was very kind in supporting and delivering me. Let us all speak 
of God as we have found; and l> i re we ever found him otherwise than just and 



553 



PSALM CXVL 



good? No ; " our God is merciful/' merciful to us, and "it is of his mercies that 

we are not consumed." 
(l.) Review David's experiences. 

1st. He was in great distress and trouble ; ver. 3, " The sorrows of death 
compassed me;" that is, such sorrows as were likely to be his death, such as 
were thought to be the very pangs of death ; perhaps here is the extremity of 
bodily pain, or trouble of mind, called here "the pains of hell," terror of con- 
science arising from sense of guilt. Note, The sorrows of death are great 
sorrows, and the pains of hell great pains. Let us therefore give diligence to 
prepare for the former that we may escape the latter. These compassed him 
on every side, they arrested him; "gat hold upon him," so that he could not 
escape : " without were fightings, within were fears." * I found trouble and 
sorrow ; " not only it found me, but I found it. Those that are melancholy have 
a great deal of sorrow of their own finding, trouble which they create to them- 
selves, by indulging fancy and passion. This has sometimes been the infirmity 
of good men. When God's providence makes our condition bad, let us not by 
our own imprudence make it worse. 

2nd. In his trouble he had recourse to God by faithful and fervent prayer; 
ver. 4, he tells us that he prayed: " Then called 1 upon the name of the Lord ;" 
then, when he was brought to the last extremity, then he made use of this, not 
as the last remedy, but as the old and only remedy, which he had found a salve 
fcr every sore. He tells us what his prayer was : it was short, but to the pur- 
pose; " O Lord, 1 beseech thee, deliver my soul ; " that is, save me from death, 
and save me from sin, for that is it that is killing to the soul. Both the humility 
and the fervency of his prayer are intimated in these words, " O Lord, I beseech 
thee." When we come to the throne of grace, we must come as beggars for an 
alms, for necessary food. The following words, ver. 5, "gracious is the Lord," 
may be taken as part of his prayer, as a plea to enforce his request, and encou- 
rage his faith and hope; "Lord, deliver my soul," for thou art gracious and 
merciful, and that only I depend upon for relief. 

3rd. God, in answer to his prayer, came in with seasonable and effectual relief. 
He found, by experience, that God is gracious and merciful, and, in his compas- 
sion, preserveth the simple, ver. 6. Because they are simple, that is, sincere 
and upright, and without guile, therefore God preserves them, as he preserved 
Paul, who had his conversation in the world, not with fleshly wisdom, but in 
simplicity and godly sincerity. Though they are simple, that is weak and help- 
less, and that cannot shift for themselves, men of no depth, no design, yet God 
preserves them, because they commit themselves to him, and have no confidence 
m their own sufficiency. Those that by faith put themselves under God's pro- 
tection shall be safe. 

(2.) Let David speak his own experience. 

1st. God supported him under his troubles. " I was brought low," was 

E lunged into the depth of misery, " and then he helped me," helped me both to 
ear the worst and to hope the best ; helped me to pray, else desire had failed; 
helped me to wait, else faith had failed. I was one of the simple ones whom 
God preserved ; the poor man who cried, and the Lord heard him, Ps. xxxiv. 6. 
Note, God's people are never brought so low but that everlasting arms are 
under them, and they cannot sink who are thus sustained. Nay, it is in the 
time of need, at the dead lift, that God chooseth to help, Deu. xxxii. 36. 

2nd. God saved him out of his troubles ; ver. 8 ; Thou hast delivered ; " 
which means either the preventing the distress he was ready to fall into, or the 
recovering of him from the distress he was already in. God graciously delivered, 
First. His " soul from death." Note.^ It is # God's great mercy to us that we are 
alive, and the mercy is the more sensible, if we have been at death's door, and 
yet have been spared, and raised up : just turned to destruction, and yet ordered 
to return. That a life so often forfeited and so often exposed should yet be 
lengthened out, is a miracle of mercy. The deliverance of the soul from spi- 
ritual and eternal death is especially to be acknowledged by all those who are 
now sanctified, and shall be shortly glorified. Secondly. His " eyes from tears ;" 
that is, his heart from inordinate grief. It is a great mercy to be kept, either 
from the occasions of sorrow, the evil that causeth grief, or, however, from 
being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. When God comforts those that 
are cast down, looseth the mourners' sackcloth, and girdeth them with gladness, 
then he delivers their eyes from tears, which yet will not be perfectly done till 
we come to that world where " God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes." 
Thirdly. His " feet from falling," from falling into sin, and so into misery. It is 
a great mercy, when our feet are almost gone, then to have God hold us by the 
right hand, Ps. lxxii. 2, 23, so that, though we enter into temptation, we are not 
overcome and overthrown by the temptation. Or, Thou hast delivered my feet 
from falling into the grave, when I had one foot there already. 

2. David, in his returns of gratitude to God, shewed himself a good man. God 
had done all this for him, and therefore, 
1st. He will live a life of delight in God; ver. 7, "Return unto thy rest, 



PSALM CXVI. 



559 



O my soul; that is, First. Eepose thyself and be easy, and do not put thyself 
into such a toss with distrustful, disquieting fears, as thou hast sometimes done. 
Quiet thyself, and then enjoy thyself ; God has dealt kindly with thee, and 
therefore thou needest not fear that ever he will deal hardly with thee. 
Secondly. Repose thyself in God. Return to him as thy rest, and seek not 
for that rest in the creature which is to be had in him only. God is the soul's 
rest ; in him only can it dwell at ease, to him therefore it must retire, and 
rejoice in him. He hath dealt bountifully with us; that is, he hath provided 
sufficiently for our comfort and refreshment, and encouraged us to come to him 
for the benefit of it at all times, upon all occasions ; let us therefore be satisfied 
with that. Return to that rest which Christ gives to the weary and heavy 
laden, Mat. xi. 28 ; return to thy Noah, (his name signifies rest,) as the dove when 
she found no rest came back to the ark. I know no word more proper to close 
our eyes with at night when we go to sleep, nor to close them with at death, that 
long sleep, than this, "Return to thy rest, O my soul." 

2nd. He will live a life of devotedness to God; ver. 9, "I will walk before the 
Lord in the land of the living," that is, in this world, as long as 1 continue to 
live in it. Note, First. It is our great duty to walk before the Lord, to do all 
we do as becomes us in his presence, and under his eye ; to approve ourselves 
to him as a holy God by conformity to him as our Sovereign Lord, by subjection 
to his will; and as a God all-sufficient, by a cheerful confidence in him. "I am 
the Almighty God, walk before me," Gen. xvii. 1; we must "walk worthy of 
the Lord unto all pleasing." Secondly. The consideration of this, that we are 
"in the land of the living," should engage and quicken us to do so. We are 
spared and continued in the land of the living by the power, and patience, and 
tender mercy of our God, and therefore must make conscience of our duty 
to him. The land of the living is a land of mercy, which we ought to be 
thankful for. It is a land of opportunity, which we ought to improve. Canaan 
is called the land of the living, Eze. xxvi. 20; and they whose lot is cast in such 
a valley of vision are in a special manner concerned to set the Lord always 
before them. If God has delivered our soul from death, we must walk before 
him. A new life must be a new life indeed. 

10 I believed, therefore have I spoken: 

I was greatly afflicted : 
111 said in my haste, 

All men are liars. 

12 What shall I render unto the Lord 
For all his benefits toward me ? 

13 I will take the cup of salvation, 

And call upon the name of the Lord. 

14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord 
Now in the presence of all his people. 

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord 
Is the death of his saints. 

16 0 Lord, truly I am thy servant ; 

I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid : 
Thou hast loosed my bonds. 

17 1 will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, 
And will call upon the name of the Lord, 

18 I will pay my vows unto the Lord 
Now in the presence of all his people, 

19 In the courts of the Lord's house, 
In the midst of thee, 0 Jerusalem. 
Praise ye the Lord 

The Septuagint, and some other ancient versions, make these verses a dis- 
tinct psalm separate from the former; and some have called it the Martyrs' 



.560 PSALM CXVL 

Psalm, T suppose for the sake of ver. 15. Three things David here makes 

confession of : 

First. His faith; ver. 10, "I believed, therefore have I spoken." Which is 
quoted by the apostle, 2 Cor. iv. 13, with application to himself and his fellow- 
ministers, who, though they suffered for Christ, were not ashamed to own him. 
David believed the being, providence, and promise of God, particularly the 
assurance God had given him by Samuel that he should exchange his crook 
for a sceptre. A great deal of hardship he went through in the belief of this ; 
and therefore he spoke. Spoke to God by prayer, ver. 4; by praise, ver. 12. 
Those that believe in God will address themselves to him. He spoke to him- 
self ; because he believed, he said to his soul, " Return to thy rest." He spoke 
to others; told his friends what his hope was, and what the ground of it, 
though it exasperated Saul against him, and he was greatly afflicted for it. 
Note, They that believe with the heart must confess with the mouth: for the 
glory of God, the encouragement of others, and to evidence their own sincerity, 
Mom. x. 10 ; Acts ix. 19, 20. They that live in hope of the kingdom of glory must 
neither be afraid nor ashamed to own their obligation to him that purchased 
it for them, Mat. x. 32. 

Secondly. His fear ; ver. 11, "I was greatly afflicted," and then " I said in my 
haste," some" hat rashly and inconsiderately, (' in my amazement,' so some, 
when I was in a consternation; 'in my flight,' so others, when Saul was in 
pursuit of me,) "All men are iiars ;" all w ith whom he had to do, Saul and 
all his courtiers. His friends, who he thought would have stood by him, 
deserted him and disowned him, when he fell into disgrace at court. And 
some think it is especially a reflection on Samuel, who had promised him the 
kingdom, but deceived him ; for, saith he, " I shall one day perish by the hand 
of Saul," 1 Sam. xxvii. 1. Observe, 1. The faith of the best saints is not 
perfect ; nor always alike strong and active. David believed and spoke well, 
ver. 10; but no vv through unbelief he spoke amiss. 2. When we are under 
great and sore afflictions, especially if they continue long, we are apt to grow 
weary; to despond, and almost to despair of a good issue. Let us not, there- 
fore, be harsh in censuring others, but carefully watch over ourselves when we 
are in trouble, Ps. xxxix. 1—3. 3. If good men speak amiss, it is in their 
haste, through the surprise of a temptation, not deliberately and with pre- 
meditation, as the wicked man who sits in the seat of the scornful, Ps, i. 1, 
sits and speaks against his brother, Ps. 1. 19, 20. 4. What we speak amiss in 
haste we must by repentance unsay again ; as David, Ps. xxxi. 22 ; and then 
it shall not be laid unto our charge. Some make this to be no ill word of 
David's. He was greatly afflicted, and forced to fly; but he did not trust 
in man, nor make flesh his arm. No, he said, "All men are liars;" as "men 
of low degree are vanity," so "men of high degree are a lie;" and there- 
fore my confidence was in God only, and in him I cannot be disappointed. 
And in this sense the apostle seems to take it, Rom. iii. 4, " Let God be true, 
and every man a liar,'" in comparison with God. All men are fickle and incon- 
stant, and subject to change ; and therefore let us cease from man, and cleave 
to God. 

Thirdly. His gratitude, ver. 12, &c. God had been better to him than his 
fears, and had graciously delivered him out of his distresses ; and in con- 
sideration hereof, 

1. He inquires what returns he shall make; ver. 12, "What shall I render 
unto the Lord, for all his benefits towards me?" t Here he speaks, 1. As one 
sensible of many mercies received from God : all his benefits. The psalm seems 
to have been penned upon occasion of some one particular benefit, ver. 6, 7; 
but in that one he saw many, and that one brought many to mind ; and there- 
fore now he thinks of all God's benefits towards him. Note, When we speak 
of God's mercies, we should magnify them, and speak highly of them. 2. As 
one solicitous and studious how to express his gratitude ; " What shall I render 
unto the Lord ? " Not as if he thought he could render anything proportionable, 
or as a valuable consideration for what he had received. We can no more pre- 
tend to give a recompence to God, than we can to merit any favour from him ; 
but he desired to render something acceptable, something that God would be 
pleased with, as the acknowledgment of a grateful mind. He asks God, " What 
shall I render?"— asks the priest, asks his friends, or rather, asks himself, and 
communes with his own heart about it. Note, Having received many benefits 
from God, we are concerned to inquire what we shall render. 

2. He resolves what returns he will make. 

1st. He will in the most devout and solemn manner offer up his praises and 
prayers to God, ver. 13, 17. First. "I will take the cup of salvation;" that 
is, I will offer the drink offerings appointed by the law in token of my 
thankfulness to God, and rejoice with my friends in God's goodness to me; 
this is called the cup of deliverance, because drank in memory of the deli- 
verance. The pious Jews had sometimes a cup of blessing at their _ private 
meals, which the master of the family drank first of with thanksgiving to 



PSALM CXVI. 561 

God, and all at his table pledged him. But some understand it not of the 
cup that he would present to God, but the cup God would put into his hand. 
I will receive, 1st. The cup of affliction. Many; good interpreters under- 
stood it of that cup, that bitter cup, which yet is sanctified to the saints, 
so that to them it is a cup of salvation ; Phil. i. 19, " This shall turn to my 
salvation ;" it is a means of spiritual health. David's sufferings were typical 
of Christ's; and we in ours have communion with his. and his cup was indeed 
a cup of salvation. God having bestowed so many oenefits upon me, what- 
ever cup he shall put into my hands I will readily take it, and not dispute 
it, welcome his holy will. Herein David spoke the language of the Son of 
David, Jno. xviii. 11, "The cup that my Father hath given me, shall I not" 
take it, and " drink it?" 2nd. The cup of consolation. I will receive the 
benefits God bestows upon me as from his hand, and taste his love in them, as 
that which is the portion not only of mine inheritance in the other world., out 
of my cup in this. Secondly. " I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving." 
The thank offerings which God required, Lev. vii. 11, 12, &c. Note, Those 
whose hearts are truly thankful will express it in thank offerings. We must 
first give our ownselves to God as living sacrifices, Rom. xii. 1, 2 Cor. viii. 5, 
and then lay out of what we have for his honour in works of piety and charity. 
Doing good and communicating are sacrifices with which God is well-pleased, 
Heb. xiii. 15, 16; and this must accompany our "giving thanks to his name." 
If God have been bountiful to us, the least we can do in return is to be bountiful 
to the poor, Ps. xvi. 2, 3. Why should we offer that to God which costs us 
nothing ? Thirdly. " 1 will call upon the name of the Lord." This he had 
promised, ver. 2; and here he repeats it, ver. 13; and again, ver. 17. If we have 
received kindness from a man like ourselves, we tell him we hope we shall never 
trouble him again ; but God is pleased to reckon the prayers of his people an 
honour to him, and a delight, and no trouble; and, therefore, in gratitude for 
former mercies, we must seek to him for farther mercies, and continue to call 
upon him. 

2nd. He will always entertain good thoughts of God, as very tender of the 
lives and comforts of his people; ver. 15, "Precious in the sight of the Lord 
is the death of his saints;" so precious, that he will not gratify Saul or Absalom, 
or any of David's enemies, with his death, how earnestly soever they desire it. 
This truth David had comforted himself with in the depth of his distress and 
danger ; and the event having confirmed it, he comforts others with it, that 
might be in like manner exposed. God has a people even in this world, that are 
his saints, his merciful ones, or men of mercy ; that have received mercy from 
him, and shew mercy for his sake. The saints of God are mortal and dying ; 
nay, there are those that desire their death, and labour it all they can, and 
sometimes prevail to be the death of them. But it is precious in the sight of 
the Lord; that is, their life is so, 2 Kin. i. 13; their blood is so, Ps. lxxii. 14. 
God oftentimes wonderfully prevents the death of his saints, when there is but 
a step between them and it ; he takes special care about their death, to order it 
for the best in all the circumstances of it. And whoever kills them, how light 
soever they may make of it, they shall be made to pay dear for it when in- 
quisition is made for the blood of the saints, Mat. xxiii. 35. Though no man 
lays it to heart when the righteous perish, God will make it to appear that he 
lays it to heart. This should make us willing to die, to die for Christ, if we 
are called to it ; that our death shall be registered in heaven. And let that be 
precious to us which is so to God. 

3rd. He will oblige himself to be God's servant all his days. Having asked, 
"What shall I render?" here he surrenders himself, which was more than all 
burnt offerings and sacrifice; ver. 16, "O Lord, truly I am thy servant." 
Here is, First. The relation in which David professeth to stand to God. " I am 
thy servant," that is, I choose to be so, I resolve to be so, I will live and die in 
thy service. He had called God's people who are dear to him, his saints ; but 
when he comes to apply it to himself, he doth not say, ' Truly I am thy saint,' 
that looked too high a title to himself, but " I am thy servant." David was a 
king, and yet he glories in this, that he was God's servant. It is no disparage- 
ment, but an honour to the greatest kings on earth, to be the servants of the 
God of heaven. David doth not here compliment with God, as it is common 
among men to say, I am your servant, sir. No, Lord, I am truly thy servant ; 
thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I am so. And he repeats it as that 
which he took pleasure in the thoughts of, and which he was resolved to abide 
by ; " I am thy servant, I am thy servant." Let others serve what master they 
will, truly I am thy servant. Secondly. The ground of that relation. Two 
ways men come to be servants : 1st. By birth ; Lord, I was born in thy house, 
" I am the son of thy handmaid," and therefore thine. It is a great mercy to be 
the children of godly parents, as it obliges us to duty; and is pleadable with 
God for mercy. 2nd. By redemption ; he that procured the release of a captive 
took him for his servant. Lord, "thou hast loosed my bonds," those sorrows 
of death that compassed me ; thou hast discharged me from them, and theref ore 

2N 



562 



PSALM CXVII. 



I am thy servant, and entitled to thy protection, as well as obliged to thy 

work. ' The very bonds that thou hast loosed shall tie me faster unto thee.' 

Patrick. 

4th. He will make conscience of paying his vows, and making good what he 
had promised; not only that he would offer the sacrifices of praise, which 
he had vowed to bring, but perform all his other engagements to God, which he 
had laid himself under in the day of his affliction, ver. 14, " I will pay my 
vows ; " and again, ver. 18, " Now in the presence of all his people." Note, Vows 
are debts that must be paid ; for it is better not vow, than vow and not pay. 
He will pay his vows, First. Presently. He will not like sorry debtors delay 
the payment of them, or beg day, but, I will pay them now, Eecl. v. 4. Secondly. 
Publicly. He will not huddle up his praises in a corner, but what service he 
has to do for God he will do "in the presence of all his people;" not for 
ostentation, but to shew that he was not ashamed of the service of God, and 
that others might be invited to join with him. He will pay his vows in the 
courts of the tabernacle, where there was a crowd of Israelites attending ; 
in the midst of Jerusalem, that he might bring devotion into more reputation. 



This psalm is short and sweet ; I doubt the reason why we sing it so often as we do is for 
the shortness of it, hut if we rightly understood and considered it we would sing it 
oftener for the sweetness of it, especially to us sinners of the Gentiles, on whom it casts 
a very favourable eye. Here is, I. A solemn call to all nations to praise God, ver. 1. 
II. Proper matter for that praise suggested, ver. 2. We are soon weary of well-doing 
if, in singing this psalm, we keep not up those pious and devout affections with which 
the spiritual sacrifice of praise ought to be kindled and kept burning. 



2 For his merciful kindness is great toward us: 
And the truth of the Lord endure th for ever. 
Praise ye the Lord. 

There is a great deal of Gospel in this psalm. The apostle has furnished us 
with a key to it, Rom. xv. 1 1, where he quotes it as a proof that the Gospel 
was to be preached to, and would be entertained by, the Gentile nations, which 
yet was so great a stumblingblock to the Jews. Why should that offend them 
when it was said, and they themselves had often sung it, "Praise the Lord, all 
ye Gentiles ; and laud him, all ye people ?" Some of the Jewish writers confess 
that this psalm refers to the kingdom of the Messiah ; nay, one of them has a 
fancy that it consists of two verses, to signify that in the days of the Messiah 
God should be glorified by two sorts of people; by the Jews according to the 
law of Moses, and by the Gentiles according to the seven precepts of the sons 
of Noah, which yet should make one church, as these two verses make one 
psalm. We have here, 

First. The vast extent of the gospel church, ver. 1. For many ages in Judah 
only was God known, and his name praised. The sons of Levi, and the seed 
of Israel praised him; but the rest of the nations praised gods of wood and 
stone, Dan. v. 4, while there was no devotion at all paid, at least, none openly 
that we know of, to the living and true God. But here all nations are called 
to praise the Lord; which could not be applied to the Old Testament times, 
both because this call was not then given to any of the Gentile nations, much 
less to all, in a language that they understood ; and because, unless the people 
of the land became Jews, and were circumcised, they were not admitted to 
praise God with them. But the Gospel of Christ is ordered to be preached 
to all nations ; and by him the partition wall is taken down, and those that were 
afar off are made nigh. This w r as the mystery which was hid in prophecy for 
many ages, but was at length revealed in the accomplishment, " that the Gen- 
tiles should be fellow-heirs," Eph. hi. 3, 6. Observe here, 

1. Who should be admitted into the church. All nations and all people. 
The original words are the same that are used for the heathen that rage, and 
the people that imagine against Christ, Ps. ii. 1 ; they that had been enemies 
to his kingdom should become his willing subjects. The Gospel of the kingdom 
was to be preached to all the world, for a witness to all nations, Mat. xxiv. 14 : 
i\Iar. xvi. 15. All nations shall be called, and to some of all nations the call shall 
be effectual, and they shall be discipled. 

2. How their admission into the church is foretold. By a repeated call to 
praise him. The tidings of the Gospel being sent to all nations should give 



PSALM 



CXVII. 




PEAISE the Lord, all ye nations: 



PSALM CXVIII. 563 

them cause to praise God. The institution of gospel ordinances would give them 
leave and opportunity to praise God, and the power of gospel grace would give 
them hearts to praise him. Those are highly favoured whom God invites by 
his word, and inclines by his Spirit to praise him, and so makes to be to him for 
a name and a praise : see Rev. vii. 9. 10. 

Secondly. The unsearchable riches of gospel grace, which are to be the 
matter of our praise, ver. 2. In the Gospel, those celebrated attributes of God, 
his mercy and his truth, shine most bright in themselves, and most comfortably 
to us ; and the apostle, when he quotes this psalm, takes notice of these as the 
two great things for which the Gentiles should glorify God, Rom. xv. 8, 9, for 
the truth of God, and for his mercy. We that enjoy the Gospel have reason to 
praise the Lord, 1. For the power of his mercy; "His merciful kindness is 
great toward us." It is strong, so the word signifies ; it is mighty for the par- 
don of mighty sins, (Am. v. 12,) and for the working out of a mighty salvation. 
2. For the perpetuity of his truth ; " The truth of the Lord endures for ever." 
It was mercy, mere mercy, to the Gentiles, that the Gospel was sent among 
them; it was merciful kindness prevailing toward them above their deserts; 
and in it the truth of the Lord, of his promise made unto the fathers, endures for 
ever; for though the Jews were hardened and expelled, yet the promise took 
its effect in the believing Gentiles, the spiritual seed of Abraham. God's mercy 
is the fountain of all our comforts; and his truth the foundation of all our 
hopes ; and therefore for both we must praise the Lord. 



PSALM CXVIII. 

It is probable David penned this psalm when he had after many a storm weathered his 
point at last, and gained a full possession of the kingdom to which he had been anointed. 
He then invites and stirs up his friends to join with him, not only in a cheerful 
acknowledgment of God's goodness, and a cheerful dependence upon that goodness for 
the future, but in a believing expectation of the promised Messiah, of whose kingdom and 
his exaltation to it his were typical; to him it is certain the prophet here bears witness 
in the latter part of the psalm. Christ himself applies it to himself, Mat. xxi. 42, and 
the former part of the psalm may fairly and without forcing be accommodated to him 
and his undertaking. Some think it was first calculated for the solemnity of the bring- 
ing of the ark to the city of David, and was afterwards sung at the feast of tabernacles. 
In it, I David calls upon all about him to give to God the glory of his goodness, 
ver. I — i. II. He encourageth himself and others to trust in God, from the experience 
he had had of God's power and pity in the great and kind things he had done for him, 
ver. 5 — 18. III. He gives thanks for his advancement to the throne, as it was a figure 
of the exaltation of Christ, ver. 19 — 23. IV. The people, the priests, and the psalmist 
himself, triumph in the prospect of the Redeemer's kingdom, ver. 24 — 29. In singing 
this psalm we must glorify God for his goodness, his goodness to us, and especially his 
goodness to us in Jesus Christ. 

OGIVE thanks unto the Lord ; for lie is good : 
Because his mercy endureth for ever. 

2 Let Israel now say, 

That his mercy endureth for ever. 

3 Let the house of Aaron now say, 
That his mercy endureth for ever. 

4 Let them now that fear the Lord say, 
That his mercy endureth for ever. 

5 I called upon the Lord in distress : 

The Lord answered me, and set me in a large place. 

6 The Lord is on my side ; 

I will not fear : what can man do unto me ? 

7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me : 
Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. 

8 It is better to trust in the Lord 
Than to put confidence in man. 



PSALM CXY1IL 



9 It is better to trust in the Lord 
Than to put confidence in princes. 

10 All nations compassed me about : 

But in the name of the Lord -will I destroy them. 

1 1 They compassed me about ; 
Yea, they compassed me about : 

But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. 

12 They compassed me about like bees ; 
They are quenched as the fire of thorns : 

for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. 

1 3 Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall : 
But the Lord helped me. 

14 The Lord is my strength and song, 
And is become my salvation. 

15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles 

of the righteous : 
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. 

16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted : 
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. 

1 7 I shall not die, but live, 

And declare the works of the Lord. 
IS The Lord hath chastened me sore : 

But he hath not given me over unto death. 

It appears here, as often elsewhere, that David had his heart full of the 
goodness of God ; he loved to think of it, loved to speak of it, and was very 
solicitous that God might have the praise of it, and others the comfort of it. 
The more our hearts are impressed with a sense of God's goodness the more 
they will be enlarged in all manner of obedience. In these verses, 

First. He celebrates God's mercy in general, and calls upon others to acknow- 
ledge it, from their own experience of it ; ver. 1, " O give thanks to the Lord, for 
he is " not only " good " in himself, but good to you ; and " his mercy endureth for 
ever," not only in the everlasting fountain, God himself, but in the never-failing 
streams of that mercy, which shall run parallel with the longest line of eternity, 
and in the chosen vessels of mercy, who will be for ever monuments of it. 
Israel, and the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, were called upon to trust 
in God, Ps. cxv. 9—11. Here they are called upon to confess that "his mercy 
endures for ever," and so to encourage themselves to trust in him, ver. 2 — 4. 
Priests and people, Jews and proselytes, must all own God's goodness, and all 
join in the same thankful song. If they can say no more, let them say this for 
him, that " his mercy endures for ever,'' that they have had experience' of it all 
their days, and confide in it for good things that shall last for ever. The praises 
and thanksgivings of all that truly fear the Lord shall be as pleasing to him as 
those of the house of Israel or the house of Aaron. 

Secondly. He preserves an account of God's gracious dealings with him in 
particular', which he communicates to others, that they might from thence fetch 
both songs of praise, and supports of faith, and both ways God would have 
glory. David had in his time waded through a great deal of difficulty, which 
gave him great experience of God's goodness. Let us therefore observe here, 

1. The great distress and danger that he had been in, which he reflects upon 
for the magnifying of God"s goodness to him in his present advancement. There 
are many who, when they are lifted up, care not for hearing or speaking of their 
former depressions, but David takes all occasions to remember his own low- 
estate. He was in distress, ver. 5, greatly straitened and at a loss ; there were 
many that hated him, ver. 7; and- that cannot but be a great grief to one of an 
ingenuous spirit that strives to gain the good affections of all. "All nations 
compassed him about," ver. 10. All the neighbour nations to Israel set them- 
selves to give disturbance to David, when he was newly come to the throne, 
Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Ammonites, &C.5 we read of his enemies round 



PSALM CXVIIL 5*5 

about, they were confederate against him, and thought to cut off all succours 
from him. This endeavour of his enemies to surround him is repeated, yer. 11, 
" They compassed me about, yea, they compassed me about," which intimates 
that they were virulent and violent, and for a time prevalent, in their attempts 
against him, and when put into disorder rallied again, and pushed on their 
design. " They compassed me about like bees, 1 ' so numerous were they, so 
noisy, so vexatious. They came flying upon him, came upon him in swarms, set 
upon him with their malignant stings : but it was to their own destruction, as 
the bee, they say, loseth her life with her sting, Animamque in vulnere ponit, — 
'She lays down her life in the wound.' " Lord, how are they increased that 
trouble me ?" Two ways David was brought into trouble : 1st. By the injuries 
that men did him ; ver. 13, " Thou " (O enemy) " hast thrust sore at me," with 
many a desperate push, "that I might fall " into sin and into ruin ; 'Thrusting 
thou hast thrust at me/ (so the word is,) ' so that I was ready to fall.' Satan is 
the great enemy that thrusts sore at us by his temptations to cast us down 
from our excellency, that we may fall from our God and from our comfort in 
him; and if God had not upheld us by his grace his thrusts had been fatal to us. 
2nd. By the afflictions which God laid upon him ; ver. 18, " The Lord hath 
chastened me sore." Men thrust at him for his destruction, God chastened him 
for his instruction; they thrust at him with the malice of enemies, God chas- 
tened him with the love and tenderness of a father. Perhaps he refers to the 
same trouble which God the author of it designed for his profit, that by it he 
might partake of his holiness, Heb, xii. 10, 11. Howbeit men, that were the 
instruments of it, meant not so, neither did their heart think so, but it was in 
their heart to cut off and destroy, Isa. x. 7. What men intend for the greatest 
mischief God intends for the greatest good, and it is easy to say whose counsel 
shall stand. God will sanctify the trouble to his people as it is his chastening, 
and secure the good he designs, and he will guard them against the trouble, as 
it is the enemies' thrusting, and secure them from the evil they design, and then 
we need not fear. 

This account which David gives of his troubles is very applicable to our Lord 
Jesus. Many there were that hated him, hated him without a cause ; they com- 
passed him about. Jews and Romans surrounded him; they thrust sore at 
him. The devil did so when he tempted him ; his persecutors did so when they 
reviled him ; nay, the Lord himself chastened him sore, bruised him, and put 
him to grief, that by his stripes we might be healed ; 

2. The favour God vouchsafed to him in his distress. 1st. God heard his 
prayer ; ver. 5, he answered me with enlargements, he did more for me than I 
was able to ask ; he enlarged my heart in prayer, and yet gave more largely 
than I desired. " He answered me and set me in a large place," (so we read it,) 
where I had room to bestir myself, room to enjoy myself, and room to thrive; and 
the large place was the more comfortable, because he was brought to it out of 
distress, Ps. iv. 1. 2nd. God baffled the designs of his enemies against him. " They 
are quenched as the fire of thorns," ver. 12, which burns furiously for a while ; 
makes a great noise and blaze, but is presently out, and cannot do the mischiei 
that it threatened. Such was the fury of David's enemies, such is the laughter 
of the fool ; like the cracking of thorns under a pot, Eccl. vii. 6 ; and such is the 
anger of the fool, which therefore is not to be feared, no more than his laughter 
is to be envied, but both to be pitied. They thrust sore at him, but the Lord 
helped him, ver. 13 ; helped him to keep his feet, and maintain his ground. Our 
spiritual enemies had long ere this been our ruin, if God had not been our 
helper. 3rd. God preserved his life when there was but a step between him 
and death, ver. 18. " He hath chastened me ; but he has not given me over unto 
death," for he has not given me over to the will of my enemies. To this St. Paul 
seems^ to refer, 2 Cor. vi. 9, "as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and 
not killed." We ought not therefore, when we are chastened sore, presently 
to despair of life, for God sometimes in appearance turns men to destruction, 
and yet saith, Return ; saith unto them, Live. 

This also is applicable to Jesus Christ. God answered him, and set him in 
a large place ; quenched the fire of his enemies' rage, which did but consume 
themselves, for "through death he destroyed him that had the power of 
death;" he helped him through his undertaking; and thus far he did not give 
him over unto death, that he did not leave him in the grave, nor suffer him to 
see corruption. Death had no dominion over him. 

3. The improvement he made of this favour. 

1st. It encouraged him to trust in God. Prom his own experience he can say, 
" It is better," more wise, and more comfortable, and more safe ; there is more 
reason for it, and it will speed better, " to trust in the Lord, than to put confi- 
dence in man," yea, though it be in princes, ver. 8, 9. He that devotes himself 
to God's conduct and government, with an entire dependence upon God's 
w r isdom, power and goodness, has a better security to make him easy, than if 
all the kings and potentates of the earth should undertake to protect him. 

2nd. It enabled him to triumph in that trust. 



^60 PSALM CXYIIL 

First. He triumphs in God, and in his relation to him, and interest in him ; 
ver. 6, "The Lord is on my side." He is a righteous God, and therefore 
espouseth my righteous cause, and will plead it. If we are on God's side, he is 
on ours. If we be for him and with him, he will be for us and with us; ver. 7, 
" The Lord taketh my part,"' and stands up for me "with them that help me/' 
He is to me among my helpers ; and so one of them, that he is all in all, both to 
them and me, and without him I could not help myself, noi could any friend I 
have in the world help me. Thus, ver. 14, " The Lord is my strength and my 
song," that is, I make him so; without him I am weak and sad, but on him X 
stay myself as my strength, both for doing and suffering, and in him I solace 
myself as my song, by which I both express my joy and ease my grief; and 
making him so 1 find him so ; he doth strengthen my heart with his graces, and 
rejoice my heart with his comforts. If God be our strength, he must be our 
song; if he w T ork all our works in us, he must have all praise and glory from 
us. God is sometimes the strength of his people when he is not their song ; 
they have spiritual supports when they want spiritual delights; but if he be 
both to us, we have abundant reason to triumph in him; for if he be our strength 
and our song, he is become not only our Saviour, but our salvation; for his 
being our strength is our protection to the salvation, and his being our song i3 
an earnest and foretaste of the salvation. 

Secondly. He triumphs over his enemies. Now shall his head be lifted up 
above them ; for, 1st. He is sure they cannot hurt him. God is for me, and 
then " I will not fear what man can do against me," ver. 6; he can set them all 
at defiance, and not be disturbed at any of their attempts. They can do nothing 
to me, but what God permits them to do; they can do me no real damage, for 
they cannot separate between me and God; they cannot do any thing but what 
God can make to work for my good. The enemy is a man, a depending crea- 
ture, whose power is limited and subordinate to a higher power; and therefore 
1 will not fear him; " Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man 
that shall die?" Isa. li. 12. The apostle quotes this with application to all 
Christians, Heb. xiii. 6 ; they may boldly say, as boldly as David himself, " The 
Lord is my helper ; I will not fear what man shall do unto me," let him do his 
worst. 2nd. He is sure he shall be too hard for them at last. "I shall see my 
desire upon them that hate me," ver. 7 ; that is, 1 shall see them defeated in 
their designs against me. Nay, " In the name of the Lord 1 will destroy them/' 
ver. 10 — 12; that is, i trust in the name of the Lord that I shall destroy them, 
and in his name 1 will go forth against them, depending on his strength, by 
warrant from him, and with an eye to his glory; not confiding in myself, or 
raking vengeance for mvself. Thus he went forth against Goliath in the name 
of the God of Israel, 1 Sam. xvii. 45. David saith this as a type of Christ, who 
triumphed over the powers of darkness, destroyed them, and made a show of 
them openly. 

Thirdly. He triumphs in an assurance of the continuance of his comfort, 
his victory, and his life. \st. Of his comfort j ver. 15, "The voice of rejoicing 
and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous," and in mine particu- 
larly, in my family. The dwellings of the righteous in this world are but 
tabernacles, mean and movable. Here we have no city, no continuing city; 
but these tabernacles are more comfortable to them than the palaces of the 
wicked are to them, for in the house where religion rules, m (1.) There is sal- 
vation ; safety from evil, earnests of eternal salvation, which is come to this 
house, Lu. xix. 9. (2.) Where there is salvation, there is cause for rejoicing, 
for continual joy in God. Holy joy is called the joy of salvation, for in that 
there is abundant matter for joy. (3.) "W here there is rejoicing, there ought 
to be the voice of rejoicing, that is, praise and thanksgiving. Let God be served 
with joyfulness and gladness of heart, and let the voice of that rejoicing 
be heard daily in our families to the glory of God, and the encouragement of 
others. 2nd. "Of his victory. "The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly," 
ver. 15, and "is exalted;" for (as some read it) it has exalted me. The right 
hand of God's power is engaged for his people, and it acts vigorously for them, 
and therefore victoriously ; for what difficulty can stand before the Divine 
valour ? We are weak, and act but cowardly for ourselves ; but God is mighty 
and acts valiantly for us, with jealousy and resolution, Isa. lxiii. 5, 6. There is 
spirit as well as strength in all God's operations for his people ; and when God's 
right hand doth valiantly for our salvation, it ought to be exalted in our praises. 
3rd. Of his life ; ver. 17, " I shall not die" by the hands of my enemies that seek 
my life, " but live, and declare the works of the Lord," that is, I shall live a 
monument of God's mercy and power ; his works shall be declared in me, and I 
will make it the business of my life to praise and magnify God, looking ivpcn 
that as the end of my preservation. Note, It is not worth while to live for any 
other purpose but to declare the works of God, for his honour, and the encou- 
ragement of others to serve him and trust in him. Such as these were the 
triumphs of the Son of DavH in the assurance he had of the success of his 
undertaking, and that the good pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his 
hand. 



PSALM CXVIII. 



5G7 



19 Open to me the gates of righteousness : 

I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord : 

20 This gate of the Lord, 

Into which the righteous shall enter. 
211 will praise thee : for thou hast heard me, 
And art become my salvation. 

22 The stone which the builders refused 
Is become the head stone of the corner. 

23 This ^9 the Lord's doing ; 
It is marvellous in our eyes. 

24 This is the day which the Lord hath made ; 
We will rejoice and be glad in it. 

25 Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord : 

0 Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. 

26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord : 
We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. 

27 God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light : 

Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the 

28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee : [altar. 
Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. 

29 0 give thanks unto the Lord ; for lie is good : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

We have here an illustrious prophecy of the humiliation and exaltation of our 
Lord Jesus, his sufferings, and the glory that should follow. Peter thus applied 
it, to the faces of the chief priests and scribes, and none of them could charge 
him with misapplying it, Acts iv. 11. Now observe here, m 

First. The preface with which this precious prophecy is introduced, ver. 19 — 21. 
1. The psalmist desires admission into the sanctuary of God, there to celebrate 
the glory of him that cometh in the name of the Lord. " Open to me the gates 
of righteousness." So the temple gates are called, because they were shut 
against the un circumcised, and forbade the stranger to come nigh ; as the sacri- 
fices there offered are called sacrifices of righteousness. Those that would 
enter into communion with God in holy ordinances must become humble 
suitors to God for admission ; and when the gates of righteousness are opened 
to us, we must go in to them, must enter into the holiest as far as we have 
leave, and praise the Lord. Our business within God's gates is to praise God ; 
therefore we should long till the gates of heaven be opened to us, that we may 
go into them to dwell in God's house above, where we shall be still praising 
him. 2. He sees admission granted him ; ver. 20, " This is the gate of the 
Lord," the gate of his appointing, u into which the righteous shall enter;" as 
if he had said, The gate you knocked at is opened, and you are welcome. 
"Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Some, by this gate, understand 
Christ, by whom we are taken into fellowship with God, and our praises are 
accepted. He is the way, no coming to the Father but by him, Jno. xiv. 6 ; he 
is the door of the sheep, Jno. x. 9; he is the gate of the temple, by whom, and 
by whom only, the righteous, and they only, shall enter, and come into God's 
righteousness, as the expression is, Ps. lxix. 27. The psalmist triumphs in the 
discovery that the gate of righteousness, which had been so long shut, and so 
long knocked at, was now at length opened. 3. He promiseth to give thanks to 
•God for this favour ; ver. 21, " I will praise thee." They that saw Christ's day 
at so great a distance, saw cause to praise God for the prospect, for in him 
they saw that God had heard them, had heard the prayers of the Old Testa- 
ment saints, for the coming of the Messiah, and would be their salvation. 

Secondly. The prophecy itself, ver. 22, 23. This may have some reference to 
David's preferment. He was the stone whom Saul and his courtiers rejected, 
but was, by the wonderful providence of God advanced to be the head- 



56S 



PSALM CXVIII. 



stone of the building; but its principal reference is to Christ, and here we 

have, 

1. His humiliation. He is "the stone which the builders refused." He is 
" the stone cut out of the mountain without hands," Dan. ii. 34. He is a stone, 
not only for strength, and firmness, and duration, but for life, in the building of 
the spiritual temple ; and yet a precious stone, 1 Pet. ii. 6 ; for the foundation 
of the gospel church must be sapphires, Isa. Ii v .11. This stone was rejected by 
the builders, that is, by the rulers and people of the Jews, Acts iv. 8, ]0, 11; 
they refused to own him as the stone, the Messiah promised ; they would not 
build their faith upon him, nor join themselves to him; they would make no 
use of him, but go on in their building without him ; they denied him in the 
presence of Pilate, Acts iii. 13, when they said, " We have no king but Cfesar." 
They trampled upon this stone, threw it among the rubbish out of the city ; nay, 
they stumbled at it. This was a disgrace to Christ,but it proved the ruin of 
those that thus made light of him. Rejecters of Christ are rejected of God. 

2. His exaltation. He "is become the head-stone of the corner," that is, he 
is advanced to the highest degree both of honour and usefulness, to be above 
all, and all in all. He is the chief corner-stone in the foundation, in whom Jew 
and Gentile are united, that they may be built up one holy house. He is the 
chief top-stone in the corner, in whom the building is completed, and who 
must in all things have the preeminence, as "the author and finisner of our 
faith." Thus highly hath God exalted him, because he humbled himself ; and 
•we, in compliance with God's design, must make him the foundation of our 
hope, the centre of our unity, and the end of our living. " To me to live is 
Christ." 

3. The hand of God in all this. "This is the Lord's doing;" it is from the 
Lord, it is with the Lord ; it is the product of his counsel, it is his contrivance ; 
both the humiliation and exaltation of the Lord Jesus was his work, Acts ii. 23 ; 
iv. 27, 28. He sent him, sealed him ; his hand went with him throughout his 
wmole undertaking, and from first to last he did his Father's will; and this 
ought to be marvellous in our eyes. Christ's name is Wonderful ; and the 
redemption he wrought out is the most amazing of all God's works of wonder ; 
it is what the angels desire to look into, and will be admiring to eternity ; much 
more ought we to admire it, who owe our all to it. "Without controversy, 
great is this mystery of godliness." 

Thirdly. The joy wherewith it is entertained, and the acclamations which 
attend this prediction. 

1. Let the day be solemnized to the honour of God with great joy: ver. 24, 
u This is the day the Lord has made." The whole time of the gospel dispensa- 
tion, that accepted time, that day of salvation, is what the Lord has made so, 
it is a continual feast, which ought to be kept with joy. Or, it may very fitly 
be understood of the Christian sabbath, which we sanctify in remembrance 
of Christ's resurrection, when the rejected stone began to be exalted. And so, 
1st. Here is the doctrine of the Christian sabbath. "It is the day which the 
Lord has made," has made remarkable, made holy, has distinguished it from 
other days ; he has made it for man. It is therefore called the Lord's day, for it 
bears his image and superscription. 2nd. The duty of the sabbath. The work 
of the day that is to be done in his day, "we will rejoice and be glad in it ;" not 
only in the institution of the day ? that there is such a day appointed, but in 
the occasion of it, Christ's becoming the head of the corner. This we ought 
to rejoice in, both as his honour and our advantage. Sabbath days must be 
rejoicing days, and then they are to us as the days of heaven. See what a good 
blaster we serve, who, having instituted a day for his service, appoints it to be 
spent in holy joy. 

2. Let the exalted Redeemer be met and attended with joyful hosannas, 
ver. 25, 26. 

1st. Let him have the acclamations of the people, as is usual at the inaugura- 
tion of a prince. Let every one of his loyal subjects shout for joy, " Save now, 
I beseech thee, O Lord." This is like Vivat rex } ~ Long live the king," and 
speaks both a hearty joy for his accession to the crown, an entire satisfaction 
in his government, and a zealous affection to the _ interests and honour of it. 
Hosanna signifies, " Save now, I beseech thee." First. Lord save me, I beseech 
thee. Let this Saviour be my Saviour, and, in order to that, my ruler. Let me 
be taken under his protection, and owned as one of his willing subjects. His 
enemies are my enemies; Lord, I beseech thee, save me from them. Send me an 
interest in that prosperity w r hich his kingdom brings with it to all those that 
entertain it. Let my soul prosper and be in health, in that peace and righteous- 
ness which his government brings, Ps. lxxii. 3. Let me have victory over those 
lusts that war against my soul, and let Divine grace go on in my heart, con- 
quering and to conquer. Secondly. Lord, preserve him, I beseech thee, even 
the Saviour himself, and send him prosperity in all his undertakings; give 
success to his Gospel, and let it be mighty through God to the pulling down 



PSALM CXIX. 569 

of strongholds, and reducing souls to their allegiance to him. Let his name be 
sanctified, his kingdom come, his will be done. Thus let prayer be made for 
him continually. Ps. lxxii. 15. On the Lord's day, when we rejoice and are 
glad in his kingdom, we must pray for the advancement of it more and more, 
and its establishment upon the ruins of the devil's kingdom. When Christ 
made his public entry into Jerusalem, he was thus met by his well wishers ; 
Mat. xxi. 9, "Hosanna to the Son of David," long live king Jesus; let him 
reign for ever. 

2nd. Let the priests, the Lord's ministers, do their part in this great solemnity, 
ver. 26. First. Let them bless the prince with their praises ; " Blessed is he that 
cometh in the name of the Lord." Jesus Christ is "he that cometh," 6 epxc/ievo?, 
he that was to come, and is yet to come again, Rev. i. 8. He comes in the name 
of the Lord, with a commission from him, to act for him, to do his will, and to 
seek his glory. And therefore we must say, " Blessed be he that cometh ; " that 
is, we must rejoice that he is come, we must speak well of him, admire him, and 
esteem him highly, as one we are eternally obliged to ; call him blessed Jesus, 
blessed for ever, Ps. xlv. 2. We must bid him welcome into our hearts, saying, 
" Come in, thou blessed of the Lord ; " come in by thy grace and Spirit, and 
take possession of me for thine own. Bless his faithful ministers that come in 
his name, and receive them for his sake, Isa. lii. 7 ; Jno. xiii. 20. We must pray 
for the enlargement and edification of his church; for the ripening of things for 
his second coming ; and then, that he who hath said, " Surely I come quickly," 
would even so come. Secondly. Let them bless the people with their prayers. 
" We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord." Christ's ministers" are 
not only warranted, but appointed, to pronounce a blessing in his name upon 
all his loyal subjects that love him and his government in sincerity, Eph. vi. 24. 
We assure you that in and through Jesus Christ you are blessed ; for he came 
to bless you ; you are blessed out of the house of the Lord, that is, with spiritual 
blessings in heavenly places, Eph. i. 3. and therefore have reason to bless him 
who hath thus blessed you. 

3. Let sacrifices of thanksgiving be offered to his honour, who offered for us 
the great atoning sacrifice, ver. 27. Here is, 1st. The privilege we enjoy by 
Jesus Christ. " God is the Lord which hath shewed us light." God is Jehovah 5 
is knowm by that name, a God performing what he hath promised, and per- 
fecting what he hath begun, Ex. vi. 3. He hath shewed us light: that is, 
he hath given us the knowledge of himself and his will; he hath shined 
upon us, (so some,) hath favoured us, and lifted up upon us the light of his 
countenance; he hath given us occasion for joy and rejoicing, which is light 
to the soul, by giving us a prospect of everlasting light in heaven. The day 
which the Lord hath made brings light with it, true light. 2nd. The duty 
which this privilege calls for. " Bind the sacrifice with cords," that, being 
killed, the blood of it may be sprinkled upon "the horns of the altar," accord- 
ing to the law ; or, perhaps it was the custom (though we read not of it else- 
where) to bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar, while things were getting 
ready for the slaying of it. Or this may have a peculiar significancy here ; the 
sacrifice we are to offer to God, in gratitude for redeeming love, is ourselves, 
not to be slain upon the altar, but living sacrifices, Rom. xii. 1, to be bound to 
the altar ; spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise, in which our hearts must be 
fixed and engaged, as the sacrifice was bound with cords to the horns of the 
altar, not to start back. 

Lastly. The psalmist concludes with his own thankful acknowledgments of 
Divine grace, in which he calls upon others to join with him, ver. 23, 29. 1. He 
will praise God himself, and endeavour to exalt him, in his own heart and in 
the hearts of others, and this because of his covenant relation to him, and 
interest in him. " Thou art my God," on whom I depend, and to whom I am 
devoted, who ownest me, and art owned by me, and therefore " I will praise 
thee." 2. He will have all about him to give thanks to God for this glad tidings 
of great joy to all people, that there is a Redeemer, even Christ the Lord, and 
in him it is that God is good to man, and that " his mercy endureth for ever ; " 
in him the covenant of grace is made, and in him it is made sure, made good, 
and made an everlasting covenant. He concludes the psalm as he began it, 
ver. 1, for God's glory must be the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, 
of all our addresses to him. "Hallowed be thy name, and thine is the glory." 
And this fitly closeth a prophecy of Christ. The angels give thanks for man's 
redemption; " Glory to God in the highest," {Lu. ii. 4,) for there is "on earth 
peace ;" to which we must echo with our hosannas, as they did, Lu. xix. 3b, 
Peace in heaven to us through Christ, and therefore glory in the highest. 

PSALM CXIX. 

This is a psalm by itself, like none of the rest ; it excels thern all, and shines brightest in 
this constellation. It is much longer than any of them ; more than twice as long as any 
of them. It is not making iong prayers that Christ censures, hut making them for a 



£70 PSALM CXIX. 

pretence, which intimates tha: they are themselves good and commendable. It seems 
to me to he a collection of David's pious and devout ejaculations, the short and sudden 
breathings and elevations of his soul to God, which he wrote down as they occurred, 
and towards the latter end of his time gathered them out of his day-book where thev 
lay scattered, added to them many like words, and digested them into this psalm, in 
which there is seldom any coherence between the verses, but, like Solomon's Proverbs, 
it is a chest of gold rings, not a chain of gold links. And we may not only learn by 
the psalmist's example to accustom ourselves to such pious ejaculations, which are 
an excellent means of maintaining constant communion with God, and keeping the 
heart in frame for the more solemn exercises of religion ; but we must make use of the 
psalmist's words, both for the exciting and for the expressing of our devout affections, 
and it is true what some have said of this psalm, he that shall read it considerately 
it will either warm him or shame him. I. The composure of it is singular and very 
nice. It is divided into twenty-two parts, according to the number of the letters of the 
Hebrew alphabet, and each part consists of eight verses ; all the verses of the first part be- 
ginning with Aleph, all the verses of the second with Beth, and so on without any flaw 
throughout the whole psalm. Archbishop Tillotson saith, ' It seems to have more of 
poetical skill and number in it than we at this distance can easily understand.' Some 
have called it the saint's alphabet, and it were to be wished we had it as ready in our 
memories as the very letters of our alphabet, as ready as our A, B, C. Perhaps the penman 
found it of use to himself to observe this method, as it obliged him to sink for thoughts, 
and search for them, that he might fill up the quota of every part ; and the letter he 
was to begin with might lead him to a word which might suggest a good sentence, and 
all little enough to raise anything that is good in the barren soil of our hearts. However, 
it would be of use to the learners, a help to them both in committing it to memory, and 
in calling it to mind upon occasion ; by the letter the first word would be got, and that 
would bring in the whole verse. Thus young people would the easier learn it by heart, 
and retain it the better even ia old age. If any censure it as childish and trifling, 
because acrostics are now quite out of fashion, let them know that the royal psalmist 
despiseth their censure ; he is a teacher of babes, and if this method may be beneficial 
to them, he can easily stoop to it. "If this be to be vile, he will be yet more vile." 
II. The general scope and design of it is to "magnify the law, and make ithonouraole," 
to set forth the excellency and usefulness of Divine revelation, and to recommend it 
to us, not only for the entertainment, but for the government of ourselves, by the 
psalmist's own example, who speaks by experience of the benefit of it, and of the good 
impressions made upon him by it, for which he praiseth God, and earnestly prays from 
first to last for the continuance of God's grace with him to direct and quicken him in 
the way of his duty. There are ten several words by which Divine revelation is called 
in this psalm ; and they are upon the matter synonymous, each of them expressive of the 
whole compass of it, both that which tells us what God expects from us and that which 
tells us what we may expect from him; and of the system of religion which is founded 
upon it, and guided by it. The things contained in the Scripture and drawn from it are 
here called, 1. God's law, because they are enacted by him as our sovereign. 2. His way, 
because they are the rule both of his providence and of our obedience. 3. His testimo- 
nies, because they are solemnly declared to the world, and attested beyond contradiction. 
4. His commandments, because given with authority, and (as the word signifies) lodged 
with us as a trust. 5. His precepts, because prescribed to us, and not left indifferent. 
6. His word, or saying, because it is the declaration of his mind, and Christ the essen- 
tial Eternal Word is all in all in it. 7. His judgments, because framed in infinite 
wisdom, and because by them we must both judge and be judged. 8. His righteousness, 
because it is all holy, just, and good, and the rule and standard of righteousness. 9. His 
statutes, because they are fixed and determined, and of perpetual obligation. 10. His 
truth or faithfulness, because the principles upon which the Divine law is built are 
eternal truths. And I think there is but one verse (it is ver. 122) in all this long 
psalm in which there is not one or other of these ten words ; only in three or four they 
are used concerning God's providence or David's practice, as ver. 75, 84, 121, and 
ver. 132. They are called God's name. The great esteem and affection David had for 
the word of God is the more admirable considering how little he had of it in comparison 
with what we have ; no more perhaps in writing than the first books of Moses, which 
were but the dawning of this day, which may shame us who enjoy the full discoveries 
of Divine revelation, and yet are so cold towards it. In singing this psalm, there is 
work for all the devout affections of a sanctified soul, so copious, so various is the 
matter of it. We here find that in which we must give glory to God, both as our 
ruler and great benefactor; and that in which we are to teach and admonish ourselves 
and one another, so many are the instructions which we here find about a religious 
life; and to comfort and encourage ourselves and one another, so many are the sweet 
experiences of one that lived such a life. Here is something or other to suit the case 
of every Christian. Is any afflicted? is any merry? each will find that here that is 
proper for them. And it is so far from being a tedious repetition of the same thing, as 
may seem to those who look over it cursorily, that if we duly meditate upon it we 
shall find almost every verse has a new thought, and something in it very lively. And 
this, as many other of David's psalms, teaches us to be sententious in our devotions, 
both alone and when others join with us ; for ordinarily the affections, especially of 
weaker Christians, are more likely to be raised and kept by short expressions, the sense 
of which lies in a little room, than by long and laboured periods. 



PSALM CXIX. 



571 



1. ALE PH. 

BLESSED are the undefiled in the way. 
Who walk in the law of the Lokd. 

2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, 
And that seek him with the whole heart. 

3 They also do no iniquity : 
They walk in his ways. 

The psalmist here shews that godly people are happy people ; they are and 
shall be blessed indeed. Felicity is the tiling we all pretend to aim at an€l 
pursue; he doth not say here wherein it consists ; it is enough for us to know 
what we must do and be, that we may attain to it, and that w e are here told. 
All men would be happy; but few take the right way. God has here laid 
before us the right way, which we may be sure will end in happiness, though 
it be strait and narrow. Blessednesses are to the righteous; all manner of 
blessedness. Now observe the characters of the happy people. 

First. They are happy that make the will of God the rule of all their actions, 
and govern themselves in their whole conversation by that rule, They ''walk 
in the law of the Lord," ver. 1; that is, God's word is a law to them; not only 
in this or that particular instance, but in the whole course of their conversa- 
tions. They walk within the hedges of that law which they dare not break 
through by doing any thing it forbids ; and they walk in the paths of that law, 
which they will not trifle in, but press forwards in them towards the mark, 
taking every step by rule, and never walking at all adventures. This is walking 
in God's ways, ver. 3, the ways which he has marked out to us, and has 
appointed us to walk in. It will not serve us to make religion the subject of 
our talk, but we must make it the rule of our walk. _ Walk in his ways, nut 
in the way of the world, or of our own hearts, Job xxiii. 10, 11 ; xxxi. 7. 

Secondly. That are upright and honest in their religion; "undefiled in the 
way;" not only that keep themselves pure from the pollutions of actual sin, 
" unspotted from the world," but they are habitually sincere in their intentions, 
"in whose spirit there is no guile/'* who are really as good as they seem to be 
and row the same way they look. 

Thirdly. That are true to the trust reposed in them as God's professing 
people. It was the honour of the Jews that "to them were committed the 
oracles of God," and blessed are they who preserve pure and entire that sacred 
depositum; that keep his testimonies as a treasure of inestimable value, keep 
them as the apple of their eye, so keep them as to carry the comfort of them 
themselves to another world, and leave the knowledge and profession of them 
to those that shall come after them in this world. _ They that would « alk in the 
law of the Lord must keep his testimonies, that is, his truths. Those will not 
long make conscience of good practices that do not adhere to good principles. 
Or, his testimonies; that is, his covenant. The ark of the covenant is called 
the ark of the testimony. Those do not keep covenant with God that do not 
keep the commandments of God. 

Fourthly. That have a single eve to God as their chief good and highest end 
in all they do in religion ; ver. 2, " They seek him with their whole heart.'' They 
do not seek themselves and their own things, but God only. This is that which 
they aim at, that God may be glorified in their obedience, and that they may be 
happy in God's acceptance. He is, and will be, the rewarder, the reward, of all 
those that thus seek him diligently, seek him with the heart, for that is it that 
God looks at and requires ; and with the whole heart, for if the heart be divided 
between him and the world it is faulty. 

Fifthly. That carefully avoid all sin, ver. 3. They do no iniquity ; that is, 
they do not allow themselves in any sin, they do not commit it as those do that 
are the servants of sin ; they do not make a practice of it, do not make a trade 
of it ; they are conscious to themselves of much iniquity that clogs them in the 
ways of God; but not of that iniquity which draws them out of those ways. 
Blessed and holy are they who thus exercise themselves to have always con- 
sciences void of offence. 

4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently, 

5 0 that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes ! 

6 Then shall I not be ashamed, 

When I have respect unto all thy commandments. 



572 PSALM CXIX. 

We are here taught, 

First. To own ourselves under the highest obligations to walk in God's law, 
The tempter would possess men with an opinion, that they are at their liberty 
whether they will make the word of God their rule or no ; that though it may 
be good, yet it is not so necessary as they are made to believe it is. He taught 
our first parents to question the command, " Hath God said, Ye shall not eat ?" 
And therefore we are concerned to be well established in this ; ver. 4, " Thou 
hast commanded us to keep thy precepts," to make religion our rule ; and to 
keep them " diligently," to make religion our business, and to mind it carefully 
and constantly. We are bound, and must obey at our peril. 

Secondly. To look up to God for wisdom and grace to do so ; ver. 5, " O that 
my ways were directed " accordingly ; that is, not only that all events concern- 
ing us may be so ordered and disposed by the providence of God, as not to be 
in any thing a hindrance to us, but a furtherance rather in the service of God, 
but that our hearts may be so guided and influenced by the Spirit of God as 
that we may not in any thing transgress God's commandments. Not only that 
our eyes may be directed to behold God's statutes, but our hearts directed to 
keep them. See how the desires and prayer of a good man exactly agree with 
the will and command of a good God. Thou wouldst have me keep thy pre- 
cepts ; and, Lord, I fain would keep them. "This is the will of God, even our 
sanctification," and it should be our will. 

Thirdly. To encourage ourselves in the way of our duty with a prospect of 
the comfort we shall find in it, ver. 6. Note, 1. It is the undoubted character 
of every good man that he hath a respect to all God's commandments. He hath 
a respect to the command, eyes it as his copy, and aims to conform to it, is 
sorry wherein he comes short ; and what he doth in religion doth it in conscience 
of the command, because it is his duty. He hath respect to all the command- 
ments, one as well as another, because they are all backed with the same 
authority, Jas. ii. 10, 11, and all levelled at the same end, — the glorifying of God 
In our happiness. Those that have a sincere respect to any command will have 
a general respect to every command ; to the commands of both testaments and 
both tables ; to the prohibitions and the precepts ; to those that concern both 
the inward and the outward man ; both the head and the heart ; to those that 
forbid the most pleasant and gainful sins, and to those that require the most 
difficult and hazardous duties. 2. Those that have a sincere respect to all God's 
commandments shall not be ashamed ; not only they will thereby be kept from 
doing that which will turn to their shame, but they shall have confidence 
towards God and boldness of access to the throne of his grace, 1 Jno. iii. 21. 
They shall have credit before men, their honesty will be their honour; and 
they shall have clearness and courage in their own souls ; they shall not be 
ashamed to retire into themselves, nor to reflect upon themselves, for their 
hearts shall not condemn them. David speaks this with application to himself ; 
they that are upright may take the comfort of their uprightness ; as, if I be 
wicked, woe to me ; so, if I be sincere, it is well with me. 

7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, 

When I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. 

8 I will keep thy statutes : 
0 forsake me not utterly. 

Here is, First. David's endeavour to perfect himself in his religion, and to make 
himself, as we say, master of his business. He hopes to have learned God's 
righteous judgments ; he knew much, but he was still pressing forward, and 
desired to know more, as knowing this ; that he had not yet attained ; but, as 
far as perfection is attainable in this life, he reached towards it, and will not 
take up short of it. As long as we live we must be scholars in Christ's school, 
and sit at his feet; but we should aim to be head- scholars, and to get into 
the highest form. God's judgments are all righteous, and therefore it is 
desirable not only to learn them, but to be learned in them, mighty in the 
Scriptures. 

Secondly. The use he would make of his Divine learning He coveted to be 
learned in the laws of God, not that he might make himself a name and interest 
among men, or fill his own head with entertaining speculations, but, 1. That 
he might give God the glory of his learning. " I will praise thee when I have 
learned thy judgments," intimating that he could not learn unless God taught 
him, and that Divine instructions are special blessings, which we have reason 
to be thankful for. Though Christ keeps a free school, and teacheth without 
money and without price, yet he expects his scholars should give him thanks both 
for his word and for his Spirit. Sure it is a mercy worth thanks to be taught 
so gainful a calling as religion is. And those have learned a good lesson that 
have learned to praise God ; for that is the work of angels, the work of heaven. 
It is an easy thing to praise God in word and tongue; but those only are well 



PSALM CXIX. 



573 



learned in this mystery that have learned to praise him with uprightness of 
heart : that is, are inward with him in praising of him, and sincerely aim at his 
glory m the course of their conversation, as well as in the exercises of devotion. 
God accepts only the praises of the upright. 2. That he might himself come 
under the government of that learning. When I shall have learned thy right- 
eous judgments, I will keep thy statutes. We cannot keep them unless we learn 
them; but we learn them in vain if we do not keep them. Those have well 
learned God's statutes that are come up to a full resolution in the strength of 
his grace to keep them. 

Thirdly. His prayer to God not to leave him : " O forsake me not ;" that is, 
leave me not to myself, withdraw not thy Spirit and grace from me, for then 1 
shall not keep thy statutes. Good men see themselves undone if God forsakes 
them, for then the tempter will be too hard for them. Though thou seem to 
forsake me, and threaten to forsake me, and dost for a time withdraw from me, 
yet let not the desertion be total and final, for that is hell. " O forsake me not 
utterly," for woe unto me if God departs from me. 

2. BETH. 

9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? 
By taking heed thereto according to thy word. 

Here is, First. A weighty question asked, by what means the next genera- 
tion maybe made better than this; " Wherewithal shall a young inan cleanse 
his way ?" Cleansing implies that it is polluted. Besides the original corrup- 
tion we all brought into the world with us, J" from which we are not cleansed 
unto this day,") there are many particular sins which young people are subject 
to, by which they defile their way. Youthful lusts, 2 Tim. ii. 22; these render 
the way offensive to God, and disgraceful to themselves. Young men are con- 
cerned to cleanse their way, that is, to get their hearts renewed and their lives 
reformed ; to make clean, and keep clean, from " the corruption that is in the 
world through lust," that they may have both a good conscience and a good 
name. Few young people do themselves inquire by what means they may 
recover and preserve their purity, and therefore David asks the question for 
them. 

Secondly. A satisfactory answer given to this question. Young men may 
effectually cleanse their way, "by taking heed thereto according to the word of 
God;" and it is the honour of the word of God that it has such power, and is 
of such use both to particular persons and to communities, whose happiness 
lies much in the virtue of their youth. 1. Young men must make the word of 
God their rule, must acquaint themselves with it, and resolve to conform them- 
selves to it. That will do more towards the cleansing of young men than the 
laws of princes, or the morals of philosophers. 2. They must carefully apply 
that rule, and make use of it. They must take heed to their way, must examine 
it by the word of (iod as a touchstone and standard; must rectify what is amiss 
in it by that regulator, and steer by that chart and compass. God's word will 
not do without our watchfulness, and a constant regard both to it and to our 
way, that we may compare them together. The ruin of young men is either 
living at large or by no rule at all, or choosing to themselves false rules; let 
them ponder the path of their feet, and walk by Scripture rules, so that their 
way be clean, and they shall have the comfort and credit of it here and for 
ever. 

10 With my whole heart have I sought thee : 

0 let me not wander from thy commandments. 

Here is, First. David's experience of a good work God had wrought in him, 
which he takes the comfort of, and pleads with God : " I have sought thee," 
sought to thee as my oracle ; sought after thee as my happiness ; sought thee 
as my God; for should not a people seek after their God ? If I have not yet 
found thee, I have sought thee ; and thou never saidst, Seek in vain, nor wilt 
say so to me; for I have sought thee with my heart,— with my whole heart; 
sought thee only, — sought thee diligently. 

Secondly. His prayer for the preservation of that work; Thou that hast 
inclined me to seek thy precepts, never suffer me to wander from them. The 
best are sensible of their aptness to wander ; and the more we have found of 
the pleasure there is in keeping God's commandments, the more afraid we shall 
be of wandering from them, and the more earnest we shall be ir prayer to God 
for his grace to prevent our wanderings. 

11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, 
That I might not sin against thee. 



574 PSALM CXIX. 

Here is, First. The close application which David made of the word of God 
to himself ; " He hid it in his heart," laid it up there, that it might be ready to 
him, whenever he had occasion to use it. < He laid it up as that which he valued 
highly, and had a dear love for, and which he was at raid of losing, and being 
robbed of. God's word is a treasure worth laying up, and there is no laying it 
up safe but in our hearts. If we have it only in our houses and hands enemies 
may take it from us; if only in our heads our memories may fail us ; but if our 
hearts be delivered into the mould of it, and the impressions of it remain on 
our souls, it is safe. 

Secondly. The good uses he designed to make of it ; "that I might not sin 
against thee." Good men are afraid of sin, and are in care to prevent it ; and 
the most effectual way to prevent it is to hide God's word in our hearts, that 
we may answer every temptation, as our Master did, with, " It is written ;" may 
oppose God"s precepts to the dominion of sin, his promises to its allurements, 
and his threatenings to its menaces. 

12 Blessed art thou, 0 Lord : 
Teach me thy statutes. 

Here, First. David gives glory to God; " Blessed art thou, O Lord." Thou 
art infinitely happy in the enjoyment of thyself, and hast no need of me or my 
services, yet thou art pleased to reckon thyself honoured by them ; assist me, 
therefore, and then accept me. In all our prayers we should intermix praises. 

Secondly. He asks grace from God; "Teach me thy statutes," thai is, give 
me to know and do my duty in every thing. Thou art the fountain of all 
blessedness ; O let me "have this drop from that fountain, this blessing from 
that blessedness. Teach me thy statutes, that I may know how to bless thee, 
who art a blessed God, and that' I may be blessed in thee. 

13 With my lips have I declared 
All the judgments of thy mouth. 

14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, 
As much as in all riches. 

15 1 will meditate in thy precepts, 
And have respect unto thy ways. 

16 1 will delight myself in thy statutes : 
I will not forget thy word. 

Here, First. David looks back with comfort upon the respect he had paid 
to the word of God. He had the testimony of his conscience for him, 

1. That he had edified others with what he had been taught out of the word 
of God; ver. 13, "With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy 
mouth." This he did not only as a king in making orders, and giving judg- 
ment according to the word of God, nor only as a prophet by his psalms, but 
in his common discourse. Thus he shewed how full he was of the word of 
God, and what a holy pride he took in his acquaintance with it ; for it is out 
of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Thus he did good with his 
knowledge ; he did not hide God's word from others, but hide it for them ; and 
out of that good treasure in his heart brought forth good things, as the house- 
bolder out of his store, — things new and old. They whose hearts are fed with 
the bread of life should with their lips feed many. He had prayed, ver. 12, 
that God would teach him; and here he pleads, Lord, I have endeavoured to 
make a good use of the knowledge thou hast given me, therefore increase it ; 
for to him that hath shall be given. 

2. That lie had entertained himself with it; "Lord, teach me thy statutes," 
for I desire no greater pleasure than to know and do them; ver. 14, "I have 
rejoiced in the way of thy commandments," that is, in a constant even course 
of obedience to thee; not only in the speculations and histories of thy word, 
but in the precepts of it, and in that path of serious godliness which they chalk 
out to me. " I have rejoiced in this, as much as in all riches ;" as much as ever 
any worldling rejoiced in the increase of his wealth. In the way of God's 
commandments I can truly say, Soul, take thine ease. In true religion there 
is all riches, the unsearchable riches of Christ. 

Secondly. He looks forward with a holy resolution, never to cool in his affec- 
tion to the word of God; what he doth, that he will do, 2 Cor. xi. 12. They 
that have found pleasure in the ways of God, are likely to proceed and per- 
severe in them. 



PSALM CXIX. 575 

1. He will dwell much upon them in his thoughts; ver. 15, "I will meditate 
in thy precepts." He not only discoursed of them to others, (many do that only 
to shew their knowledge and authority,) but he communed with his own heart 
about them, and took pains to digest in his own thoughts what he had declared, 
or had to declare to others. Note, God's words ought to be very much the 
subject of our thoughts. 

2. He will have them always in his eye. " I will have respect unto thy ways," 
as the traveller has to his road, which he is in care not to miss, and always aims 
and endeavours to hit. We do not meditate on God's precepts to good purpose 
unless we have respect to them as our rule, an«d our good thoughts produce 
good works, and good intentions in them. 

3. He will take a constant pleasure in communion with God, and obedience 
to him. It is not for a season that he rejoiceth in this light, but "I will" still, 
I will for ever, "delight myself in thy statutes;" not only think of them, but 
do them with delight, ver. 16. David took more delight in God's statutes 
than in the pleasures of his court, or the honours of his camp,— more than in 
his sword or in his harp. When the law is written in the heart duty becomes 
a delight. 

4. He will never forget what he has learned of the things of God; "I will 
not forget thy word;" not only 1 will not quite forget it, but I will be mindful 
of it when I have occasion to use it. They that meditate in God's word, and 
delight in it, are in no great danger of forgetting it. 

3. GIMEL. 

17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, 
And keep thy word. 

We are here taught, 

First. That we owe our lives to God's mercy. David prays, "Deal bounti- 
fully with me, that I may live." It was God's bounty that gave us life, that 
gave us this life; and the same bounty that gave it continues it, and gives all 
the supports and comforts of it, which if withheld we die, or, which is equiva- 
lent, our lives are embittered, and we are become weary of them. If God deals 
in strict justice with us, "we die, we perish, we all perish;" it' these forfeited 
lives be preserved and prolonged, jt is because God deals bountifully with us, 
according to his mercy, not according to our deserts. The continuance of the 
most useful life is owing to God's bounty, and on that we must have a con- 
tinual dependence. 

Secondly. That therefore we ought to spend our lives in God's service. 
Life is therefore a choice mercy, because it is an opportunity of obeying God 
in this world, where there are so few that do glorify him ; and this David had 
in his eye. Not that I may live and grow rich, live and be merry, but "that I may 
live and keep thy word;" may observe it myself, and transmit it to those that 
shall come after, which the longer I live the better I shall do. 

18 Open thou mine eyes, 

That I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. 

Observe here. 

First. That there are wondrous things in God's law, w T hich we are all con- 
cerned, and should covet, to behold ; not only strange things, which are very 
surprising and unexpected, but excellent things, which are to be highly esteemed 
and valued, and things which w 7 ere long hid from the wise and prudent, but are 
now revealed unto babes. If there were wonders in the law, much more in the 
Gospel, where Christ is all in all, whose name is Wonderful. Well may we, who 
are so nearly interested, desire to behold these w^ondrous things, when the 
angels themselves reach to look into them, 1 Pet. i. 12. 

Secondly. Those that would see the wondrous things of God's law and 
Gospel must beg of him to open their eyes, and to give them an understanding. 
We are by nature blind to the things of God, till his grace causes the scales to 
fall from our eyes ; and even those in whose hearts God hath said, Let there 
be light, have yet need to be farther enlightened, and must still pray to God 
to open their eyes yet more and more, that they who at first saw men as trees 
walking may come to see all things clearly. And the more God opens oup 
eyes the more wonders we see in the word of God, which we saw not before. 

19 1 am a stranger in the earth : 

Hide not thy commandments from me. 

Here we have, 

First. The acknowledgment which David makes of his own condition^ "lam 



576 



PSALM OXIX. 



a stranger in the earth." We all are so, and all good people confess themselves 
to be so, for heaven is their home, and the world is but their inn, the land of 
their pilgrimage. David was a man that knew as much of the world, and was 
as well known in it, as most men. God built him a house, established his 
throne ; strangers submitted to him, and people that he had not known served 
him ; he had a name like the names of the great men, and yet he calls himself 
a stranger. We are all strangers on earth, and must so account ourselves. 

Secondly. The request he makes to God thereupon; "Hide not thy com- 
mandments from me ;" he means more ; Lord, shew thy commandments to me ; 
^et me never know the w r ant of the word of God, but as long as I live give me to 
be growing in my acquaintance with it. I am a stranger, and therefore stand 
in need of a guide, a guard, a companion, a comforter; let me have thy com- 
mandments always in view, for they will be all this to me, all that a poor 
stranger can desire. I am a stranger here, and must be gone shortly ; by thy 
commandments let me be prepared for my removal hence. 

20 My soul breaketh [times. 
For the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all 

David had prayed that God would open his eyes, ver. 18, and open the law, 
ver. 19 ; now here he pleads the earnestness of his desire towards knowledge 
and grace, for it is the fervent prayer that avails much 

First. His desire was importunate. "My soul breaketh for the longing it 
hath to thy judgments ;" or, as some read it, it is taken up and wholly employed 
in longing for thy judgments. The whole stream of its desires runs in this 
channel. I shall think myself quite broken and undone if I want the word 
of God, the conduct, converse, and comfort of it. 

Secondly. It was constant; " at all times." It was not now and then in a good 
humour, that he was so fond of the word of God, but it is the habitual temper 
of every sanctified soul to hunger after the word of God, as its necessary food 
which there is no living without. 

21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, 
Which do err from thy commandments. 

Here is, First. The wretched character of wicked people. The temper of 
their minds is bad ; they are proud ; they magnified themselves above others. 
And vet that is not all; 'they magnify themselves against God, and set up their 
wills in competition with, and opposition to, the will of God, as if their hearts 
and tongues and all were their own. There is something of pride at the bottom 
of every wilful sin. And the tenor of their laws is no better ; they do err from 
thy commandments, as Israel, that did always err in their hearts ; they err in 
juagment, and embrace principles contrary to thy commandments, and then 
no wonder they err in practice, and wilfully turn aside out of the good way. 
This is the effect of their pride ; for they say, " What is the Almighty, that 
we should serve him?" as Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord?" 

Secondly. The wretched case of such. They are certainly cursed ; for God 
resists the proud ; and they that throw off the commands of the law lay them- 
selves under its curse, Gal. hi. 10 ; and he that now beholds them afar off will 
shortly say to them, Go, ye cursed. The proud sinners bless themselves, God 
curseth them. And though the most direful effects of this curse are reserved for 
the other world, yet they are oftentimes severely rebuked in this world. Provi- 
dence crosseth them, vexeth them, and, wherein they deal proudly, God shews 
himself above them ; and these rebukes are earnests of worse. David took notice 
of the rebukes proud men were under, and it made him cleave the more closely 
to the word of God, and pray the more earnestly that he might not err from 
God's commandments. Thus saints get good by God's judgments on sinners. 

22 Remove from me reproach and contempt ; 
For I have kept thy testimonies. 

Here, First. David prays against the reproach and contempt of men, that 
they might be removed, or, as the word is, rolled from off him. This intimates 
that they lay upon him, and neither his greatness nor his goodness could secure 
liim from being libelled and lampooned. Some despised him, and endeavoured 
to make him mean; others reproached him, a.nd endeavoured to make him 
odious. It has often been the lot of those that do well to be ill spoken of. It 
intimates, that they lay heavy upon him ; hard words, indeed, and foul words 
bFeak no bones, and yet they are very grievous to a tender and ingenuous spirit. 
Therefore David prays, Lord, remove them from me, that I may not be thereby 



PSALM CXIX. 577 

either driven from my duty or discouraged in it. God hath all men's hearts 
and tongues in his hand, and can silence lying lips, and raise up a good name 
that is trodden into the dust. To him we may appeal as the asserter of right, 
and avenger of wrong ; and may depend on his promise that he will clear up 
our righteousness as the light, Ps. xxxvii. 6. Keproach and contempt may 
humble us and do us good, and then it shall be removed. 

Secondly. He pleads his constant adherence to the word and way of God; 
"for I have kept thy testimonies." He not only pleads his innocency, that he 
was unjustly censured, but, 1. That he was jeered for well-doing. He was 
despised and abused for his strictness and zeal in religion ; so that it was for 
God's name's sake that he suffered reproach, and therefore he could with the 
more assurance beg of God to appear for him. The reproach of God's people, 
if it be not removed now, it will lie turned into the greater honour shortly. 
2. That he was not jeered out of well-doing. Lord, remove it from me, "for 
I have kept thy testimonies" notwithstanding. If in a day of trial we still 
retain our integrity, we may be sure it will end well. 

23 Princes also did sit and speak against me : 
But thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. 

See here, First. How David was abused even by great men, that should 
have known better his character and his case, and have been more generous. 
" Princes did sit," — sit in council, sit in judgment, — "and speak against me." 
"What even princes say is not always right; but it is sad when judgment is 
thus turned to wormwood, — when those that should be the protectors of the 
innocent are their betrayers. Herein David was a type of Christ ; for they 
were the princes of this world that vilified and crucified the Lord of glory, 
1 Cor. ii. 8. 

Secondly. What method he took to make himself easy under these abuses. 
He meditated in God's statutes, went on in his duty, and did not regard them; 
as a deaf man he heard not. When they spoke against him he found that in 
the word of God w^hich spoke for him, and spoke comfort to him, and then 
none of these tilings moved him. They that have pleasure in communion with 
God may easily despise the censures of men, even of princes. 

24 Thy testimonies also are my delight 
And my counsellors. 

Here David explains his meditating in God's statutes, ver. 23, which was of 
such use to him when princes sat and spoke against him. 

First. Did the affliction make him sad, the word of God comforted him, and 
was his delight, more his delight than any of the pleasures either of court or 
camp, of city or country. Sometimes it proves that the comforts of the word 
of God are most pleasant to a gracious soul then when other comforts are 
embittered. 

Secondly. Did it perplex him,— was he at a loss what to do when the princes 
spoke against him? God's statutes were his counsellors, and they counselled 
him to bear it patiently, and commit his cause to God. God's testimonies will 
be the best counsellors, both to princes and private persons. ' They are the men 
of my counsel,' so the word is. There is more safety and satisfaction in con- 
sulting them than in the multitude of other counsellors. Observe here, those 
that would have God's testimonies to be their delight must take them for 
their counsellors, and be advised by them. And let those who take them for 
their counsellors in close walking take them for their delight in comfortable 
walking. 

4. DALETH. 

25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust : 
Quicken thou me according to thy word. 

Here is, First. David's complaint. We would have thought his soul soaring 
to heaven ; but he saith himself, My soul not only rolls in the dust, but cleaves 
to the dust, which is a complaint either, 1. Of his corruptions,— his inclination 
to the world and the body,— both which are dust, and that which follows upon 
it, a deadness to holy duties ; when he would do good evil is present with him. 
God spoke Adam not only mortal, but sinful, when he said, "Dust thou art," 
Gen. hi. 19. David's complaint here is like St. Paul's, of a body of death he 
carried about with him. The remainders of indwelling corruption are a very 
grievous burthen to a gracious soul. Or, 2. Of his afflictions, either trouble 
of mind or outward trouble ; " Without were fightings, within were fears," and 
both together brought him even to the dust of death, Ps. xxii. 15. and his soul 
clave inseparably to it. 

20 



578 



PSALM CXIX. 



Secondly. His petition for relief, and his plea to enforce that petition ; 
" Quicken thou me according to thy word." By thy providence put life into 
my affairs, by thy grace put life into my affections, cure me of my spiritual 
deadness, and make me lively in my devotion. Note, When we find ourselves 
dull, we must go to God, and beg of him to quicken us. He has an eye to God's 
word as a means of quickening ; for the words which God speaks they arc spirit, 
and they are life to those that receive them ; and as an encouragement to hope 
that God would quicken them, having promised grace and comfort to all the 
saints, and to David in particular. God's word must be our guide and plea in 
every prayer. 

26 1 have declared my ways, and thou heardest me : 
Teach me thy statutes. 

27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts : 
So shall I talk of thy wondrous works. 

Here is, First. The great intimacy and freedom that had been between 
David and his God. David had opened his case, opened his very heart to 
God; "I have declared my ways," and acknowledged thee in them all, have 
taken thee along with me in all my designs and enterprises. Thus Jephthah 
uttered all his words, and Hezekiah spread his letters, before the Lord. "I 
have declared my ways," that is, my wants, and burthens, and troubles I meet 
with in my way ; or my sins, my byways. I have made an ingenuous confession 
of them, " and thou heardest me," heardest me patiently all 1 had to say, and 
tookedst cognizance of my case. It is an unspeakable comfort to a gracious 
soul to think with what tenderness all its complaints are received by a gracious 
God, 1 Jno. v. 14, 15. 

Secondly. David's earnest desire of the continuance of that intimacy, not by 
visions and voices from heaven, but by the word and Spirit in an ordinary 
way; "Teach me thy statutes," that is, " Make me to understand the way of 
thy precepts." When he knew God had heard his declaration of his ways, he 
doth not say, Now, Lord, tell me my lot, and let me know what the event 
will be; but, Now, Lord, tell me mv duty, let me know what thou wouldest 
have me to do as the case stands. Note, Those that in all their ways acknow- 
ledge God may pray in faith that he will direct their steps in the right way. 
And the surest way of keeping up our communion with God, is, by learning 
his statutes and w r alking intelligently in the way of his precepts : see 1 Jno. i. 6, 7. 

Thirdly. The good use he would make of this for the honour of God and the 
edification of others; Let me have a good understanding of the way of thy 
precepts, give me a clear, distinct, and methodical knowledge of Divine things, 
"so shall I talk" with the more assurance, and the more to the purpose, "of 
thy wondrous works." We can talk with a better grace of God's wondrous, 
works, the wonders of providence, and especially the wonders of redeeming 
love, when we understand the way of God's precepts, and walk in that way. 

28 My soul melteth for heaviness : 
Strengthen thou me according unto thy word. 

29 Eemove from me the way of lying: 
And grant me thy law graciously. 

Here is, First. David's remonstrance of his own griefs; " My soul melteth 
for heaviness," which is to the same purpose with ver. 25, " My soul cleaveth 
to the dust." Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it to melt, to drop away 
like a candle that wastes. The penitent soul melts in sorrow for sin, and even 
the patient soul may melt in the sense of affliction, and it is then its interest to 
pour out its soul before God. 

Secondly. His request for God's grace. 

1. That "God would enable him to bear his affliction well, and graciously 
support him under it; "Strengthen thou me" with strength in my soul, 
"according to thy w r ord," which, as the bread jf life, strengthens man's heart, 
to undergo whatever God is pleased to inflict. Strengthen me to do the duties, 
resist the temptations, and bear up under the burthens, of an afflicted state, 
that the spirit may not fail. "Strengthen me according to that word," 
Deu. xxxiii. 25, " As thy days, so shall thy strength be." 

2. That God would keep him from using any unlawful indirect means for the 
extricating of himself out of his troubles; ver. 29, "Eemove from me the way 
of lying." David w r as conscious. to himself of a proneness to this sin. He 
had in a strait cheated Abimelech, 1 Sam. xxi. 2; and Achish, v. 13; and 
ch. xxvii. 10. Great difficulties are great temptations to palliate a lie with the 



PSALM CXIX. 



579 



colour of a pious fraud and a uecessary self-defence, therefore David prays 
that God would prevent him from falling into this sin any more, lest he should 
settle in the way of it. A course of lying, of deceit, and dissimulation, is that 
which every good man dreads, and which we are all concerned to beg of God 
by his grace to keep us from. 

3. That he might always' be under the conduct and protection of God's 
government; " Grant me thy law graciously ;" grant me that to keep me. from 
the way of lying. David had the law written with his hand, for the king was 
obliged to transcribe a copy of it for his own use, Deu. xvii. 18, but he prays 
that he might have it written in his heart, for then, and then only, we have it 
indeed, and to good purpose. Grant it me more and more. They that know 
and love the law of God cannot but desire to know it more, and love it better. 
Grant it me graciously ; he begs it as a special token of God's favour. Note, 
We ought to reckon God's law a grant, a gift, an unspeakable gift; to value it, 
and pray for it, and to give thanks for it accordingly. The Divine code of 
institutes and precepts is indeed a charter of privileges; and God is truly 
gracious to those whom he makes gracious by giving them his law. 

30 I have chosen the way of truth: 
Thy judgments have I laid before me, 

3 1 I have stuck unto thy testimonies : 
0 Lord, put me not to shame. 

32 I will run the way of thy commandments, 
When thou shalt enlarge my heart. 

First. That those who will make any thing to purpose of their religion, 
must first make it their serious and deliberate choice. So David did, '* I have 
chosen the way of truth." Note, I. The w T ay of serious godliness is the way of 
truth ; the principles it is founded on are principles of eternal truth, and it is the 
only true way to happiness. 2. We must therefore choose to walk in this way, 
not because we know no other way, but because we know no better ; nay, w e 
know no other safe and good way. Let us choose that way for our way, which 
we will walk in, though it be narrow. 

Secondly. That those that have chosen the way of truth, must have a con- 
stant regard to the word of God as the rule of their walking. " Thy judgments 
have I laid before me;" as he that learns to write lays his copy before him, 
that he may write according to it; as the workman lays his model and platform 
before him, that he may do his work exactly. As we must have the word in 
our heart by an habitual conformity to it, so we must have it in our eye by 
an actual regard to it upon all occasions, that we may walk accurately and 
by rule. 

Thirdly. That those who make religion their choice and rule are likely to 
udhere to it faithfully. " I have stuck to thy testimonies " with an unchanged 
affection, and an unshaken resolution, stuck to them at all times, through all 
trials. 1 have chosen them, and therefore I have stuck to them. Note, The 
choosing Christian is likely to be the sticking Christian, when those that are 
Christians by chance tack about if the wind turn. 

Fourthly. That those that stick to the word of God may in faith expect and 
pray for acceptance with God ; for David means that when he begs, " Lord, 
put me not to shame;" that is, never leave me to do that by which I shall shame 
myself, and do not thou reject my services, which will put me to the greatest 
confusion. 

Fifthly. That the more comfort God gives us, the more duty he expects 
from us, ver. 32. Here we have, 1. His resolution to go on vigorously in 
religion, "I will run the way of thy commandments." Those that are going 
to heaven should make haste thither, and be still pressing forward. It 
concerns us to redeem time, arid take pains and go on in our business with 
cheerfulness; we then run the way of our duty when we are ready to it, and 
pleasant in it, and lay aside every weight, Heb. xii. 1. 2. His dependence upon 
God for grace to do so. I shall then abound in thy work, " when thou shalt 
enlarge my heart." God, by his Spirit, enlargeth the hearts of his people when 
he gives them wisdom, for that is called "largeness of heart," 1 Kin. iv. 29, 
when he sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, and puts gladness there. 
The joy of our Lord should be oil to the wheels of our obedience. 

5. HE. 

33 Teach me, 0 Lord, the way of thy statutes ; 
And I shall keep it unto the end. 



5S0 



PSALM CXIX. 



34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; 
Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 

Here, First. David prays earnestly that God himself would be his teacher, 
He had prophets, and wise men, and priests about him, and was himself well 
instructed in the law of God, yet he begs to be taught of God, as knowing that 
none teacheth like him, Job xxxvi. 22. Observe here, 1. What he desires to 
be taught. Not the notions or language of God's statutes, but the way of them, 
the way of applying them to myself, and governing myself by them; teach me 
the way of my duty which thy statutes prescribe, and in every doubtful case 
let me know what thou wouldest have me to do: let me hear the word 
behind me saying, "This is the way, walk in it," Isa. xxx. 21. 2. How he 
desires to be taught. In such a way as no man could teach him; "Lord, give 
me understanding." As the God of nature he has given us intellectual powers 
and faculties; but here we are taught to pray, that as the God of grace he 
would give us to use those powers and faculties about the great things which 
belong to our peace, which, through the corruption of our nature, we are 
averse to. " Give me understanding," that is, an enlightened understanding, 
for it is as good have no understanding at all as not have it sanctified. Nor 
will the spirit of revelation in the word answer the end, unless we have the 
spirit of wisdom in the heart. This is that which we are indebted to Christ 
for ; " for the Son of God is come, and hath given us understanding," 1 Jno. v. 20. 

Secondly. He promiseth faithfully that he would be a good scholar. If God 
would teach him, he was sure that he should learn to good purpose; "I shall 
keep thy law," which I shall never do unless I be taught of God, and which 
that I may do is the reason why I desire so earnestly to be taught. If God by 
his Spirit give us a right and good understanding, we shall be, 1. Constant in 
our obedience : " I shall keep it to the end," to the end of my life, which will be 
the surest proof of sincerity. It will not avail the traveller to keep the way 
for a while, if he do not keep it to the end of his journey. 2. Cordial in our 
obedience ; " I shall observe it with my whole heart," that is, with pleasure and 
delight, and with vigour and resolution. That way that the whole heart goes 
the whole man goes, and that should be the way of God's commandments, for 
the keeping of them is the whole of man. 

35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments ; 
For therein do I delight. 

36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, 
And not to covetousness. 

He had before prayed to God to enlighten his understanding, that he might 
know his duty, and not mistake concerning it ; here he prays to God to bow 
his will, and quicken the active powers of his soul, that he might do his duty ; 
for "it is God that works in us both to will and to do," as well as to under- 
stand what is good, Phil. ii. 13. Both the good head and the good heart are 
from the good grace of God, and both are necessary to every good work. 
Observe here, 

First. The grace he prays for. 1. That God w r ould make him able to do his 
duty; "Make me to go," strengthen me for every good work. Since we are 
not sufficient of ourselves, our dependence must be upon the grace of God, 
for from him all our sufficiency is. God puts his Spirit within us, and so 
causeth us to walk in his statutes, Eze. xxxvi. 27, and this is that which David 
here begs. 2. That God would make him willing to do it, and would by his 
grace subdue the aversion he naturally had to it; "Incline my heart to thy 
testimonies," that is, to those things which thy testimonies prescribe ; not 
only make me willing to do my duty as that which I must do, and therefore 
am concerned to make the best of, but make me desirous to do my duty as 
that which is agreeable to the new nature, and really advantageous^ to me. 
Duty is then done with delight, when the heart is inclined to it. It is God's 
grace that inclines us, and the more backward we find ourselves to it the 
more earnest we must be for that grace. 

Secondly. The sin he prays against, and that is covetousness ; "Incline my 
heart to keep thy testimonies," and restrain and mortify the inclination there 
is in me to covetousness. That is a sin which stands opposed to all God's 
testimonies, for the love of money is such a sin as is the root of much sin, of 
all sin. Those therefore that would have the love of God rooted in them, 
must get the love of the world rooted out of them, for the friendship of the 
world is enmity with God. See in what way God deals with men, not by 
compulsion, but he draws with the cords of a man, working in them an incli- 
nation to that which is good and an aversion to that which is evil. 



PSALM CXIX. 581 

Thirdly. His plea to enforce this prayer ; Lord, bring me to and keep me 
"in the way of thy commandments, for therein do I delight," and therefore I 
pray thus earnestly for grace to walk in that way. Thou that hast wrought 
id me this delight in the way of thy commandments, wilt thou not work in me 
an ability to walk in them, and so crown thine own work? 

37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity ; 
And quicken thou me in thy way. 

Here, First. David prays for restraining grace, that he might be prevented 
and kept back from that which would hinder him in the way of his duty; 
" Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity." The honours, pleasures, and 
profits of the world are the vanities, the aspect and prospect of which draws 
multitudes away from the paths of religion and godliness. The eye, when 
fastened on these, infects the heart with the love of them, and so it is alienated 
from God and Divine things ; and therefore, as we ought to make a covenant 
with our eyes, and lay a charge upon them, that they shall not wander after, 
much less fix upon, that which is dangerous, Job xxxi. 1, so we ought to pray 
that God by his providence would keep vanity out of our sight, and that by 
his grace he would keep us from being enamoured with the sight of it. 

Secondly. He prays for constraining grace, that he might not only be kept 
from every thing that would obstruct his progress heavenward, but might have 
that grace which was necessary to forward him in that progress ; " Quicken 
thou me in thy way ;" quicken me to redeem time, to improve opportunity, to 
press forward, and to do every duty with liveliness and fervency of spirit. 
Beholding vanity deadens us, and slackens our pace. A traveller that stands 
gazing upon every object that presents itself to his view, will not rid ground, 
but it' our eyes be kept from that which would divert us, our hearts will be 
kept to that which will excite us. 

08 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, 
Who is devoted to thy fear. 

Here is, First. The character of a good man, which is the work of God's 
grace in him. He is God's servant, subject to his law, and employed in his 
work, that is, devoted to his fear, given up to his direction and disuose, and 
taken up with high thoughts of him, and all those acts of devotion which have 
a tendency to his glory. Those are truly God's servants, that, though they 
have their infirmities and defects, yet are sincerely devoted to the fear of God, 
and have ail their affections and motions governed by that fear; they are 
engaged and addicted to religion. 

Secondly. The confidence that a good man has towards God in dependence 
upon the word of his grace to him. They that are God's servants may in 
faith, and with humble boldness, pray that_ God would establish his word to 
them; that is, that he would fulfil his promises to them in due time, and in the 
meantime give them an assurance that they shall be fulfilled. What God has 
promised we must pmy for; we need not be so griping as to ask more; we 
need not be so modest as to ask less. 

39 Turn away my reproach which I fear : 
For thy judgments are good. 

Here, First. David prays against reproach, as before, ver. 22. David was 
conscious to himself that lie had done that which might give occasion to the 
enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, which would blemish his own reputation, 
and turn to the dishonour of his family; now he prays that God, who has all 
men's hearts and tongues in his hands, would be pleased to prevent this, to 
deliver him from all his transgressions, that he might not be the reproach of 
the foolish, which he feared, Ps. xxxix. 8. Or, he means that reproach which 
his enemies unjustly loaded him with. Let their lying lips be put to silence. 

Secondly. He pleads the goodness of God's judgments ; Lord, thou sittest in 
the throne, and thy judgments are right and good, just and kind to those that 
are wronged, and therefore to thee I appeal from the unjust and unkind 
censures of men. It is a small thing to be judged of man's judgment, while 
he that judgeth us is the Lord. Or thus, Thy word and ways, and thy holy 
religion, are very good, but the reproaches cast on me will fall on them ; 
therefore, Lord, turn them away ; let not religion be wounded through my side. 

40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: 
Quicken me in thy righteousness. 



532 



PSALM CXIX. 



Here, First. David professeth the ardent affection he had to the word of 
God; "1 have longed after thy precepts ;" not only loved them, and delighted 
in what I have already attained, but I have earnestly desired to know them 
more, and do them better, and am still pressing forward towards perfection. 
Tastes of the sweetness of God's precepts will but set us a longing after a 
more intimate acquaintance with them. He appeals to God concerning this 
passionate desire after his precepts; Behold, 1 have thus loved, thus longed; 
thou knowest all things, thou knowestthat I am thus afflicted. 

Secondly. He prays for grace to enable him to answer this profession. Thou 
that hast wrought in me this languishing desire, put life into me that I may 
prosecute it; "quicken me in thy righteousness," in thy righteous ways, 
according to thy righteous promise. Where God hath wrought to will, he 
will work to do ; and where he hath wrought to desire, he will satisfy the 



4! Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lokd, 
Even thy salvation, according to thy word. 

42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproach- 
For I trust in thy word. [eth me : 

Here is, First. David's prayer for the salvation of the Lord. Lord, thou art 
my saviour, I am miserable in myself, and thou only canst make me happy, 
" Let thy salvation come to me." Hasten temporal salvation to me from my 
present distresses ; and hasten me to the eternal salvation, by giving me the 
necessary qualifications for it, and the comfortable pledges and foretastes of it. 

Secondly. David's dependence upon the grace and promise of God for that 
salvation. These are the two pillars on which our hope is built, and they will 
not fail us. 1. The grace of God; "Let thy mercies come, even thy salvation. 55 
Our salvation must be attributed purely to God's mercy, and not to any merit 
of our own. Eternal life must be expected as "the mercy of our Lord Jesus 
Christ," Jude 21. Lord, 1 have by faith thy mercies in view ; let me by prayer 
prevail to have them come to me. 2. The promise of God. Let it come 
" according to thy word,"' thy word of promise; " I trust in thy word," and 
therefore may expect the performance of the promise. We are not only 
allowed to trust in God's word, but our trusting in it is the condition of our 
benefit by it. 

Thirdly. David's expectation of the good assurance which that grace and 
promise of God would give him; "So shall I have Avherewith to answer him 
that reproacheth me" for my confidence in God, as if it would deceive me. 
When God saves those out of their troubles that trusted in him, he effectually 
silenceth those who would have shamed that counsel of the poor, Ps. xiv. 6. 
And their reproaches will be for ever silenced when the salvation of the saints 
is completed. Then it will appear beyond dispute that it was not in vain to 
trust in God. 

43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth ; 
For I have hoped in thy judgments. 

44 So shall I keep thy law continually 
For ever and ever. 

Here is, First. David's humble petition for the tongue of the learned, that he 
might know how to speak a word in season for the glory of God : " Take not 
the word of truth utterly out of my mouth." He means, Lord, let the word of 
truth be always in my mouth ; let me have that wisdom and courage which is 
necessary to enable me both to use my knowledge for the instruction of others, 
and, like the good householder, to bring out of my treasury things new and old ; 
and to make profession of my faith whenever I am called to it. We have need 
to pray to God, that we may never be either afraid or ashamed to own his 
truths and ways, nor deny him before men. David found he was sometimes at 
a loss, the word of truth was not so ready to him as it should have been; but 
he prays, Lord, let it not be taken utterly from me; let me always have so 
much of it at hand as will be necessary to the due discharge of my duty. 

Secondly. His humble profession of the heart of the upright, without which 
the tongue of the learned, however it may be serviceable to others, will stand us 
in no stead. 1. David professeth his confidence in God: Lord, make me ready and 
mighty in the Scriptures, for I have-hoped in those judgments of thy mouth, and 
if they be not at hand my support and defence are departed from me. 2. He 
professeth his resolution to adhere to his duty in the strength of God's grace; 
, So shall I keep thy law continually." If 1 have thy word not only in my heart, 



PSALM CXIX. 



oS3 



but in my mouth, I shall do all I should do, stand complete in thy whole will. 
Thus shall "the man of God be perfect, thoroughly furnished for every good 
word and work," 2 Tim. iii. 17 ; Col. Hi. 16. Observe how he resolves to keep 
God's law, 1st. Continually without trifling. God must be served in a constant 
course of obedience every day, and all the day long. 2nd. For ever and ever 
without backsliding ; we must never be weary of well-doing. If we serve him 
to the end of our time on earth, we shall be serving him in heaven to the 
endless ages of eternity; so shall we keep his law for ever and ever. Or thus, 
Lord, let me have the word of truth in my mouth, that I may commit that 
sacred depositum to the rising generation, (2 Tim. ii. 22,) and by them it may be 
transmitted to succeeding ages; so shall thy law be kept for ever and ever, 
that is, from one generation to another ; according to that promise, Isa. lix. 21, 
My word in thy mouth shall not depart out of the mouth of thy seed, nor thy 
seed's seed. 

45 And I will walk at liberty : 
For I seek thy precepts. 

46 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, 
And will not be ashamed, 

47 And I will delight myself in thy commandments, 
Which I have loved. 

48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, 

which I have loved ; 
And I will meditate in thy statutes. 

We may observe in these verses, 

First. What David experienced of an affection to the law of God; "I seek 
thy precepts," ver. 45 • I desire to know and do my duty, and consult thy word 
accordingly ; I do all tcan to understand what the will of the Lord is, and to 
discover the intimations of his mind. " I seek thy precepts," for I have loved 
them, ver. 47, and again, ver. 48. I not only give consent to them as good, but 
take complacency in them as good for me. All that love God love his govern- 
ment, and therefore love all his commandments. 

Secondly. What he expected from this. Five things he promiseth himself 
here in the strength of God's grace : 

1. That he should be free and easy in his duty; "I will walk at liberty," 
freed from that which is evil, not hampered with the fetters of my own corrup- 
tions, and free to that which is good, doing it not by constraint, but willingly. 
The service of sin is perfect slavery, the service of God is perfect liberty. 
Licentiousness is bondage to the greatest of tyrants, conscientiousness is free- 
dom to the meanest of prisoners, Jno. viii. 32, 36 ; Lu. i. 74, 75. 

2. That he should be bold and courageous in his duty ; " I will speak of thy 
testimonies also before kings." Before David came to the crown, kings were 
sometimes his judges, as Saul and Achish ; but if he were called before them to 
give a reason of the hope that was in him, he would speak of God's testimonies, 
and profess to build his hope upon them, and make them his council, his guards, 
his crown, his all. We must never be afraid to own our religion, though it 
should expose us to the wrath of kings, but speak of it as that which we will 
live and die by, like the three children before Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iii. 16; 
Acts iv. 20. After David came to the crown, kings were sometimes his com- 
panions, they visited him, and he returned their visits; but he did not in com- 
plaisance to them talk of every thing but his religion, for fear of affronting 
them, and making his converse uneasy to them. No, God's testimonies shall be 
the principal subject of his discourse with the kings, not only to shew that he 
was not ashamed of his religion, but to instruct them in it, and bring them over 
to it. It is good for kings to hear of God's testimonies, and it will adorn the 
conversation of princes themselves to speak of them. 

3. That he should be cheerful and pleasant in his duty; ver. 47, "I will 
delight myself in thy commandments," in conversing with them, in conforming 
to them; I will never be so well pleased with myself, as when I do that which 
is pleasing to God. The more delight we take in the service of God, the nearer 
we come to the perfection we should aim at. 

4. That he should be diligent and vigorous in his duty. " I will lift up my 
hands to thy commandments," which notes not only a vehement desire towards 
them, {Ps. cxliii. 6,) I will lay hold of them as one afraid of missing them, or 
letting them go, but a close application of mind to the observance of them; 
1 will lay my hands to the command, not only praise it, but practise it ; nay, 



584 PSALM CXIX. 

1 will lift up my hands to it, that is, I will put forth all the strength I hive tfl 
do it. The hands that hang down through sloth and discouragement shall bo 
lifted up, Heo. xii. 12. 

5. That he should be thoughtful and considerate in his duty; ver. 48, "I will 
meditate in thy statutes," not only entertain myself with thinking of them as 
matters of speculation, but contrive how I may observe them in the best 
manner. By this it will appear that we truly love God's commandments, if we 
apply both our minds and our hands to them. 

7. ZAIN. 

49 Remember the word unto thy servant, 
Upon which thou hast caused me to hope. 

Two things David here pleads with God in prayer for that mercy and 
grace, which he hoped for, according to the word by which his requests were 
guided : 

First. That God had given him the promise on which he hoped. Lord, I 
desire no more but that thou wouldst " remember thy word unto thy servant," 
and " do as thou hast said:" see 1 Ckr. xvii. 23. Thou art wise, and therefore 
wilt perfect what thou hast purposed, and not change thy counsel ; thou art 
faithful, and therefore wilt perform what thou hast promised, and not break 
thy word. Those that make God's promises their portion may with humble 
boldness make them their plea. Lord, is not that the word which thou hast 
spoken, and wilt thou not make it good ? Gen. xxxii. 9 ; Ex. xxxiii. 12. 

Secondly. That God who had given him the promise in the word, had by his 
grace wrought in him a hope in that promise, and enabled him to depend upon 
it, and had raised his expectations of great things from it. Hath God kindled 
in us desires towards spiritual blessings more than towards any temporal good 
things, and will he not be so kind as to satisfy those desires? Hath he filled us 
with hopes of those blessings, and will he not be so just as to accomplish these 
hopes? He that did by his Spirit work faith in us will, according to our faith, 
work for us, and will not disappoint us. 

50 This is my comfort in my affliction : 
For thy word hath quickened me. 

Here is David's experience of benefit by the word. 

First. As a means of his sanctification. " Thy word hath quickened me ; w 
it made me alive when 1 was dead in sin, it has many a time made me lively 
when I was dead in duty. It has quickened me to that which is good when I 
was backward and averse to it; and it has quickened me in that which is good 
when 1 was cold and indifferent. 

Secondly. Therefore as a means of his consolation, then- when he was in 
affliction, and needed something to support him ; Because thy word has quick- 
ened me at other times, it has comforted me then. The word of God has much 
m it that speaks comfort in affliction, but those only may apply it to themselves 
who have experienced in some measure the quickening power of the word. If 
through grace it make us holy, there is enough in it to make us easy, in all 
conditions, under all events. 

51 The proud have had me greatly in derision : 
Yet have I not declined from thy law. 

David here tells, and it will be of use to us to know it, 

First. That he had been jeered for his religion. Though he was a man of 
honour, a man of great prudence, and had done eminent services to his country, 
yet, because he was a devout, conscientious man, "the proud had him greatly 
in derision." They ridiculed him, bantered him, and did all they could to expose 
him to contempt; they laughed at him for his praying, and called it cant; for 
his seriousness, and called it mopishness; for his strictness, and called it need- 
less preciseness. They were the proud that sat in the scorner's seat, and valued 
themselves by it. 

Secondly. That yet he had not been jeered out of his religion. They have 
done all they could to make me quit it for shame, but none of these things 
move me ; " I have not declined from thy law*' for all this. But "if this be to 
be vile," (as he said when Michal had him greatly in derision) "I will be yet 
more vile.'' He not only had not quite forsaken the law, but had not so much 
as declined from it. AYe must never baulk any duty, nor let slip an opportunity 
of doing good, for fear of the reproach of men or their reviiings. The traveller 
goes on his way though the dogs bark at him. Those can bear but little for 
Christ that cannot bear a hard word for him. 



PSALM CXIX. 



585 



52 I remembered thy judgments of old, 0 Lord ; 
And have comforted myself. 

When David was derided for his godliness, he not only held fast his integrity, 
but, 

First. He comforted himself. He not only bore reproach, but bore it cheer- 
fully ; it did not disturb his peace, nor break in upon the repose of his spirit in 
God. It was a comfort to him to think that it was for God's sake that he bore 
reproach, and that his worst enemies could find no occasion against him, save 
only in the matters of his God, Dan. vi. 5. They that are derided for their 
adherence to God's law may comfort themselves with this, that the reproach 
of Christ will prove, in the end, greater riches to them than the treasures of 
JEgvpt. 

Secondly. That which he comforted himself with was the remembrance of 
God's judgments of old, that is, the providences of God concerning his people 
formerly, both in mercy to them, and in justice against their persecutors. God's 
judgments of old, in our own early days, and in the days of our fathers, are to 
be remembered by us for our comfort and encouragement in the way of God, 
for he is still the same. 

53 Horror hath taken hold upon me 
Because of the wicked that forsake thy law. 

Here is, First. The character of wicked people ; he means those that are 
openly and grossly wicked; They forsake thy law. Every sin is a transgression 
of the law, but a course and way of wilful and avowed sin is downright for- 
saking it and throwing it off. 

Secondly. The impression which the wickedness of the wicked made upon 
David. It frightened him, it put him into an amazement. He trembled to think 
of the dishonour thereby done to God, the gratification thereby given to Satan, 
and the mischiefs thereby done to the souls of men. He dreaded the conse- 
quences of it, both to the sinners themselves, and cried out, fi O gather not my 
soul with sinners, let mine enemy be as the wicked," — and to the interests of 
God's kingdom among men, which he was hereby afraid would be sunk and 
ruined. He doth not say, "Horror has taken hold on me," because of their 
cruel designs against me, but because of the contempt they put on God and his 
law. Sin is a monstrous horrible thing in the eyes of all that are sanctified, 
Jer. v. 30; xxiii. 14; Bos. vi. 10; Jer. ii. 12. 

54 Thy statutes have been my songs 
In the house of my pilgrimage. 

Here is, First. David's state and condition. He was "in the house of his 
pilgrimage;" which may be understood either as his peculiar trouble, — he was 
often tossed and hurried, and forced to fly, — or as his lot in common with all. 
This world is the house of our pilgrimage, the house in which we are pilgrims; 
it is our tabernacle, it is our inn, we must confess ourselves strangers and 
pilgrims upon earth, that are not at home here, nor must be here long. Even 
David's palace is but the house of his pilgrimage. 

Secondly. His comfort in this state. "Thy statutes have been my songs/' 
with which I here entertain myself, as travellers use to divert the thoughts 
of their weariness, and take off something of the tediousness of their journey, 
by singing a pleasant song now and then. David was the sweet singer of Israel, 
and here we are told whence he fetched his songs, they were all borrowed from 
the word of God; God's statutes were as familiar to him as the songs which a 
man useth to sing, and he conversed with them in his pilgrimage solitudes. 
They were as pleasant to him as songs, and put gladness into his heart, more 
than they have that chant to the sound of the viol, Am. vi. 5. Is any afflicted 
then? Let him sing over God's statutes, and try if he cannot so sing away 
sorrow, Ps. cxxxviii. 5. 

55 I have remembered thy name, 0 Lord, in the night, 
And have kept thy law. 

56 This I had, 

Because I kept thy precepts. 

Here is, First. The converse David had with the word of God. He kept it in 
mind, and upon every occasion he called it to mind. God's name is the discovery 
he hath made of himself to us in and by his word. This is his memorial unto all 



586 PSALM CXIX. 

generations, and therefore we should always keep it in memory; remember it 
in the night, upon a waking bed, when we are communing with our own hearts. 
When others were sleeping David was remembering God's name, and by con- 
ning that lesson increasing his acquaintance with it; in the night of affliction 
this he called to mind. 

Secondly. The conscience he made of conforming to it. The due remem- 
brance of God's name, which is prefixed to his law, will have a great influence 
upon our observance of the law. " I remembered thy name in the night," and 
therefore was careful to keep thy law all day. How comfortable will it be in 
the reflection, if our own hearts can witness for us, that we have thus remem- 
bered God's name, and kept his law ! 

Thirdly. The advantage he got by it; ver.56. "This I had, because I kept 
thy precepts." Some understand this indefinitely : " This I had," that is, I had 
that which satisfied me, I had every thing that is comfortable, " because I kept 
thy precepts." Note, All that have made a business of religion will own that 
it has turned to a good account, and they have been unspeakable gainers by it. 
Others refer it to what goes immediately before, ' I had the comfort of keeping 
thy law because I kept it.' Note, God's work is its own wages. A heart to 
obey the will of God is a most valuable reward of obedience ; and the more we 
do, the more we may do, and shall do, in the service of God. The branch that 
beareth fruit is made more fruitful, Jno. xv. 2. 

8. CHETH. 

57 Thou art my portion, 0 Lord : 

I have said that I would keep thy words. 

We may hence gather the character of a godly man. 

.First. He makes the favour of God his felicity : " Thou art my portion, O 
Lord." Others place their happiness in the wealth and honours of this world; 
their portion is in this life; they look no farther, they desire no more ; these are 
their good things, Lu. xvi. 25 ; but all that are sanctified take the Lord for the 
portion of their inheritance and their cup, and nothing less will satisfy them. 
David can appeal to God in this matter: 'Lord, thou knowest that I have 
chosen thee for my portion, and depend upon thee to make me happy.' 

Secondly. He makes the law of God his rule : " I have said that I would keep 
thy words;" and what I have said, by thy grace I will do, and will abide by it 
to the end. Note, Those that take God for their portion must take him for 
their Prince, and swear allegiance to him ; and, having promised to keep his 
word, we must often put ourselves in mind of our promise, Ps. xxxix. 1. 

58 I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: 
Be merciful unto me according to thy word. 

David, having in the foregoing verse reflected upon his covenants with God, 
here reflects upon his prayers to God, and renews his petition. Observe, 

First. What he prayed for. Having taken God for his portion, he intreated 
his favour, as one that knew he had forfeited it, was unworthy of it, and yet 
undone without it, but for ever happy if he could obtain it. We cannot demand 
God's favour as a debt, but must be humble supplicants for it, that God will not 
only be reconciled to us, but accept us, and smile upon us. He prays, " Be 
merciful to me," in the forgiveness of what I have done amiss, and in giving me 
grace to do better for the future. 

Secondly. How he prayed. ik With his whole heart;" as one that knew how 
to value the blessing he prayed for. The gracious soul is entirely set upon the 
favour' of God, and is therefore importunate for it: *' 1 will not let thee go 
except thou bless me." 

Thirdly. What he pleaded. The promise of God ; " Be merciful to me accord- 
ing to thy word." I desire thy mercy promised, and depend upon the promise 
for it. They that are governed by the precepts of the word, and are resolved 
to keep them, (ver. 57,) may plead the promises of the word, and take the 
comfort of them. 

59 I thought on my ways, 

And turned my feet unto thy testimonies. 

60 I made haste, and delayed not 
To keep thy commandments. 

David had said he would keep God's word, ver. 57, and it was well said. Now 
here he tells us how r and in what method he pursued that resolution. 



PSALM CXIX. 587 

First. He thought on his ways. He thought beforehand what he should do, 
pondering the path of his feet, Pi\ iv. 26, that he might walk surely, and not 
at all adventures. He thought after what he had done, reflected upon his life 
past, and recollected the paths he had walked in, and the steps be had taken. 
The word signifies a fixed, abiding thought. Some make it an allusion to those 
that work embroidery, that are very exact and careful to cover the least flaw ; 
or to those that cast accounts, Reckon with yourselves, What do I owe? what 
am I worth? I thought not on my wealth, as the covetous man, Ps. xlix. 11, 
but on my ways; not what I have, but what I do; because what we do will 
foilow us into another world, when what we have must be left behind. Many 
are critical enough in their remarks upon other people's ways that never think 
of their own ; but let every man prove his own work. 

Secondly. He turned his feet to God's testimonies. He determined to make 
the word of God his rule, and to w T alk by that rule. He turned from the 
bypaths to which he had turned aside, and returned to God's testimonies ; he 
turned not only his eye to them, but his feet ; his affections to the love of God"s 
word, and his conversation to the practice of it. The bent and inclination of 
his soul was towards God's testimonies, and his conversation was governed by 
them. Penitent reflections must produce pious resolutions. 

Thirdly. He did this presently and without demur; ver. 60, "I made haste 
and delayed not." When we are under convictions of sin, we must strike while 
the iron is hot, and not think to defer the prosecution of them, as Felix did, to a 
more convenient season. When we are called to duty we must lose no time, 
but set about it to-day while it is called to-day. 

Now this account David here gives of himself may refer either to his constant 
practice every day, — he reflected on his ways at night, directed his feet to God's 
testimonies in the morning, and what his hand found to do that was good he did 
it without delay; or it may refer to his first acquaintance with God and religion, 
when he began to throw off the vanity of childhood and youth, and to remember 
his Creator. That blessed change was by the grace of God thus wrought. 
Note, 1. Conversion begins in serious consideration,^^, xviri 28; Lu. xv. 17. 
2. Consideration must end in a sound conversion. To what purpose have 
we thought on our ways if we do not turn our feet with all speed to God's 
testimonies ? 

C 1 The bands of the wicked have robbed me : 
But I have not forgotten thy law. 

Here is, First. The malice of David's enemies against him. They were 
wicked men, w r ho hated him for his godliness. There were bands or troops 
of them confederate against him. They did him all the mischief they could ; 
they robbed him, having endeavoured to take away his good name," ver. 51, 
they set upon his goods, and spoiled him of them, either by plunder in time 
of war, or by fines and confiscations under colour of law. Saul, it is likely, 
seized his effects, Absalom his palace ; the Amalekites rifled Ziklag. Worldly 
wealth is what we may be robbed of. David, though a man of war, could noc 
keep his own. Thieves break through and steal. 

Secondly. The testimony of David's conscience for him, that he had held fast 
his religion when he was stripped of every thing else, as Job did when the bands 
of the Chaldeans and Sabeans had robbed him ; " But I have not forgotten thy 
law." No care or grief should drive God's word out of our minds, or hinder 
our comfortable relish of it, and converse with it. Nor must we ever think the 
worse of the ways of God for any trouble we meet with in those ways, nor fear 
being losers by our religion at last, however we may be losers for it now. 

62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee 
Because of thy righteous judgments. 

Though David is in this psalm much in prayer, yet he did not neglect the 
duty of thanksgiving ; for those that pray much will have much to give thanks 
for % See, 

First. How much God's hand was eyed in his thanksgivings. He doth not 
say, " I will give thanks," because of thy favours to me which 1 have the com- 
fort of, but "because of thy righteous judgments," all the disposals of thy pro- 
vidence in wisdom and equity, which thou hast the glory of. We must give 
thanks for the asserting of God's honour, and the accomplishing of his word, 
in all he doth in the government of the world. 

Secondly. How much David's heart was set upon his thanksgivings. He 
would rise at midnight to give thanks to God. Great and good thoughts kept 
him awake, and refreshed him instead of sleep ; and so zealous was he for the 
honour of God, that when others were in their beds he was upon his knees at 
his devotions. He did not affect to be seen of men in it, but gave thanks in 
secret, where our heavenly Father sees. lie had praised God "in the courts 



588 PSALM CXIX 

of the Lord's house," and yet he will do it in his bedchamber. Public worship 
will not excuse us from secret worship. When David found his heart affected 
with God's judgments, he immediately offered up those affections to God in 
actual adorations, not deferring, lest they should cool. Yet observe his rever- 
ence; he did not lie still and give thanks, but rose out of his bed, perhaps in the 
cold and in the dark, to do it the more solemnly. And see what a y,ood husband 
he was of time; when he could not lie and sleep, he would rise and pray. 

63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, 
And of them that keep thy precepts. 

David had often expressed the great love he had to God, here he speaks the 
great love he had to the people of uod ; and observe, 

First. Why he loved them. Not so much because they were his best friends, 
most firm to his interest and most forward to serve him, but because they were 
such as feared God and kept his precepts, and so did him honour, and helped to 
support his kingdom among men. Our love to the saints is then sincere, when 
we love them for the sake of what we see of God in them, and the service they 
do to him. 

Secondly. How he shewed his love to them. He was a companion of them. 
He had not only a spiritual communion with them in the same faith and hope, 
but he joined with them in holy ordinances in the courts of the Lord, where 
rich and poor, prince and peasant, meet together. He sympathized with them 
in their joys and sorrows, Heb. x. 33; he conversed familiarly with them, com- 
municated his experiences to them, and consulted theirs. He not only took 
such to be his companions as did fear God, but he vouchsafed himself to be a 
companion with all, with any, that did so, wherever he met with them. Though 
he was a king, he would associate w r ith the poorest of his subjects that feared 
God, Ps. xv. 14; Jas. ii. 1. 

64 The earth, 0 Lord, is full of thy mercy : 
Teach me thy statutes. 

Here, First. David pleads that God is good to all the creatures, according to 
their necessities and capacities. As the heaven is full of God's glory, so the 
earth is full of his mercy, full of the instances of his pity and bounty. Not only 
the land of Canaan, where God is known and worshipped, but the whole earth', 
in many parts of which he has no homage paid him, is full of his mercy. Not 
only the children of men upon the earth, but even the inferior creatures, taste 
of God's goodness. His tender mercies are over all his works. 

Secondly. He therefore prays that God would be good to him according to 
his necessity and capacity ; " Teach me thy statutes." Thou feedest the young 
ravens that cry w r ith food proper for them, and wilt thou not feed me with 
spiritual food, the bread of life, which my soul needs, and craves, and cannot 
subsist without? "The earth is full of thy mercy," and is not heaven too? 
Wilt thou not, then, give me spiritual blessings in heavenly places ? A gracious 
heart will fetch an argument from anything to enforce a petition for Divine 
teaching. Sure he that will not let his birds be unfed will not let his children 
be untaught. 

9. TETH. 

65 Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, 0 Lord, 
According unto thy word. 

68 Teach me good judgment and knowledge : 
For I have believed thy commandments. 

Here, First. David makes a thankful acknowledgment of God's gracious 
dealings with him all along ; " Thou hast dealt well with thy servant." How- 
ever God hath dealt with us, we must own he hath dealt well with us ; better 
than we deserve, and all in love, and with design tp work for our good. In 
many instances God has done w T ell for us beyond our expectations; he hath 
done well for all his servants ; never any of them complained that he had used 
them hardly. Thou hast dealt w r ell with me, not only according to thy mercy, 
but " according to thy word." God's favours look best wdien they are compared 
with the promise, are seen flowing from that fountain. 

Secondly. Upon these experiences he grounds a petition for Divine instruc- 
tion : " Teach me good judgment and knowledge," that by thy grace I may 
render again, in some measure, according to the benefit done unto me. Teach 
me a good taste, so the word signifies; a good relish to discern things that 
differ, to distinguish between truth and falsehood, good and evil; for "the ear 
tries words as the mouth tastes meat." We should pray to God for a sound 



PSALM CXIX. 089 

mind, that we may have spiritual senses exercised, Heb. v. 14. Many have 
knowledge that have little judgment; they that have both are well fortified 
against the snares of Satan, and well furnished for the service of God and their 
generation. 

Thirdly. This petition is backed with a plea ; " For I have believed thy com- 
mandments ;" received them, and consented to them that they were good, and 
submitted to their government ; therefore, Lord, teach me. Where God hath 
given a good heart a good head, too, may in faith be prayed for. 

67 Before I was afflicted I went astray : 
But now have I kept thy word. 

David here tells us what he had experienced, 

First. Of the temptations of a prosperous condition : "Before 1 was afflicted," 
while I lived in peace and plenty, and knew no sorrow, " I went astray" from 
God and my duty. Sin is going astray, and then we are most apt to wander 
from God when we are easy, and think ourselves at home in the world. Pros- 
perity is the unhappy occasion of much iniquity. It makes people conceited 
of themselves, indulgent of the flesh, forgetful of God, in love with the world, 
and deaf to the reproofs of the word: see Ps. xxx. 6. It is good for us, when 
we are afflicted, to remember how and wherein we went astray before we were 
afflicted, that we may answer the end of the affliction. 

Secondly. Of the benefit of an afflicted state; " JNow have I kept thy word," 
and so have been recovered from my w r anderings. God often makes use of 
afflictions as a means to reduce those to himself that have wandered from him. 
Sanctified afflictions humble us for sin, and shew us the vanity of the world; 
they soften the heart, and open the ear to discipline. The prodigal's distress 
brought him to himself first, and then to his father. 

68 Thou art good, and doest good ; 
Teach me thy statutes. 

Here, First. David praiseth God's goodness, and gives him the glory of it; 
" Thou art good, and doest good." All that have any knowledge of God, and 
dealings with him, will own that he doth good, and therefore w 7 ill conclude 
that he is good. The streams of God's goodness are so numerous, and run so 
full, so strong to all the creatures, that we must conclude the fountain that is 
in himself to be inexhaustible. We cannot conceive how much good our God 
doth every day, much less can w r e conceive how good he is. Let us acknowledge 
it with admiration, and with holy love and thankfulness. 

Secondly. He prays for God's grace, and begs to be under the conduct and 
influence of it : Teach me thy statutes." Lord, thou dost good to all, art the 
bountiful benefactor of all the creatures ; this is the good I beg thou wilt do to 
me, instruct me in my duty, and incline me to it, and enable me to do it. " Thou 
art good, and doest good ; Lord, teach me thy statutes," that I may be good, and 
do good; may have a good heart, and live a good life. It is an encouragement 
to poor sinners, to hope that God will teach them his way, because he is good 
and upright, Ps xxv. 8. 

69 The proud have forged a lie against me : 

But I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. 

70 Their heart is as fat as grease ; 
But I delight in thy law. 

Ltavid here tells us how he was affected as to the proud and wicked people 
that w ; ere about him. 

First. He did not fear their malice, nor was he by it deterred from his duty; 
<( They have forged a lie against me." Thus they aimed to take away his good 
name; nay, all we have m the world, even life itself, may be brought into 
danger by those who make no conscience of forging a lie. They that were 
proud envied David's reputation because it eclipsed them, and therefore did 
all they could to blemish him, and took a pride in trampling upon him. They 
therefore persuaded themselves it was no sin to tell a deliberate lie, if it might 
but expose him to contempt. Their w T icked w T it forged lies, invented stories, 
which there w r as not the least colour for, to serve their wicked designs. And 
what did David do when he was thus belied? He will bear it patiently ; he will 
keep that precept which forbids him to render railing for railing, and will with 
all his heart sit down silent. He will go on in his duty with constancy and 
resolution ; let them say what they will, " I will keep thy precepts," and not 
dread their reproach. 



590 PSALM CXIX. 

Secondly. He did not envy their prosperity, nor was he by it allured from his 
duty; "Their heart is as fat as grease." The proud are at ease, Ps. cxxii. 4, 
they are full of the world, and the wealth and pleasures of it ; and this makes 
them, 1. Senseless, and secure, and stupid : they are past feeling. Thus the 
phrase is used, Isa. vi. 10, " make the heart of this people fat." They are not 
sensible of the touch of the word of God, or his rod. 2. Sensual and volup- 
tuous. " Their eyes stand out with fatness," Ps. lxxiii. 7 ; they roll themselves 
in the pleasures of sense, and take up with them as their chief good, and much 
good may it do them ; I would not change conditions with them; "I delight in 
thy law;" I build my security upon the promises of God's word, and have 
pleasure enough in communion with God, infinitely preferable to all their 
delights. The children of God ; that are acquainted with spiritual pleasures, 
need not envy the children of this world their carnal pleasures. 

71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted ; 
That I might learn thy statutes. 

See here, First. That it hath been the lot of the best saints to be afflicted. 
The proud and the wicked lived in pomp and pleasure, while David, though he 
kept close to God and his duty, was still in affliction. Waters of a full cup are 
wrung out to God's people, Ps. lxxiii. 10. 

Secondly. That it hath been the advantage of God's people to be afflicted, 
David could speak experimentally : It was good for me. Many a good lesson he 
had learned by his afflictions, and many a good duty he had been brought to, 
which otherwise had been unlearned and undone. Therefore God visited him 
with affliction, that he might learn God's statutes, and the intention was 
answered, the afflictions had contributed to the improvement of his know- 
ledge and grace. He that chastened him taught him. " The rod and reproof 
give wisdom." 

72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me 
Than thousands of gold and silver. 

This is a reason why David reckoned that when by his afflictions he learned 
God's statutes, and the profit did so much balance the loss, that he was really 
a gamer by them; for God's law, which he got acquaintance with by his 
affliction, was better to him than all the gold and silver which he lost by his 
affliction. 

First. David had but a little of the word of God in comparison with what we 
have, yet see how highly he valued it ; how inexcusable then are we, who have 
both the Old and New Testament complete, and yet account them as a strange 
thing ! Observe, Therefore he valued the law, because it is the law of God's 
mouth, the revelation of his will, and ratified by his authority. 

Secondly. He had a great deal of gold and silver, in comparison with what we 
have, yet see how little he values it. His riches increased, and yet he did not 
set his heart upon them, but upon the word of God. That was better to him, 
yielded him better pleasures, and better maintenance, and a better inheritance, 
than all the treasures he was master of. Those that have read and believed 
David's Psalms, and Solomon's JScclesiastes, cannot but prefer the word of God 
far before the wealth of this world. 

10. JOD. 

73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me : 

Give me understanding, that I may learn thy command- 
ments. 

Here, First. David adores God as the God of nature, and the author of his 
being. " Thy hands have made me and fashioned me," Job x. 8. Every man is 
as truly the w r ork of God's hands as the first man was, Ps. cxxxix. 15, 16. Thy 
hands have not only made me and given me a being, but fashioned me, and given 
me this being, this noble and excellent being, endued with these powers and 
faculties ; and we must own we are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Secondly. He addresseth himself to God as the God of grace, and begs he 
will be the author of his new and better being. God made us to serve him and 
enjoy him ; but by sin we have made ourselves unable for his service^ and indis- 
posed for the enjoyment of him; and we must have a new and Divine nature, 
otherwise we had the human nature in vain. Therefore David prays, Lord, 
since thou hast made me by thy power for thy glory, make me anew by thy 
grace, that I may answer the ends of my creation, and live to some purpose. 

Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments." The way in 



PSALM CXIX. 591 

which God recovers and secures his interest in men is, by giving them an 
understanding, for by that door he enters into the soul, and gains possession 
of it. 

74 They that fear thee will be glad when they see me ; 
Because I have hoped in thy word. 

Here is- First. The confidence of this good man in the hope of God's sal- 
vation ; "I have hoped in thy word," and I have not found it in vain to do so ; 
it has not failed me, nor have I been disappointed in my expectations from it. 
It is a hope that maketh not ashamed, but is present satisfaction, and fruition 

Secondly. The concurrence of other good men with him in the joy of that 
salvation ; " They that fear thee will be glad when they see me " relieved by 
my hope in thy word, and delivered according to my hope. The comforts which 
some of God's children have in God, and the favours they have received from 
him. should be matter of joy to others of them. St. Paul often hopes that for 
God's grace to him thanks would be rendered by many, 2 Cor. i. 11 ; iv. 15. Or 
it may be taken more generally, good people are glad to see one another. They 
are especially pleased with those, and, as I may say, proud of them who are 
eminent for their hope in God's word. 

75 I know, 0 Lord, that thy judgments are right, 
And that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. 

Still David is in affliction, and being so he owns, 

First. That his sin was justly corrected; "I know, O Lord, that thy judg- 
ments are right," are righteousness itself. However God is pleased to afflict 
us, he doth us no wrong, nor can we charge him with any iniquity, but must 
acknowledge that it is less than we have deserved. We know that God is holy 
in his nature, and wise and just in all the acts of his government, and therefore 
we cannot but know, in the general, that his judgments are right, though in 
some particular instances there may be difficulties which we cannot easily 
resolve. 

Secondly. That God's promise was graciously performed. The former may 
silence us under our afflictions, and forbid us to repine, but this may satisfy us 
and enable us to rejoice; for afflictions are in the covenant, and therefore they 
are not only not meant for our hurt, but they are really intended for our good ; 
" In faithfulness thou hast afflicted me," pursuant to the great design of my sal- 
vation. It is easier to own in general that God's judgments are right, than to 
own it when it comes to be our own case. But David subscribes to it with 
application : Even my afflictions are just and kind, 

76 Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, 
According to thy word unto thy servant. 

77 Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live : 
For thy law is my delight. 

Here is, First. An earnest petition to God for his favour. They that own 
the justice of God in their afflictions, as David had done, ver. 75, may in faith, 
and with humble boldness, be earnest for the mercy of God, and the tokens and 
fruits of that mercy in their affliction. He prays for God's merciful kindness, 
ver. 78; his tender mercies, ver. 77. He can claim nothing as his due, but all his 
supports under his affliction must come from mere mercy and compassion to one 
in misery, one in want. Let these come to me, that is, the evidence of them,— 
clear it up to me, that thou hast a kindness for me, and mercy in store, — and 
the effects of them ; let them work my relief and deliverance. 

Secondly. The benefit he promised himself from God's lovingkindness. Let 
it come to me " for my comfort," ver. 76. That will comfort me when nothing 
else will; that will comfort me, whatever grieves me. Gracious souls fetch all 
their comfort from a gracious God, as the fountain of all happiness and joy. 
Let it " come to me that I may live;" that is, that I may be revived, and my life 
may be made sweet to me, for I have no joy of it while I am under God's dis- 

Sleasure. "In his favour is life," in his frowns are death. A good man cannot 
ve with any satisfaction any longer than he has some tokens of God's favour 
to him. 

Thirdly. His pleas for the benefits of God's favour. He pleads, I. God's 
promise. Let me have thy kindness " according to thy word unto thy servant." 
The kindness which thou hast promised, and because thou hast promised it. 
Our Master has passed his word to all his servants, that he will be kind to 



592 PSALM CXIX. 

them, and they may plead it with him. 2. His own confidence and complacency 
in that promise. " Thy law is my delight ; " that is, 1 hope in thy word, and 
rejoice in that hope. Note, Those that delight in the law of God may depend 
upon the favour of God, for it shall certainly make them happy. 

78 Let the proud be ashamed ; for they dealt perversely with 

me without a cause : 
But I will meditate in thy precepts. 

79 Let those that fear thee turn unto me, 
And those that have known thy testimonies. 

Here David shews, 

First. How little he valued the ill-will of sinners. There were those that 
dealt perversely with him, that were peevish and ill conditioned towards him, 
that sought advantages against him, and misconstrued all he said and did. 
Even those that deal most fairly, yet may meet with those that deal perversely. 
But David mattered it not, for, 1. He knew it was without cause, and that 
for his love they were his adversaries. The causeless reproach, like the curse 
causeless, may be easily slighted ; it doth not hurt us, and therefore should not 
move us. 2. He could pray in^ faith that they might be ashamed of it. God's 
dealing favourably with him might make them ashamed to think that they had 
dealt perversely with him. "Let them be ashamed;" that is, let them be 
brought either to repentance or to ruin. 3. He could go on in the way of his 
duty, and find comfort in that. However they deal with me, " I will meditate 
in thy precepts," and entertain myself with them. 

Secondly. How much he valued the good-will of saints, and how desirous to 
stand right in their opinion, and keep up his interest in them, and communion 
with them. "Let those that fear thee turn to me." He doth not mean so 
much that they might side with him, and take up arms in his cause, as that they 
might love him, and pray for him, and associate with him. Good men desire 
the friendship and society of those that are good. Some think it intimates that 
when David had been guilty of that foul sin in the murder of Uriah, though he 
was a king, they that feared God grew strange to him, and turned from him, 
for they were ashamed of him ; this troubled him, and therefore he prays, Lord, 
let them turn to me again. He desires especially the company of those that 
were not only honest, but intelligent ; " that have known thy testimonies," have 
good heads as well as good hearts, and whose conversation will be edifying. It 
is desirable to have an intimacy with such. 

80 Let my heart be sound in thy statutes ; 
That I be not ashamed. 

Here is, First. David's prayer for sincerity, that his heart might be brought 
to God's statutes, and that it might be sound in them, not rotten and deceitful; 
that he might not rest in the form of godliness, but be acquainted with and 
subject to trie power of it ; that he might be hearty and constant in religion, and 
that his soul might be in health. 

Secondly. His dread of the consequences of hypocrisy. "That I be not 
ashamed." Shame is the portion of hypocrites, either here if it be repented 
of, or hereafter if it be not. "Let my heart be sound," that I fall not into 
scandalous sin, that I fall not quite oft' from the ways of God, and so shame 
myself. " Let my heart be sound," that I may come boldly to the throne of 
grace, and may lift up my face without spot at the great day. 

11. CAPH. 

81 My soul fainteth for thy salvation : 
But I hope in thy word. 

82 Mine eyes fail for thy word, 
Saying, When wilt thou comfort me ? 

Here we have the psalmist, 

First. Longing for help from heaven. " My soul fainteth ;" "mine eyes fail." 
He longs for the salvation of the Lord, and for his word; that is, salvation 
according to the word. He is not thus eager for the creatures of fancy, but the 
objects of faith ; salvation from the present calamities under which he was 
groaning, and the doubts and fears which he was oppressed with. It may be 



PSALM CXIX. 593 

understood of the coming of the Messiah, and so he speaks in the name of the 
Old Testament church. The souls of the faithful even fainted to see that 
salvation of which the prophets testified, 1 Pet. i. 12; their eyes failed for it. 
Abraham saw it at a distance, and so did others, but at such a distance that it 
put their eyes to the stretch, and they could not stedfastly see it. David was 
now under prevailing dejections; and having been long so, his eyes cried out, 
" When wilt thou comfort me?" Comfort me with thy salvation, comfort me 
with thy word. Observe, 1. The salvation and consolation of God's people are 
secured to them by the word, which will certainly be fulfilled in its season. 
2. The promised salvation and comfort may be, and often are, long deferred, so 
that they are ready to faint and fail in the expectation of them. 6. Though we 
think tlie time long ere the promised salvation and comfort come, yet we must 
still keep our eye upon it, and resolve to take up with nothing short of it. Thy 
salvation, thy word, thy comfort, are what my heart is still upon. 

Secondly. Waiting for that help, assured that it will come, and tarrying till it 
doth come. " But 1 hope in thy word," and but for hope the heart would break. 
"When the eyes fail, yet the faith must not, for " the vision is for an appointed 
time, and at the end it shall speak and shall not lie." 

83 For I am become like a bottle in the smoke ; 
Yet do I not forget thy statutes* 




LEATHERN BOTTLES. 

David begs God would make haste to comfort him, 

First. Because his affliction was great, and therefore he was an object of 
God's pity. Lord, make haste to help me, "for 1 am become like a bottle 
m the smoke; ' a leathern bottle, which, if it hung any while in the smoke, was 
not only blackened with soot, but dried, and parched, and shrivelled up. David 
was thus wasted with age, and sickness, and sorrow. See how aflliction will 
mortify the strongest and stoutest of men. David had been of a ruddy coun- 
tenance, as fresh as a rose ; but now he is withered, his colour is gone, his 
cheeks are furrowed. Thus doth man's beauty consume under God's rebukes, as 
a moth frettmg a garment. A bottle, when it is thus wrinkled with the smoke, 
is thrown by, and no more use made of it. Who will put wine into such old 
Dottles ? i hus was David in his low estate looked upon as a despised, broken 
vessel, and as a vessel in w hich there was no pleasure. Good men, when thev 
are drooping and melancholy, sometimes think themselves more slighted than 
really tbey are. 

Secondly. Because, though his affliction was great, yet it had not driven him 
from his duty, and therefore he was within the reach of God's promise; "Yet 
do I not forget thy statutes." Whatever our outward condition is, we must nos 

2 p 



594 



PSALM CXIX. 



cool in our affection to the word of God, nor let that slip out of our minds; 
no care,no grief, must crowd that out. As some drink and forget the law, 
Pr. xxxi. 5, so others weep and forget the law ; but we must in every con- 
dition, both prosperous and adverse, have the things of God in remembrance. 
And if we be mindful of God's statutes we may pray and hope that he will be 
mindful of our sorrows, though for a time he seems to forget us. 

84 How many are the days of thy servant ? [me ? 
When wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute 

Here, First. David prays against the instruments of his troubles, that God 
would make haste to execute judgment on those that persecuted him. He 
prays not for power to avenge himself, he bore no malice to any, but that God 
would take to himself the vengeance that belonged to him, and would repay, 
JRom. xii. 19, as the God that sits in the throne judging right. There is a day 
coming, and a great and terrible day it will be, when God will execute judg- 
ment on all the proud persecutors of his people, " tribulation to them that 
troubled them." Enoch foretold it, Jude 14, whose prophecy perhaps David 
here had an eye to. And that day we are to look for, and pray for the hasten- 
ing of, " Come, Lord Jesus, come" quickly." 

Secondly. He pleads the long continuance of his trouble; "How many are 
the days of thy servant ?" The days of my life are but few, so some, therefore 
let them not all be miserable, and therefore make haste to appear for me against 
my enemies, " before I go hence, and shall be seen no more." Or rather, the 
days of my affliction are many ; thou seest, Lord, how many they be ; when wilt 
thou return in mercy to me ? Sometimes, for the elect's sake, the days of trouble 
are shortened. O let the days of my trouble be shortened ; I am thy servant, 
and therefore, as the eyes of a servant are to the hand of his master, so are mine 
to thee, until that thou have mercy on me. 

85 The proud have digged pits for me, 
Which are not after thy law. 

86 All thy commandments are faithful : 

They persecute me wrongfully ; help thou me. 

87 They had almost consumed me upon earth ; 
But I forsook not thy precepts. 

David's state was herein a type and figure of the state both of Christ and 
Christians, that he was grievously persecuted. As there are many of his psalms, 
so there are many of the verses of this psalm which complain of this, as those 
here. Where observe, 

First. The account he gives of his persecutors, and their malice against him 
1. They were proud, and in their pride they persecuted him, glorying in this 
that they could trample upon one who was so much cried up, and hoping to 
raise themselves on his ruins. 2. They were unjust, they persecuted him wrong- 
fully. So far was he from giving them any provocation, that he had studied to 
oblige them ; but for his love they were his adversaries. 3. They were spiteful, 
they digged pits for him ; which speaks them deliberate in their designs against 
him, and that wdiat they did w r as of malice prepense. It intimates likewise, that 
they were subtle and crafty, and had the serpent's head as well as the serpent's 
venom ; and that they were industrious, and would stick at no pains to do him 
a mischief; and treacherous, laying snares in secret for him, as hunters do to 
take wild beasts, Ps. xxxv. 7; such has been the enmity of the serpent's seed 
to the seed of the woman. 4. They herein shew r ed their enmity to God himself. 
The pits they digged for him were not after God's law, which forbids to devise 
evil to our neighbour, and hath particularly said, " Touch not mine anointed." 
The law appointed, that if a man digged a pit which occasioned any mischief, he 
should answer for the mischief, Ex. xxi. 33, 34, much more when it was digged 
with a mischievous design. 5. They carried on their designs against him so far 
that they had almost consumed him upon earth, they went near to ruin him and 
all his interests. It is possible that those which shall shortly be consummate in 
heaven, may be for the present almost consumed on earth; and" it is of the 
Lord's mercies" (and considering the malice of their enemies it is a miracle of 
mercy) "that they are not" quite " consumed." But the bush in which God is, 
though it bums, shall not be burnt up. 

Secondly. His application to God in his persecuted state. 1. He acknowledges 
the truth and goodness of his religion, though he suffered; However it be 
"all thy commandments are faithful," and therefore, whatever I lose for my 
observance of them, I know I shall not lose by it. True religion, if it be worth 
any thing 3 is worth every thing, and therefore worth suffering for. Men are 



PSALM CXIX. 595 

false, I find tliem so; men of low degree, men of high degTee are so, there is no 
trusting them ; but " all thy commandments are faithful," on them I may rely. 
2. He begs that God would stand by him, and succour him. " They persecute me, 
help thou me." Help me under my troubles, that I may bear them patiently, 
and as becomes me, and may still hold fast my integrity, and in due time help me 
out of my troubles. " God help me," is an excellent, comprehensive prayer ; it 
is pity it should ever be used lightly, and as a byword. 

Thirdly. His adherence to his duty, notwithstanding all the malice of his per- 
secutors ; ver. 87, " But I forsook not thy precepts." That which they aimed at 
was to frighten him from the ways of God, but they could not prevail. He 
would sooner forsake all that was dear to him in this world than forsake the 
word of God ; would sooner lose his life, than lose the comfort of doing his 
duty. 

88 Quicken me after thy lovingkindness ; 

So shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. 

Here is, First. David in care to be found in the way of his duty ; his constant 
desire and design is to keep the testimony of God's mouth, to keep to it as his 
rule, and to keep hold of it as his confidence and portion for ever. These we 
must keep, whatever we lose. 

Secondly. David at prayer for Divine grace to assist him therein ; " Quicken 
me after thy lovingkindness;" make me alive, and make me lively, "so shall 
I keep thy testimonies," implying, that otherwise I shall not keep them. We 
cannot proceed nor persevere in the good way unless God quicken us, and put 
life into us ; we are therefore here taught to depend upon the grace of God for 
strength to do every good work, and to depend upon it, as grace, as purely the 
fruit of God's favour. He had prayed before, " Quicken me in thy righteousness," 
ver. 40 ; but here, " Quicken me after thy lovingkindness." The surest token of 
God's good will towards us is his good work in us. 

12. LAMED. 

89 For ever, 0 Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. 

90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations : 
Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. 

91 They continue this day according to thine ordinances : 
For all are thy servants. 

Here, First. The psalmist acknowledged the unchangeableness of the word 
of God, and of all his counsels. "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled." 
'Thou art for ever thyself,' (so some read it,) thou art the same, and with thee 
there is no variableness, and this is a^ proof of it; thy word, by which the 
heavens were made, is settled there in the abiding products of it ; or, the 
settling of God's word in heaven is opposed to the changes and revolutions 
that are here upon earth; "All flesh is grass; but the word of the Lord 
endureth for ever." It is settled in heaven, that is, in the secret counsel of 
God, which is hid in himself, and is far above out of our sight, and is immov- 
able, as mountains of brass. And his revealed will is as firm as his secret 
will ; as he will fulfil the thoughts of his heart, so no word of his shall fall 
to the ground ; for it follows here, " Thy faithfulness is unto > all generations ; " 
that is, the promise is sure to every age of the church, and it cannot be anti- 
quated by lapse of time. The promises that look never so far forward shall 
be performed in their season. 

Secondly. He produceth for proof of it the constancy of the course of nature. 
" Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth ;" it is what it was at first 
made, and where it was at first placed, poised with its own weight ; and, not- 
withstanding the convulsions in its own bowels, the tosses of the sea that is 
interwoven with it, and the violent concussions of the atmosphere that sur- 
rounds it, remains unmoved. " They," that is, the heaven and the earth, and all 
the hosts of both, " continue to this' day according to thine ordinances ; " they 
remain in the posts wherein thou hast set them, they fill up the place assigned 
them, and answer the purposes for which they were intended. The stability 
of the ordinances of day and night, of heaven and earth, is produced to prove 
the perpetuity of God's covenant, Jer. xxxi. 35, 36; xxxiii. 20, 21. It is by 
virtue of God's promise to Noah, Gen. viii. 22, that day and night, summer and 
winter, observe a steady course. They have continued to this day, and shall 
still continue to the end of time, acting according to the ordinances which were 
at tirst given them ; for all are thy servants, they do thy will, and set forth thv 
glory, and in both are thy servants- All the creatures are in their places, ancl 
according to their capacities serviceable to their Creator, and answer the ends 



598 PSALM CXIX. 

of their creation ; an shall man be the only rebel, the only revolter from his 
allegiance, and the only unprofitable burthen of the earth? 

92 Unless thy law had been my delights, 

I should then have perished in mine affliction. 

Here is, First. The great distress that David was in. He was in affliction, 
and ready to perish in his affliction ; not likely to die, so much as likely to 
despair; he was ready to give up all for gone, and to look upon himself as cut 
oft' from God's sight. He therefore admires the goodness of God to him, that 
he had not perished; that he kept the possession of his own soul, and was not 
driven out of his wits by his troubles ; but especially that he was enabled to 
keep close to his God, and was not driven off from his religion by them. 
Though we are not kept from affliction, yet if we are kept from perishing in our 
affliction, we have no reason to say, We have cleansed our hands in vain; or, 
"What profit is it that we have served God ? 

Secondly. His support in this distress. God's law was his delight. 1. It had 
been so formerly, and the remembrance of that was a comfort to him, as it 
afforded him a good evidence of his integrity. 2. It was so now in his affliction ; 
it afforded him abundant matter of comfort, and from these fountains of life ho 
drew 7 living waters, when the cisterns of the creature were broken or dried up. 
His converse with God's law, and his meditations on it, were his delightful 
entertainment in solitude and sorrow. A Bible is a pleasant companion at any 
time, if we please. 

93 I will never forget thy precepts : 

For with them thou hast quickened me. 

Here is, First. A very good resolution. I will never forget thy precepts, 
but will always retain a remembrance of and regard to thy word as my rule. 
It is a resolution for a perpetuity, never to be altered. Note, The best evidence 
of our love to the word of God is, never to forget it. We must resolve that we 
will never at any time cast off our religion, and never upon any occasion lay 
aside our religion, but that we wdli be constant to it, and persevere in it. 

Secondly. A very good reason for it. "For by them thou hast quickened 
me." Not only they are quickening, but, 1. They have been so to me ; I have 
found them so. Those speak best of the things of God that speak by experi- 
ence, who can say that by the word the spiritual life has been begun in them, 
maintained and strengthened in them, excited and comforted in them. 2. Thou 
hast made them so. The word of itself, without the grace of God, would not 
quicken us. Ministers can but prophesy upon the dry bones, they cannot put 
life into them. But ordinarily the glory of God works by the w r ord, and makes 
use of it as a means of quickening; and this is a good reason why we should 
never forget it, but should highly value wmat God hath put such honour upon, 
and dearly love what we have found such benefit «by, and hope still to find. 
See here what is the best help for bad memories; namely, good affections. If 
we are quickened by the word, we shall never forget it; nay, that word that 
doth really quicken us to and in our duty, is not forgotten. Though the expres- 
sions be lost, if the impressions remain, it is well enough. 

94 I am thine, save me ; 

For I have sought thy precepts. 

Here, First. David claims relation to God ; "lam thine," devoted to thee, 
and owned by thee, thine in covenant. He doth not say, 4 Thou art mine,' (as 
Dr. Manton observes,) though that follow r s of course, because that were a 
higher challenge, but, I am thine, expressing himself in a more humble and 
dutiful way of resignation ; nor doth he say, I am thus, but, I am thine, not 

leading his own good property or qualification, but God's propriety in him. 

am thme, not my own, not the world's. 

Secondly. He proves his claim; "I have sought thy precepts;" that is, 1 
have carefully inquired concerning my duty, and diligently endeavoured to 
do it. This will be the best evidence that we belong to God; all that are his, 
though they have not found perfection, are seeking it. 

Thirdly. He improves his claim. > " l am thine, save me," save me from sin, save 
me from ruin. Those that have in sincerity given up themselves to God to be 
his may be sure that he will protect them ana preserve them to his heavenly 
kingdom, Mai. iii. 18. 

95 The wicked have waited for me to destroy me : 
But I will consider thy testimonies. 



PSALM CX1X. 597 

Here, First. David complains of the malice of his enemies ; " The wicked '' 
(and none but such would be enemies to so good a man) " have waited for me to 
destroy me." They were very cruel, and aimed at no less than his destruction : 
they were very crafty, and sought all opportunities to do him a mischief ; and 
they were confident, they expected (so some read it) that they should destroy 
him, they thought themselves sure of their prey. 

Secondly. He comforts himself in the word of God, as his protection. While 
they are contriving my destruction, " I consider thy testimonies," which secure 
to me my salvation. God's testimonies are then likely to be our support, when 
we consider them, and dwell in our thoughts upon them. 

96 I have seen an end of all perfection : 

But tliy commandment is exceeding broad. 

Here we have David's testimony from his own experience, 
First. Of the vanity of the world, and its insufficiency to make us happy; 
" I have seen an end of all perfection." Poor perfection, which one sees an end 
oft vet such are all those things in this world which pass for perfections. 
David in his time had seen Goliath the strongest overcome; Asahel the swiftest 
overtaken ; Ahithophel the wisest befooled ; Absalom the fairest deformed ; and, 
in short, he had seen an end of perfection, of all perfection. He saw it by faith, 
he saw it by observation; he saw an end of the perfection of the creature both 
in respect of sufficiency, it was scanty and defective, (there is that to be done 
for us which the creature cannot do,) and in respect of continuance, it will not 
last our tune, for it will not last to eternity, as we must. The glory of man is 
but as the flower of the grass. 

Secondly. Of the fulness of the word of God, and its sufficiency for our satis- 
faction; "But thy commandment is broad, exceeding broad." The word of 
God reaches to all cases, to all times. The Divine law lays a restraint upon the 
whole man, is designed to sanctify us wholly. There is a great deal required 
and forbidden in every commandment. The Divine promise (for that also is 
commanded) extends itself to all our burthens, wants, and grievances, and hath 
that in it which will make a portion and happiness for us when we have seen 
an end of all perfection. 

13. MEM. 

97 0 how love I thy law ! 

It is my meditation all the day. 

Here is, First. David's inexpressible love to the word of God : " O how love 
I thy law !" He protests his affection to the word of God with a holy vehe- 
mency. He found that love to it in his heart which, considering the corruption 
of his nature, and the temptations of the world, he could not but wonder at, 
and at that grace which had wrought it in him. He not only loved the promises, 
but loved the law, and delighted in it after the inner man. 

Secondly. An unexceptionable evidence of this. What we love, we love to 
think of. By this it appeared that David loved the w r ord of God, it was his 
meditation. He not only read the book of the law, but digested what he read 
in his thoughts, and was delivered into it, as into a mould. It was his medita- 
tion, not only in the night when he was silent and solitary, and had nothing else 
to do ; but in the day, when he was full of business and company ; nay, and all 
the day some good thoughts were interwoven with his common thoughts, so 
full was he of the word of God. 

98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser 

than mine enemies : 
For they are ever with me. 

99 I have more understanding than all my teachers : 
For thy testimonies are my meditation. 

100 I understand more than the ancients, 
Because I keep thy precepts. 

"We have here an account of David's learning, not that of the Egyptians, but 
of the Israelites indeed. 

First. The good method by which he got it. In his youth he minded business 
in the country as a shepherd; from his youth he minded business in the court 



59S 



PSALM CXIX. 



and camp. "Which way then could he get any great stock of learning? He 
tells us here how he came by it. He had it from God as the author: "Thou 
hast made me wise ;" all true wisdom is from God. He had it by the word of 
God as the means ; by his commandments and his testimonies. These are able 
to make us wise to salvation, and to furnish the man of God for every good 
work. 1. These David took for his constant companions. " They are ever with 
me," ever in my mind, ever in my eye. A good man wherever "he goes carries 
his Bible along with him, if not in his hands, yet in his head and in his heart. 
2. These he took for the delightful subject of his thoughts. They were his 
meditation, not only as matters of speculation for his entertainment, as scholars 
meditate on their notions, but as matters of concern for his right management, 
as men of business think of their business, that they may do it in the best man- 
ner. 3. These he took for the commanding rules of all his actions. "I keep 
thy precepts/' that is, I make conscience of doing my duty in every thing. The 
best way to improve in knowledge is to abide and abound in all the instances of 
serious godliness ; for '''if any man do his will, he shall know of the doctrine" of 
Christ, shall know more and more of it, Jno. vii. 17. The love of the truth 
prepares for the light of it. The pure in heart shall see God here. 
m Secondly. The great eminency he attained to in it. By studying and prac- 
tising God's commandments, and making them his rule, he learned to behave 
himself wisely in all his ways, 1 Sam. xviii. 14. 1. He outwitted his enemies. 
God by these means made him wiser to baffle and defeat their designs against 
him than they w r ere to lay them. Heavenly wisdom will carry the point at 
long run against carnal policy. By keeping the commandments w r e secure God 
on our side, and make him our friend, and therein are certainly wiser than 
those that make him their enemy. By keeping the commandments we pre- 
serve to ourselves that peace and quiet of mind which our enemies w r ould rob 
us of, and so are wise for ourselves, wiser than they are for themselves, for this 
world as well as for the other. 2. He outstripped his teachers, and had more 
understanding than they all. He means either those that would have been 
his teachers, that blamed his conduct, and undertook to prescribe to him, (by 
keeping God's commandments he managed his matters so that it appeared in 
the event he had taken the right measures, and they had taken the wrong,) 
or those that should have been his teachers, the priests and Levites that sat 
in Moses's chair, and whose lips ought to have kept knowledge; but they 
neglected the study of the law, and minded their honours and revenues, and 
the formalities only of their religion, and so David, who conversed much 
with the Scriptures, by that means became more intelligent than they ; or 
those that had been his teachers when he was young — he built so well upon the 
foundation which they had laid that, with the help of his Bible, he became able 
to teach them, to teach them all. He was not now a babe that needed milk* 
but had spiritual senses exercised, Heb. v. 14. It is no reflection upon our 
teachers, but rather an honour to them, to improve so as really to excel them, 
and not to need them. By meditation w r e preach to ourselves, and so we come 
to understand more than our teachers, for we come to understand our own 
hearts, w T hich they cannot. 3. He outdid the ancients. Either those of his 
own day, (he w r as young, like Elihu, and they were very old ; but his keeping 
of God's precepts taught him more wisdom than the multitude of their years, 
Job xxxii. 7, 8,) or those of former days. He himself quotes the proverb of 
the ancients, 1 Sam. xxiv. 13. But the word of God gave him to understand 
things better than he could do by tradition, and all the learning that was 
handed down from preceding ages. In short, the written word is a surer 
guide to heaven than all the doctors and fathers, the teachers and ancients of 
the church ; and the sacred writings, kept and kept to, will teach us more 
w isdom than all their wTitiugs. 

101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way, 
That I might keep thy word. 

Here is, First. David's care to avoid the ways of sin; "I have refrained my 
feet from the evil w T ays " they were ready to step aside into ; I checked myself 
and drew T back, as soon as I w 7 as aware that 1 w T as entering into temptation. 
Though it was a broad way, a green way, a pleasant way, and a w^ay that many 
walked in, yet being a sinful way it was an evil way, and he refrained his feet 
from it, foreseeing the end of that way. And his care was universal; he 
shunned every evil way. "By the words of thy lips I have kept me from the 
paths of the destroyer," Ps. xvii. 4. 

Secondly. His care to be found in the way of duty; w That I may keep thy 
word," and never transgress it. His abstaining from sin was, 1. An evidence 
that he did conscientiously aim to keep God's word, and had made that his 
rule. 2. It was a means of his keeping God's word in the exercises of religion ; 
for we cannot with any comfort or boldness attend on God in holy duties, so as 
in them to keep his word, while we are under guilt or in any byway. 



PSALM CX1X. 



599 



102 I have not departed from thy judgments : 
For thou hast taught me. 

Here is, First. David's constancy in his religion. He had not departed from 
God's judgments; he had not chosen any other rule but the word of God, nor 
had he wilfully deviated from that rule. A constant adherence to the ways of 
God in trying times will be a good evidence of our integrity. 

Secondly. The cause Of his constancy. For "thou hast taught me ;" that is, 
they were Divine instructions that I learned. I was satisfied that the doctrine 
was of God, and therefore I stuck to it; or rather it was Divine grace in my 
heart that enabled me to receive those instructions. All the saints are taught 
of God, for he it is that gives the understanding; and those, and those only, 
that are taught of God will continue to the end in the things that they have 
learned. 

103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! 
Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth ! 

104. Through thy precepts I get understanding : 
Therefore I hate every false way. 

Here is, First. The wonderful pleasure and delight which David took in the 
word of God. It was sweet to his taste, sweeter than honey. There is such a 
thing as a spiritual taste, an inward savour and relish of Divine things; such 
an evidence of them to ourselves by experience as we cannot give to others : 
" we have heard him ourselves," Jno. iv. 42. To this spiritual taste the word of 
God is sweet, very sweet, sweter than any of the gratifications of sense, even 
those that are most delicious. David speaks as if he wanted words to express 
the satisfaction he took in the discoveries of the Divine will and grace. No 
pleasure was comparable to it. 

Secondly. The unspeakable profit and advantage he gained by the word of 
God. 1. .It helped him to a good head. " Through thy precepts I get under- 
standing,*' to discern between truth and falsehood, good and evil, so as not to 
mistake either in the conduct of my own lite, or in advising others. 2. That 
helped him to a good heart. Therefore because I have got understanding of 
the truth, "I hate every false way," and am stedfastly resolved not to turn 
aside into it. Observe here, that the way of sin is a false way, it doth deceive, 
and will ruin all that walk in it; it is the wrong way, and yet it seems right to 
a man, Pr. xiv. 12. That it is the character of every good man, that he hates 
the way of sin, and hates it because it is a false way. He not only refrains his 
feet from it, ver. 101, but he hates it, has an antipathy to it, and a dread of it. 
That those who hate sin as sin will hate all sin, hate every false way, because 
every false way leads to destruction. And the more understanding we get by 
the word of God the more rooted will our hatred of sin be ; for " to depart 
from evil, that is understanding," Job xxviii. 28, and the more ready we are in 
the Scriptures, the better furnished we are with answers to temptation. 

U. NUN. 

105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, 
And a light unto my path. 

Observe here, First. T ne . nature of the word of God, and 
the great intention of giving it to the world. It is a lamp and 
a light, it discovers to us that concerning God and ourselves 
which otherwise we could not have known. It shews us what 
is amiss, and will be dangerous ; it directs us in our work and 
way, and a dark place indeed the world would be without it. 
It is a lamp which we may set up by us, and take into our 
hands for our own particular use, Pr. vi. 23. The command- 
ment is a lamp kept burning with the oil of the Spirit, it is like 
the lamps in the sanctuary, and the pillar of fire to Israel. 

Secondly. The use we should make of it. It must be not 
only a light to our eyes to gratify them, and fill our heads with 
speculations, but a light to our feet and to our path, to direct 
us in the right ordering of our conversation ; both in the choice 
of our way in general and in the particular steps we take in 
that way, that we may not take a false way, nor a false step 
in the right way. We are then truly sensible of God's good- 
cresset ness to us in giving us such a lamp and light when we make 
beaker. it a guide to our feet, our path. 





600 



PSALM CXIX. 



106 I have sworn, and I will perform it, 
That I will keep thy righteous judgments. 

Here is, First. The notion David had of religion. It is keeping God's right- 
eous judgments. God's commands are his judgments, the dictates of infinite 
wisdom. They are "righteous judgments," consonant to the eternal rules of 
equity, and it is our duty to keep them carefully. 

Secondly. The obligations he here laid upon himself to be religious, binding 
himself by his own promise to that which he was already bound to by the 
Divine precept, and all little enough. " I have sworn," I have lift up my hand 
to the Lord, and I cannot go back; and therefore must go forward, I will 
perform it." Note, 1. It is good for us to bind ourselves with a solemn oath 
to be religious. We must swear to the Lord, as subjects swear allegiance to 
their sovereign, promising fealty, appealing to God concerning our sincerity 
in this promise, and owning ourselves liable to the curse if we do not perform 
it. 2. We must often call to mind the vows of God that are upon us, and 
remember that we have sworn. 3. We must make conscience of performing 
unto the Lord our oaths. An honest man will be as good as his word. Nor 
have we sworn to our own hurt ; but it will be unspeakably to our hurt if we 
do not perform. 

107 I am afflicted very much : 

Quicken me, 0 Lord, according unto thy word. 

Here is, First. The remonstrance David makes of the sorrowful condition 
he was in; "I am afflicted very much ;" afflicted in spirit, he seems to mean 
that especially. He laboured under many discouragements, without were 
fightings, within were fears. This is often the lot of the best saints, therefore 
think it not strange if sometimes it be ours. # 

Secondly. The recourse he has to God in this condition. He prays fo^ his 
grace; "Quicken me, O Lord," make me lively, make me cheerful ; quicken 
me by thy afflictions to greater diligence in my work; quicken me, that is, 
deliver me out of my afflictions, which will be as life from the dead. He pleads 
the promise of God; guides his desires by it, and grounds his hopes upon it, 
" quicken me according to thy word." David resolved to perform his promises 
to God, ver. 106, and therefore could with humble boldness beg of God to make 
good his word to him. 

108 Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my 

mouth, O Lord, 
And teach me thy judgments. 

Two things we are here taught to pray for in reference to our religious 

performances : 

First. Acceptance of them. This we must aim at in all we do in religion, 
that whether present or absent we may be accepted of the Lord. That which 
David here earnestly prays for the acceptance of is the freewill offerings, not 
of his purse, but of his mouth, his prayers and praises, the calves of our lips, 
Hos, xiv. 2; the fruit of our lips, Heb. xiii. 11. These are the spiritual offer- 
ings which all Christians, as spiritual priests, must offer to God. And they 
must be freewill offerings, for we must offer them abundantly and cheerfully. 
And it is this willing mind that is accepted. The more there is of freeness 
and willingness in the service of God the more pleasing it is to him. 

Secondly. Assistance in them; " Teach me thy judgments." W r e cannot offer 
any thing to God which we have reason to think he will accept of, but what he 
is pleased to instruct us in the doing of; and we must be as earnest for the 
grace of God in us as for the favour of God towards us. 

109 My soul is continually in my hand: 
Yet do I not forget thy law. 

110 The wicked have laid a snare for me : 
Yet I erred not from thy precepts. 

Here is, First. David in danger of losing his life. There is but a step 
between him and death, for the wicked have laid a snare for him. Saul did 



PSALM CXIX. 601 

so many a time because he hated him for his piety. "Wherever he was, he 
found some design or other laid against him to take away his life, for that 
was it they aimed at. What they could not effect by open force they hoped 
to compass by treachery, which made him say, " My soul is continually in my 
hand." It was so not only as a man, (so it is true of us all, wherever we are 
we lie exposed to the strokes of deaths; what we carry in our hands is easily 
snatched from us by violence, or if sandy, as our life is, it easily of itself slips 
through our fingers;) but as a man of war, a soldier, that often jeoparded his 
life in the high places of the field; an<l especially as a man after God's own 
heart, and as such hated and persecuted, and "always delivered to death," 
2 Cor. iv. 11 ; " Killed all the day long." 

Secondly. David in no danger of losing his religion for all this. Thus in 
jeopardy every hour, and yet constant to God and his duty. None of these 
things move him; for, 1. He doth not forget the law, and therefore he is 
likely to persevere. In the multitude of his cares for his own safety he finds 
room in his head and heart for the word of God, and has that in his mind as 
fresh as ever, and where that dwells richly it will be a well of living water. 
2. He hath not yet erred from God's precepts, and therefore it is to be hoped 
he will not. He had stood many a shock and kept his ground, and sure that 
grace which had helped him hitherto would not fail him, but would still 
prevent his wanderings. 

111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever : 
For they are the rejoicing of my heart. 

112 1 have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, 
Even unto the end. 

The psalmist here in a most affectionate manner, like an Israelite indeed, 
resolves to stick to the word of God, and to live and die by it. 

First. He resolves to portion himself in it, and there to seek his happiness ; 
nay, there to enjoy it; " Thy testimonies," the truths, the promises of thy 
word, "have I taken as an heritage for ever, for they are the rejoicing of my 
heart." The present delight he took in them was an evidence that the good 
things contained in them were in his account the best things, and the treasure 
which he set his heart upon. 1. He expected an eternal happiness in God's 
testimonies. The covenant God had made with him was an everlasting cove- 
nant, and therefore he took it as a heritage for ever. If he could not yet 
say, They are my heritage, yet he could say, I have made choice of them for 
my heritage, and will never take up with a portion in this life, Ps. xvii. 14, 15. 
God's testimonies are a heritage to all that have received the spirit of adop- 
tion ; for, "if children, then heirs." They are a heritage for ever, and that no 
earthly heritage is, 1 Pet. i. 4. All the saints accept them as such, take up 
with them, live upon them, and can therefore take up with a little of this 
world. 2. He enjoyed a present satisfaction in them. <r They are the rejoicing 
of my heart," because they will be my heritage for ever. It rejoiceth the heart 
of a good man to see his portion in the promise of God, and not in the posses- 
sions of this world. 

Secondly. He resolves to govern himself by it, and thence to take his mea- 
sures; "I have inclined my heart to do thy statutes." They that would have 
the blessings of God's testimonies must come under the bonds of his statutes. 
We must look for comfort only in the way of duty, and that duty must be done, 
1. With full consent and complacency. 1 have by the grace of God inclined my 
heart to it, and conquered the aversion I had to it. A good man brings his 
heart to his work, and then it is done well. A gracious disposition to do the 
will of God is the acceptable principle of all obedience. 2. With constancy 
and perseverance. He would perform God's statutes always, in all instaneeSj 
in the duty of every day, in a constant course of holy walking, and this to the 
end without weariness. This is following the Lord £ully. 

15. SAMECH. 

113 I hate vain thoughts : 
But thy law do I love. 

Here is. First. David's dread of the rising's of sin, and the first beginnings 
of it ; "I hate vain thoughts." He doth not mean that he hated them in 
others, for there he could not discern them, but he hated them in his own 
heart. Every good man makes conscience of his thoughts, for they are words 
to God. Vain thoughts, how light soever most ma-ke of them, are sinful and 
hurtful, and therefore we should account them hateful and dreadful, for they 
not only divert the mind from that which is good, but open the door to all evil, 



602 PSALM CXIX. 

Jer. iv. 14. Though David could not say he was free from vain thoughts, yet 
he could say he hated them, he did not countenance them, or give them any 
entertainment, but did what he could to keep them out, at least to keep them 
under. " The evil 1 d9 I allow not." 

Secondly. David's delight in the rule of duty; "But thy law do I love," 
which forbids those vain thoughts, and threatens them. The more we love the 
law of God, the more we shall get the mastery of our vain thoughts, the more 
hateful they will be to us, as being contrary to the whole law, and the more 
watchful we shall be against them, lest they draw us from that we love. 

114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield : 
I hope in thy word. 

Here is, First. God's care of David to protect and defend him, which he com- 
forts himself with when his enemies were very malicious against him ; " Thou 
art my hiding-place, and my shield." David, when Saul pursued him, often 
betook himself to close places for shelter; in war he guarded himself with his 
shield: now, God was both these to him, a hiding-place to preserve him from 
danger ; and a shield to preserve him in danger, his life from death, and his soul 
from sin. Good people are safe under God's protection : he is their " strength 
and their shield:" their "help and their shield;" their "sun and their shield;" 
their " shield and their great reward;" and here, their "hiding-place and their 
shield." They may by faith retire to him, and repose in him, as their hiding- 
place, where they are kept in secret. They may by faith oppose his power to all 
the might and malice of their enemies, as their shield to quench every fiery dart. 

Secondly. David's confidence in God. He is safe, and therefore" he is easy 
under the Divine protection ; " I hope in thy word," which has acquainted me 
with thee, and assured me of thy kindness to me. They who depend on God's 
promise shall have the benefit of his powder, and be taken under his special 
protection. 

115 Depart from me, ye evildoers : 

For I will keep the commandments of my God. 

Here is, First. David's firm and fixed resolution to live a holy life ; " I will 
keep the commandments of my God." Bravely resolved, like a saint, like a 
soldier ; for true courage consists in a steady resolution against all sin, and for 
all duty. Those that would keep God's* commandments must be often renewing 
their resolutions to do so. I will keep them; whatever others do, this I will 
do ; though I be singular, — though all about me be evildoers and desert me, — 
whatever I have done hitherto, 1 will for the future walk closely with God. 
They are the commandments of God, of my God, and therefore I will keep 
them. He is God, and may command me; my God, and will command me 
nothing but what is for my good. 

Secondly. His farewell to bad company, pursuant to this resolution; "'Depart 
from me, ye evildoers." Though David, as a good magistrate, was a terror to 
evildoers, yet there were many such even about court, intruding near his person ; 
these he nere abdicates, and resolves to have no conversation with them. Note, 
They that resolve to keep the commandments of God must have no society 
with evildoers ; for bad company is a great hindrance to a holy life. We must 
not choose wicked people for our companions, nor be intimate with them. 
We must not do as they do, nor do as they would have us do, Ps. i. 1; 
Eph. v. 11. 

116 Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live : 
And let me not be ashamed of my hope. 

117 Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe : 

And I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. 

Here. First. David prays for sustaining grace. For this grace sufficient he 
besougnt the Lord twice ; " Uphold me ; " and again, " Hold thou me up." He 
sees himself not only unable to go on in his duty by any strength of his own. 
but in danger of falling into sin, unless he was prevented by Divine grace, and 
therefore he is thus earnest for that grace to uphold him in his integrity, 
Ps. xli. 12; to keep him from falling, and to keep him from tiring, that he might 
neither turn aside to evil-doing nor be w r eary of well-doing. We stand uo 
longer than God holds us, and go no farther than he carries us. 

Secondly. He pleads earnestly for this grace. 1. He pleads the promise of God, 
his dependence upon the promise, and his expectation from it; "Uphold me, 



PSALM CXIX. 603 

according to thy word," which word I hope in, and if it be not performed 
I shall be made ashamed of my hope, and be called a fool for my credulity. 
But they that hope in God's word may be sure that the word will not fail them, 
and therefore their hope will not make them ashamed. 2. He pleads the great 
need he had of God's grace, and the great advantage it would be of to him; 
"Uphold me, that I may live;" intimating, that he could not live without the 
grace of God. He should fall into sin, into death, into hell, if God did not 
hold him up ; but supported by his hand he shall live ; his spiritual life shall 
be maintained, and be an earnest of eternal life. "Hold me up, and I shall be 
safe ; " out of danger, and out of the fear of danger. _ Our holy security is 
grounded on Divine supports. 3. He pleads his resolution in the strength of 
this grace to proceed in his duty ; " Hold me up," and then " I will have respect 
unto thy statutes continually," and never turn my eyes or feet aside from them. 
I will employ myself, (so some,) I will delight myself, (so othersj) in thy statutes. 
If God's right hand uphold us, we must in his strength go on in our duty both 
with diligence and with pleasure. 

118 Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy 
For their deceit is falsehood. [statutes : 

119 Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross : 
Therefore I love thy testimonies. 

120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; 
And I am afraid of thy judgments 

Here is, First. God's judgment on wicked people ; on those that wander 
from his statutes, that take their measures from other rules, and will not have 
God to reign over them. All departure from God's statutes is certainly an 
error, and will prove a fatal one. These are the wicked of the earth ; they 
mind earthly things, and lay up their treasures in the earth, and live in pleasure 
on the earth, and are strangers and enemies to heaven and heavenly things. 
Now see how God deals with them, that you may neither fear them nor envy 
them. 1. He treads them all down; he brings them to ruin, to utter ruin ? to 
shameful ruin : he makes them his footstool. Though they are never so high, 
he can bring tnem low, Am. ii. 9. He has done it many a time, and he will do 
it ; for he resists the proud, and will triumph over those that oppose his king- 
dom. Proud persecutors trample upon his people, but sooner or later he will 
trample upon them. 2. He puts them ail away like dross. Wicked people are 
as dross, which, though it be mingled with the good metal in the ore, and seems 
to be of the same substance with it, must be separated from it. And in God's 
account they are worthless things, the scum and refuse of the earth, and no 
more to be compared with the righteous than dross with fine gold There is 
a day coming which will put them away from among the righteous, Mat. xiii. 49; 
so that they; shall have no place in their congregation, Ps. i. 5 ; which will put 
them away into everlasting fire, the fittest place for the dross. Sometimes in 
this world the wicked are by the censures of the church, or the sword of the 
magistrate, or the judgments of God, put away as dross, Pr. xxv. 4, 5. 

Secondly. The reasons of these judgments. God casts them off, because they 
err from his statutes. They that will not submit to the commands of the word 
shall feel the curses of it. And because " their deceit is falsehood," that is, 
because they deceive themselves by setting up false rules in opposition to God's 
statutes which they err from; and because they go about to deceive others 
with their hypocritical pretences of good, and their crafty projects of mischief. 
Their cunning is falsehood, so Dr. Hammond. The utmost of their policy is 
treachery and perfidiousness ; this the God of truth hates, and will punish. 

Thirdly. The improvement David made of these judgments. He took notice 
of them, and received instruction from them. The ruin of the wicked helped 
to increase, 1. His love to the word of God. I see what comes of sin, " there- 
fore I love thy testimonies," which warn me to take heed of those dangerous 
courses, and keep me from the paths of the destroyer. We see the word of 
God fulfilled in his judgments on sin and sinners, and therefore we should love it. 
2. His fear of the wrath of God; "My flesh trembleth for fear of thee." Instead 
of insulting over those who fell under God's displeasure he humbled himself. 
What we read and hear of the judgments of God upon wicked people, should 
make us, 1st. To reverence his terrible majesty, and to stand in awe of him; 
"Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?" 1 Sam. vi. 20. 2nd. To 
fear lest we offend him, and_ become obnoxious to his wrath. Good men have 
need to be restrained from sin by the terrors of the Lord, especially when judg- 
ment begins at the house of God, and hypocrites are diseovered and put away 
as dross. 



PSALM CXIX. 



16. AIN. 

121 I have done judgment and justice : 
Leave me not to mine oppressors. 

122 Be surety for thy servant for good : 
Let not the proud oppress me. 

David here appeals to God : 

First. As his witness that he had not done wrong. He could truly say, M I 
have done judgment and justice," that is, I have made conscience of rendering 
to all their due, and have not by force or fraud hindered any of their right. 
Take him as a king, he executeth judgment and justice to all his people, 
2 Sam. viii. 15. Take him in a private cnjwicity, he could appeal to Saul himself, 
that there was no evil or transgression in his hand, 1 Sam. xxiv. 11. Note, 
Honesty is the best policy, and will be our rejoicing in the day of evil. 

Secondly. As his judge, that he might not be wronged. He having done 
justice for others that were oppressed, he begs that God would do him justice, 
and avenge him of his adversaries ; " Be surety for thy servant for good/' that 
is, undertake for me against those that would run me down, and ruin me. He 
is sensible that he cannot make his part good himself, and therefore begs that 
God would appear for him. Christ is our surety with God ; and if he be so, 
Providence shall be our surety against all the world. Who or what shall harm 
us, if God's power and goodness be engaged for our protection and rescue? 
He doth not prescribe to God what he should do for him ; only let it be for 
good, in such way and manner as infinite wisdom sees best ; only let me not be 
left to mine oppressors. Though David had done judgment and justice, yet 
he had many enemies; but having God for his friend he hoped they should not 
have their will against him, and in that hope he prayed again, "Let not the 
proud oppress me." David, one of the best of men, was oppressed by the proud, 
whom God beholds afar off. The condition therefore of the persecuted is better 
than that of the persecutors, and will appear so at last. 

123 Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, 

And for the word of thy righteousness. 

David being oppressed, is here waiting and wishing for the salvation of the 
Lord, which would make him easy. 

First. He cannot but think that it comes slowly; "Mine eyes fail for thy 
salvation." His eyes were towards it, and had been long so. He looked for 
help from heaven, and we deceive ourselves if we look for it any other way: 
but it did not come so soon as he expected, so that his eyes began to fail, and 
he was sometimes ready to despair, and to think that because the salvation did 
not come when he looked for it, it would never come. It is often the infirmity 
even of good men to be weary of waiting God's time, when their time is lapsed. 

Secondly. Yet he cannot but hope that it comes surely ; for he expects the 
word of God's righteousness, and no other salvation but what is secured by 
that word, which cannot fall to the ground, because it is a word of righteous- 
ness. Though our eyes fail, yet God's word doth not ; and therefore those 
that build upon it, though now discouraged, shall in due time see his salvation. 

124 Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, 
And teach me thy statutes. 

125 I am thy servant ; give me understanding, 
That I may know thy testimonies. 

Here is, First. David's petition for Divine instruction. "Teach me thy 
statutes;" give me to know all my duty; when I am in doubt, and know not 
for certain what is my duty, direct me, and make it plain to me. Now I am 
afflicted, oppressed, and mine eyes ready to fail for thy salvation, let me know 
what my duty is in this condition. In difficult times we should desire more to 
be told what we must do than what we may expect, and should pray more 
to be led into the knowledge of Scripture precepts than of Scripture pro- 
phecies. If God that gave us his statutes do not teach us, we shall never learn 
them. How God teaches is implied in the next petition; "Give me under- 
standing," a renewed understanding, apt to receive Divine light, " that I may 
know thy testimonies." It is God's prerogative to give an understanding, that 
understanding without which we cannot know Gods testimonies. Those that 
know most of God's testimonies desire to know more ; and are still earnest with 
God to teach them, never thinking they know enough. 

Secondly. His pleas to enforce this petition. 1. He pleads God's goodness 



PSALM CXIX. 605 

to him ; " Deal with me according to thy mercy." The best saints count this 
their best plea for any blessing. Let me have it "according to thy mercy for 
we deserve no favour from Goa, nor can we claim any as a debt, but we are then 
most likely to be easy when we cast ourselves upon God's mercy, and refer 
ourselves to it. Particularly when we come to him for instruction we must 
beg it as a mercy, and reckon that in being taught we are well dealt with. 
2. He pleads his relation to God ; " I am thy servant," and have work to do for 
thee, therefore teach me to do it, and to do it well. The servant hath reason to 
expect, that if he be at a loss about his work his master should teach him, and, 
if it were in his power, give him an understanding. Lord, saith David, 1 desire 
to serve thee, shew me how. If any man resolve to do God's will as his servant, 
he shall be made to know his testimonies, Jno. vii. 17 ; Ps. xxv. 14. 

126 It is time for thee, Lord, to work : 
For they have made void thy law. 

Here is, First. A complaint of the daring impiety of the wicked. David 
having in himself a holy indignation at it, humbly represents it to God ; Lord, 
there are those that have made thy law void, have set thee and thy govern- 
ment at defiance, and have done what in them lay to cancel and vacate the 
obligation of thy commands. They that sin through infirmity transgress the 
law, but presumptuous sinners do in effect make void the law, saying, "Who 
is the Lord? what is the Almighty that we should fear him?" It is possible 
a godly man may sin against the commandment, but a wicked man would sin 
away the commandment,— would repeal God's laws, and enact his own lusts. 
This is the sinfulness of sin, and the malignity of the carnal mind. 

Secondly. A desire that God would appear for the vindication of his own 
honour; It is time for thee, Lord, to work," to do something for the effectual 
confutation of atheists and infidels, and the silencing of those that set their 
mouth against the heavens. God's time to work is when vice is become most 
daring, and the measure of iniquity is full ; "Now will I arise, saith the Lord." 
Some read it, and the original will bear it, ' It is time to work for thee, O Lord;' 
it is time for every one in his place to appear on the Lord's side, against the 
threatening growth of profaneness and immorality. We must do what we can 
for the support of the sinking interests of religion : and after all we must beg 
of God to take the work. in to his own hands. 

127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; 
Yea, above fine gold. 

128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things 
And I hate every false way. [to be right , 

David here, as often in this psalm, professeth the great love he had to the 
word and law of God ; and to evidence the sincerity of it, observe, 

First The degree of his love. He loved his Bible better than he loved his 
money; " above gold, yea, above fine gold." Gold, fine gold, is what the most 
of men set their hearts upon; nothing charms them, and dazzles tneir eyes so 
as gold doth. It is fine gold, a fine thing in their eyes. They will venture their 
souls, their God, their all, to get and keep it; but David saw that the word 
of God answers all things better than money doth; for it enricnethtne soul 
towards God, and therefore he loved it better than gold ; for it had done tnat 
for him which gold could not do, and would stand him m stead when the 
wealth of the world would fail him. 

Secondly. The ground of his love. Therefore he loved all God s command- 
ments, because he esteemed them to be right, all reasonable and just, and suited 
to the end for which they were made. They are all as they should be, and no 
fault can be found with them; and therefore we must love them, because tney 
bear God's image, and are the revelations of his will. If we thus consent to 
the law that it is good, we shall delight in it after the inner man. 

Thirdly. The fruit and evidence of this love. He hated every false way. 
The way of sin being directly contrary to God's precepts that are right, is a 
false way ; and therefore they that have a love and esteem for God s law hate 
it, and will not be reconciled to it. 

17. PE. 

129 Thy testimonies are wonderful: 
Therefore doth my soul keep them. 

See here how David was affected towards the word of God. _ 
First. He admired it as most excellent in itself; Thy testimonies are won- 
derful." The word of God gives us admirable discoveries of God, and Christ* 



606 PSALM CXIX. 

and another world ; admirable proofs of Divine love and grace. The majesty 
of the style, the purity of the matter, the harmony of the parts, are all wonder- 
ful ; its effects upon the consciences of men both for conviction and comfort 
are wonderful ; and it is a sign we are not acquainted with God's testimonies, 
or do not understand them, if we do not admire them. 

Secondly. He adhered to it as of constant use to him; " Therefore doth my 
soul keep them " as a treasure of inestimable value which I cannot be without. 
We do not keep them to any purpose, unless our souls keep them. There they 
must be deposited as the tables of testimony in the ark ; there they must have 
the innermost and uppermost place. They that see God's word to be admirable 
will prize it highly, and preserve it carefully, as that which they promise them- 
selves great things from. 

130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; 
It giveth understanding unto the simple. 

Here is, First. _ The great use for which the word of God was intended. To 
give light, that is, to give understanding ; to give us to understand that which 
will be of use to us in our travels through this world; and it is the outward 
and ordinary means by which the Spirit of God enlightens the understandings 
of all that are sanctified. God's testimonies are not only wonderful for the 
greatness of them, but useful as a light in a dark place. 

Secondly. Its efficacy for this purpose. Itanswers the end to admiration; for, 
1. Even the entrance of God's word gives light. If we begin at the beginning, 
and take it before us, we shall find that the very first verses of the Bible give us 
surprising and yet satisfying discoveries of the universe, about which without 
that the world is utterly in the dark. As soon as the word of God enters into 
us, and has a place in us, it enlightens us; we find we begin to see when we 
begin to study the word of God. The very first principles of the oracles of 
God, the plainest truths, the milk appointed for the babes, brings a great 
light into the soul; much more will the soul be illuminated by the sublime 
mysteries that are found there. The exposition or explication of thy word 
giveth light ; then it is most profitable when ministers do their part in giving 
the sense, Nek. viii. 8. Some understand it of the New Testament, which is 
the opening or -unfolding of the Old, which would give light concerning life 
and immortality. 2. It would give understanding even to the simple, to the 
weakest capacities, for it sheweth us a way to heaven so plain, that the way- 
faring men, though fools, shall not err therein. 

131 I opened my mouth, and panted : 
For I longed for thy commandments. 

First. The desire David had towards the word of God; "I longed for thy 
commandments." When he w T as under a forced absence from God's ordinances, 
he longed to be restored to them again. When he enjoyed ordinances^ he 
greedily sucked in the word of God, as newborn babes desire the milk. W hen 
Christ is formed in the soul, there are gracious longings, unaccountable to one 
that is a stranger to the work. 

Secondly. The degree of that desire appearing in the expressions of it ; "I 
opened my mouth and panted," as one overcome with heat, or almost stifled, 
pants for a mouthful of fresh air. Thus strong, thus earnest, should our desires 
be towards God, and the remembrance of his name, Ps. xlii. 1, 2 ; Lu. xii. 50. 

132 Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, 

As thou usest to do unto those that love thy name. 

Here is, First. David's request for God's favour to himself. Look graciously 
upon me, let me have thy smiles, and the light of thy countenance. Take cog- 
nizance of me and my affairs, and be merciful to me ; let me taste the sweetness 
of thy mercy, and receive gifts of thy mercy. See how humble his petition is ; 
he asks not for the operations of God"s hand, only for the smiles of his face. 
A good look is enough; and for that he doth not plead merit, but implores 
mercy. 

Secondly. His acknowledgment of his favour to all his people ; " As thou 
usest to do unto those that love thy name." Which speaks either, 1. A plea 
for mercy. Lord, I am one of those that love thy name, love thee and thy word, 
and thou usest to be kind to those that do so ; and wilt thou be worse to me 
than to others of thy people ? Or, 2. A description of the favour and mercy 
he desired. That which thou usest to bestow on those that love thy name, which 
thou bearest to thy chosen. Ps. cvi. 4, 5. He desires no more, no better, than 
neighbour's fare, and he will take up with no less. Common looks and common 



PSALM CXIX. 



607 



lue^Hes will not serve, but such as are reserved for those that love him ; which 
are sneh as eye hath' not seen, 1 Cor. ii. 9. Note, The dealings of God with 
trem that love him are such that a man needs not desire to be any better dealt 
?r*th, for he will make them truly and eternally happy; and as long as God 
deals with us no otherwise than as he useth to deal with those that love him, 
we have no reason to complain, 1 Cor. x. 13. 

133 Order my steps in thy word : 

And Jet not any iniquity have dominion over me. 

Here David prays for two great spiritual blessings, and is in this verse as 
earnest for the good work of God in him, as in the verse before for the good- 
will of God towards him. He prays, 

First. For direction in the paths of duty. " Order my steps in thy word."" 
Having led me into the right way, let every step I take in that way be under 
the conduct of thy grace. We ought to walk by rule; all the motions of the soul 
must not only be kept within the bounds prescribed by the word, so as not to 
transgress them, but carried out in the paths prescribed by the word, so as not 
to trifle in them ; and therefore we must beg of God that by his good Spirit he 
would order our steps accordingly. 

Secondly. For deliverance from the power of sin. "Let no iniquity have 
dominion over me," so as to gain my consent to it ; and that I should be led 
captive by it. The dominion of sin is to be dreaded and deprecated by every 
one of us ; and if in sincerity we pray against it we may receive that promise as 
an answer to the prayer ; Rom. vi. 14, " Sin shall not have dominion over you." 

134 Deliver me from the oppression of man : 
So will I keep thy precepts. 

Here, First. David prays that he might live a quiet and peaceable life ; and 
might not be harassed and discomposed by those that studied to be vexatious: 
"Deliver me from the oppression of man." Man, whom God can control, ana 
whose power is limited ; let them know themselves to be but men, Ps. ix. 20, 
and let me be delivered out of the hands of unreasonable men. 

Secondly. He promiseth that then he would live in all godliness and 
honesty. Let me be delivered out of the hands of my enemies, that I may serve 
God without fear. "So will I keep thy precepts;" not but that he would 
keep God's precepts though he should be continued under oppression, but, So 
shall I keep thy precepts more cheerfully, and with more enlargement of heart, 
my bonds being loosed. Then we may expect temporal blessings, when we 
desire them with this in our eye, that we may serve God the better. 

135 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant ; 
And teach me thy statutes. 

David here, as often elsewhere, writes himself God's servant, a title he gloried 
in, though he was a king. Now here, as became a good servant, 

First. He is very ambitious of his Master's favour, accounting that his hap- 
piness and chief good. He asks not for corn and wine, for silver and gold ; but 
" make thy face to shine upon thy servant," that is, let me be accepted of thee, 
and let me know that 1 am so. Comfort me with the light of thy countenance 
in every cloudy and dark day ; if the world frown upon me, yet do thou smile. 

Secondly. He is very solicitous about his Master's work, accounting that his 
business and chief concern. This he would be instructed in that he might 
do it, and do it well, so as to be accepted in the doing of it ; " Teach me thy 
statutes." Note, We must pray as earnestly for grace as for comfort. If God 
hides his face from us, it is because we have been careless in keeping his 
statutes ; and therefore, that we may be qualified for the returns of his favour, 
we must pray for wisdom to do our duty. 

13G Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, 
Because they keep not thy law. 

Here we have David in sorrow. 

First. It is great sorrow. To that degree, that he weeps rivers of tears ; 
commonly where there is a gracious heart, there is a weeping eye, in comformity 
to Christ, who w T as a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, David had 
prayed for comfort in God's favour, ver. 135 ; now he pleads that he was quali- 
fied for that comfort, and had need of it, for he was one of them that moaned 
in Zion, and they that do so shall be comforted, Isa. lxi. 3. 



60S PSALM CXIX. 

Secondly. It is godly sorrow. He wept not for his troubles, though they 
were many, but for the dishonour to God; "Because they keep not thy law. ' 
Either because mine eyes keep not thy law, so some, (the eye is the inlet a;*^. 
outlet of a great deal of sin, and therefore it ought to be a weeping eye,) oi, 
rather, they, that is, those about me, ver. 139. Note. The sins of sinners arc 
the sorrows of saints. We must mourn for that which we cannot mend. 

18. TZADDI. 

137 Righteous art thou, 0 Lord, 
And upright are thy judgments. 

138 Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded 
Are righteous and very faithful. 

First. The righteousness of God ; the infinite rectitude and perfection of his 
nature. As he is what he is, so he is what he should be, and in every thing 
acts as becomes him. There is nothing wanting, nothing amiss in God; his 
will is the eternal rule of equity, and he is righteous, for he doth all according 
to it. fi 

Secondly. The righteousness of his government. He rules the world by his 
providence, according to the principles of justice, and never did nor ever can 
do any wrong to any of his creatures. "Upright are thy judgments;" the 
promises and threatenings are executions of both. Every word of God is pure, 
and he will be true to it. He perfectly knows the merits of every cause, and 
will judge accordingly. 

Thirdly. The righteousness of his commands, which he hath given to be the 
rule of our obedience. " Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded," which 
are backed with thy sovereign authority, and to which thou dost require our 
obedience, are exceeding righteous and faithful, righteousness and faithfulness 
itself. As he acts like himself, so his law requires that we act like ourselves, 
and like him; that we be just to ourselves, and to all we deal with, true to all 
the engagements we lay ourselves under both to God and man. That which 
we are commanded to practise is righteous; that which we are commanded 
to believe is faithful. It is necessary to our faith and obedience that we be 
convinced of this. 

139 My zeal hath consumed me, 

Because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. 

Here is, First. The great contempt which wicked men put upon religion; 
" Mine enemies have forgotten thy words." They have often heard them, but 
so little did they heed them, they willingly forgot them ; not only through 
carelessness let them slip out of their minds, but contrived how to cast them 
behind their backs. This is at the bottom of all the wickedness of the wicked, 
and particularly of their malignity and enmity to the people of God, they have 
forgotten the words of God, else those would give check to their sinful courses. 

Secondly. The great concern which godly men shew for religion. David 
reckoned those his enemies that forgot the words of God, because they were 
enemies to religion, which he had entered into a league with, offensive and 
defensive ; and therefore his zeal even consumed him, when he observed their 
impieties. He conceived such an indignation at^ their wickedness, as even 
preyed upon his spirits, even ate them up, as Christ's zeal (Jno. ii. 17) swallowed 
up all inferior considerations, and made him forget himself. My zeal has pressed 
or constrained me, (so Dr. Hammond reads it, Acts xviii. 5.) Zeal against sin 
should constrain us to do what we can against it in our places, at least to do 
so much the more in religion ourselves. The worse others are, the better we 
should be. 

140 Thy word is very pure : 
Therefore thy servant loveth it. 

Here is, First. David's great affection for the word of God ; " Thy servant 
loves it." Every good man, being a servant of God, loves the word of God, 
because it lets him know his Master's will, and directs him in his Master's 
work. Wherever there is grace, there is a dear love to the word of God. 

Secondly. The ground and reason of that affection. He saw it to be "very 
pure," and therefore he loved it. Our love to the word of God is then an evidence 
of our love to God. when we love it for the sake of its purity, because it bears 
the image of God's holiness, and is designed to make us partakers of his holiness, 
it commands purity ; and as it is itself refined from all corrupt mixture, so, if 
we receive it in the light and love of it, it will refine us from the dross of 
worldliness and fieshly-mindedness. 



PSALM CXIX. 609 

141 I am small and despised: 

Yet do not I forget thy precepts. 

Here is, First. David pious, and yet poor. He was a man after God's own 
heart, one whom the King of kings did delight to honour, and yet small and 
despised in his own account, and in the account of many others. Men's real 
excellency cannot always secure them from contempt ; nay, it exposeth them 
many times to scorn of some, and always makes them low in their own eyes. 
God has chosen the foolish things of the world ; and it has been the common 
lot of his people to be a despised people. 

Secondly. David poor, and yet pious ; small and despised for his strict and 
serious godliness, yet his conscience can witness for him, that he did not forget 
God's precepts. He will not throw off his religion, though it expose him to 
contempt, for he knew that was designed to try his constancy, w hen we are 
small and despised, we have the more need to remember God's precepts, that 
we may have them to support us under the pressures of a low condition. 

142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, 
And thy law is the truth. 

Observe, First. That God's word is righteousness, and it is an everlasting 
righteousness. It is the rule of God's judgment, and it is consonant to his 
counsels from eternity, and will direct his sentence for eternity. The word of 
God will judge us, it will judge us in righteousness, and by it our everlasting 
state will be determined. This should possess us with a very great reverence 
for the word of God, that it is righteousness itself, the standard of righteousness, 
and it is everlasting in its rewards and punishments. 

Secondly. That God's word is a law. and that law is truth. See the double 
obligation we are under to be governed by the word of God. *W r e are reason- 
able creatures, and as such we must be ruled by truth, acknowledging the force 
and power of it. If the principles be true, the practices must be agreeable to 
them, else we do not act rationally. We are creatures and therefore subjects, 
and must be ruled by our Creator, and whatever he commands, we are bound 
i to obey as a law. See how these obligations are here twisted, these cords of 
; a man. Here is truth brought to the understanding, there to sit chief, and 
I direct the motions of the whole man ; but, lest the authority of that should 
! become weak through the flesh, here is a law to bind the will, and bring^ that 
into subjection. God's truth is a law, {Jno. xviii. 37,) and God's law is the 
truth, sure we cannot break such words as these asunder. 

143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me : 
Yet thy commandments are my delights. 

144 The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting : 
Give me understanding, and I shall live. 

These two verses are almost a repetition of the two foregoing verses, but 
with improvement. 

First. He again professeth his constant adherence to God and his duty, not- 
withstanding the many difficulties and discouragements he met with. He had 
i said, ver. 141, "lam small and despised," and yet stick to my duty. Here he 
! finds himself not only mean, but miserable, as far as this world could make him 
! so : "Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me ;" trouble without, anguish 
I within. Those surprised him, they seized him, they held him. Sorrows are often 
the lot of saints in this vale of tears, they are in heaviness through manifold 
I temptations. There he had said, " Yet do I not forget thy precepts ; here he 
I carries his constancy much higher, "Yet thy commandments are my delights." 
i All his trouble and anguish did not put his mouth out of taste to the comforts 
I of the word of God, but he could still relish them, and find that peace and 
pleasure in them which all the calamities of this present time could not deprive 
: him of. There are delights, variety of delights, in the word of God, which the 
saints have many times the sweetest enjoyment of when they are in trouble and 
' anguish, 2 Cor. i. 5. 

Secondly. He again acknowledgeth the everlasting righteousness of God's 
< word, as before, ver. 142, " The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting," 
j and cannot be altered; and when it is admitted in its power into a soul, it is 
there an abiding principle, "a well of living water," Jno. iv. 14. "We ought to 
meditate much and often upon the equit* and the eternity of the word of God. 

2Q 



610 



PSALM CXIX. 



Here he adds, by way of inference, 1. His prayer for grace. Give me under- 
standing. Those that know much of the word of God should still covet to 
know more ; for there is more to be known. He doth not say, Give me a 
farther revelation, but, Give me a farther understanding ; what is revealed we 
should desire to understand, and what we know to know better; and we must 
go to God for a heart to know. 2. His hope of glory. Give me this renewed 
understanding, and then I shall live; shall live for ever, shall be eternally 
happy, and shall be comforted for the present in the prospect of it. "This is 
life eternal, to know God," Jno. xvii. 3. 

19. KOPH. 

145 I cried with my whole heart; hear me, 0 Lord : 
I will keep thy statutes. 

146 I cried unto thee; save me, 
And I shall keep thy testimonies. 

Here is, First. David's good prayers, by which he sought to God for mercy. 
These he mentions here, not as boasting of them, or trusting to any merit in 
them, but reflecting upon them with comfort, that he had taken the appointed 
way to comfort. Observe here, 1. That he was inward with God in prayer; 
he prayed with his heart, and the prayer is acceptable no farther than the 
heart goes along with it. Lip labour, if that be all, is lost labour. 2. He was 
importunate with God in prayer ; he cried as one in earnest, with fervour of 
affection and a holy vehemence, and vigour of desire. He cried with his whole 
heart, all the powers of his soul were not only engaged and employed, but 
exerted to the utmost in his prayers. Then we are likely to speed when we 
thus strive and wrestle in prayer. 3. That he directed his prayer to God ; " I 
cried unto thee." Whither should the child go but to his father when any 
thing ails him? 4. That the great thing he prayed for was salvation: "Save 
me." A short prayer, for we mistake if we think we shall be heard for our 
much speaking ; but a comprehensive prayer, not only, Rescue me from ruin, 
but make me happy. We need desire no more but God's salvation, Ps. 1. 23, 
and the things that accompany it, Heb. vi. 9. 5. That he was earnest for an 
answer; and not only looked up in his prayers, but looked up after them, 
to see wiiat became of them, Ps. v. 3. Lord, hear me, and let me know that 
thou hearest me. 

Secondly. David's good purposes, by which he bound himself to duty, when 
he was in the pursuit of mercy. "I will keep thy statutes," I am resolved by 
thy grace I will; for if we turn away our ear from hearing the law, we cannot 
expect an answer of peace to our prayers, Pr. xxviii. 9. This purpose is used 
as an humble plea, ver. 146, "Save me" from my sins, my corruptions, my 
temptations, all the hindrances that lie in my way, " that I may keep thy 
testimonies. We must cry for salvation, not that we may have the ease and 
comfort of it, but that we may have an opportunity of serving God the more 
cheerfully. 

147 I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried : 
I hoped in thy word. 

148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches. 
That I might meditate in thy word. 

David qroes on here to relate how he had abounded in the duty of prayer, 
much to his comfort and advantage ; he cried unto God, that is, offered up 
to him his pious and devout affections with all seriousness. Observe, 

First. The handmaids of his devotion. The two great exercises that attended 
his prayers, and were helpful to them, were, 1. Hope in God's word, which 
encouraged him to continue instant in prayer, though the answer did not come 
presently. I cried, and hoped that at last I should speed, because the vision is 
for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak and not lie. " 1 hoped in 
thy word," which I knew would not fail me. 2. Meditation in God's word. 
The more intimately we converse with the word of God, and the more we 
dwell upon it in our thoughts, the better able we shall be to speak to God 
in his own language, and the better we shall know what to pray for as we 
ought. Reading the word will not serve, but w r e must meditate in it. 

Secondly. The hours of his devotion. He "prevented the dawning of the 
morning," nay, and " the night watches." See here, 1. That David was an early 
riser, which, perhaps, contributed to his eminency. He was none of those that 
say, Yet a little sleep. 2. That he began the day with God. The first thing he 
did in the morning, before he admitted any business, was to pray, when his 



PSALM CXIX. 611 

mind was most fresh and in the best frame. If our first thoughts in the morn- 
ing be of God, it will help to keep us in his fear all the day long. 3. That his 
mind was so full of God, and the cares and delights of his religion, that a little 
sleep served his turn; even in the night watches, when he awaked from his first 
sleep, he would rather meditate and pray than turn him and go to sleep again. 
He esteemed the words of God's mouth more than his necessary repose, which 
we can as ill want as our food, Job xxiii. 12. 4. That he would redeem time 
for religious exercises. He was full of business all day, but that will excuse no 
man from secret devotion. It is better take time from sleep, as David did, than 
not find time for prayer. And this is our comfort when we pray in the night, 
that we can never come unseasonably to the throne of grace; for we may 
have access to it at all hours. Baal may be asleep, but Israel's God never 
slumbers, nor are there any hours in which he may not be spoken with. 

149 Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness : 
0 Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment. 

Here, First. David applies himself to God for grace and comfort with much 
solemnity. He begs of God to hear his voice; Lord, I have something to say to 
thee, shall I obtain a gracious audience? Well, what has he to say? What 
is his petition, and what is his request? It is not long, but it has much 
in a little, "Lord, quicken me," stir me up to that which is good, and make 
me vigorous and lively, and cheerful in it. Let habits of grace be drawn out 
into act. 

Secondly. He encourageth himself to hope that he shall obtain his request, 
for he depends, 1. Upon God's lovingkindness. He is good, therefore he will 
be good to me, who hope in his mercy. His lovingkindness manifested to me 
will help to quicken me, and put life into me. 2. Upon God's judgment, that 
is, his wisdom. He knows what I need, and what is good for me, and there- 
fore will quicken me. Or, his promise, the word which he hath spoken, mercy 
secured by the new covenant; quicken me according to the tenor of that 
covenant. 

150 They draw nigh that follow after mischief : 
They are far from thy law. 

151 Thou art near, 0 Lord ; 

And all thy commandments are truth. 

Here is. First. The apprehension David was in of danger from his enemies, 
1. They were very malicious, and industrious in prosecuting their malicious 
designs. They follow after mischief, any mischief they could do to David or his 
friends; they would let slip no opportunity, nor let fall any pursuit that might 
be to his hurt. 2. They were very impious, and had no fear of God before their 
eyes. " They are far from thy law," setting themselves as far as they can out of 
the reach of its convictions and commands. The persecutors of God's people 
are such as make light of God himself, we may therefore be sure that God will 
take his people's part against them. 3. They followed him close, and he was 
just ready to fall into their hands. "They draw nigh," nigher than they were,, 
so that they got ground of him. They were at his heels, just upon his back. God 
sometimes suffers persecutors to prevail very far against his people, so that, as 
David said, 1 Sam. xx. 3, "There is but a step between them and death." Perhaps 
this comes in here as a reason why David was so earnest in prayer, ver. 149 
God brings us into imminent perils, as he did Jacob, that, like him, we ma. 
wrestle for a blessing. 

Secondly. The assurance David had of protection with God. " They draw 
nigh " to destroy me, but " thou art near, O Lord ;" to save me, not only mightier 
than they, and therefore able to help me against them, but nearer than they, 
and therefore ready to help. It is the happiness of the saints that when trouble 
is near, God is near, and no trouble can separate between them and him. He 
is never far to seek, but he is within our call, and means are within his call, 
Deu. iv. 7. "All thy commandments are truth." The enemies thought to 
defeat the promises God had made to David, but he was sure it was out of 
their power; they were inviolably true, and would be infallibly performed. 

152 Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old 
That thou hast founded them for ever. 

This confirms what he had said in the close of the foregoing verses, All 
thy commandments are truth;" he means the covenant, the word which God 
has commanded to a thousand generations. This is firm, as true as truth itself. 
For 



612 



PSALM CXIX. 



First. God has founded it so. He has framed it for a perpetuity; such is 
the constitution of it, and so well ordered is it in all things, that it cannot 
but be sure. The promises are founded for ever, so that, when heaven and 
earth are passed away, every iota and tittle of the promise shall stand firm, 

2 Cor. i. 20. 

Secondly. David had found it so; both by a work of God's grace upon his 
heart, begetting in him a full persuasion of the truth of God's word, and 
enabling him to rely upon it with a full satisfaction, and by the works of his 
providence on his behalf, fulfilling the promise beyond what he expected. 
Thus he knew of old, from the days of his youth, ever since he began to look 
towards God, that the word of God is what one may venture one's all upon. 
This assurance was confirmed by the observations and experiences of his own 
life all along, and of others that had gone before him in the ways of God. All 
that ever dealt with God, and trusted in him, will own that they have found 
him faithful. 

20. RESH. 

153 Consider mine affliction, and deliver me : 
For I do not forget thy law. 

154 Plead my cause, and deliver me: 
Quicken me according to thy word. 

Here, First. David prays for succour in distress. " Is any afflicted ? let him 
pray," let him pray as David doth here. 1. He hath an eye to God's pity, and 
prays, " Consider mine affliction;" take it into thy thoughts, and all the cir- 
cumstances of it, and sit not by as one unconcerned. God is never unmindful 
of his people's afflictions ; but he will have us to put him in remembrance, 
Isa. xliii. 26, to spread our case before him, and then leave it to his compas- 
sionate consideration, to do in it as in his wisdom he shall think fit in his own 
time an.d way. 2. He has an eye to God's power, and prays, Deliver me, and 
again, Deliver me ; consider my troubles, and bring me out of them. God has 
promised deliverance, Ps. 1. 15; and we may pray for it, with submission to his 
will, and with regard to his glory, that we may serve him the better. 3. He has 
an eye to God's righteousness, and prays, "Plead my cause." Be thou my 
patron and advocate, and take me for thy client. David had a just cause, but 
his adversaries were many and mighty, and he w r as in danger of being run down 
by them ; he therefore begs of God to clear his integrity, and silence their false 
accusations. If God do not plead his people's cause, w r ho will? He is righteous, 
and they commit themselves to him, and therefore he will do it, and do it effec- 
tually, Isa. li. 22; Jer. 1. 34. 4. He has an eye to God's grace, and prays, 
Quicken me. Lord, I am weak and unable to bear my troubles, my spirit is apt 
to droop and sink; O that thou wouldst revive and comfort me, till the deliver- 
ance is wrought. 

Secondly. He pleads his dependence upon the word of God, and his devoted- 
ness to its conduct. Quicken and deliver me according to thy word of promise, 
for I do not forget thy precepts. The closer we cleave to the word of God, 
both as our rule and as our stay, the more assurance we may have of deliver- 
ance in due time. 

155 Salvation is far from the wicked : 
For they seek not thy statutes. 

Here is, First. The description of wicked men. They do not only not do 
God's statutes, but they do not so much as seek them; they do not acquaint 
themselves with them, nor so much as desire to know T their duty, or in the least 
endeavour to do it. These are wicked indeed, that do not think the law of God 
worth inquiring after, but are altogether regardless of it, being resolved to live 
at large, and to walk in the way of their heart. 

Secondly. Their doom; Salvation is far from them. They cannot upon any 
good grounds promise themselves temporal deliverance; Let not that man 
think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." How can they expect to 
seek God's favour with success when they are in adversity, that never sought 
his statutes when they were in prosperity? But eternal salvation is certainly 
far from them. They flatter themselves with a conceit that it is near, and they 
are going to heaven ; but they are mistaken, it is far from them, they thrust it 
from them, by thrusting the Saviour from them. It is so far from them that 
they cannot reach it, and the longer they persist in sin the farther it is. Nay, 
while salvation is far from them, damnation is near ; it slumbers not." w Behold, 
the Judge stands before the door." 



PSALM CXIX. 



613 



156 Great are thy tender mercies, 0 Lord : 
Quicken me according to thy judgments. 

Here. First. David admires God's grace: "Great are thy tender mercies. 
O Lord." The goodness of God's nature, as it is his glory, so it is the joy of all 
the saints ; his mercies are tender, for he is full of compassion : they are many, 
they are great. It is a fountain that can never be exhausted ; he is rich in mercy 
to all that call upon him. He had spoken of the misery of the wicked, ver. 155, 
but God is good for all that; there were tender mercies sufficient in God to 
have saved them, if they had not despised the riches of those mercies. They 
that are delivered from the sinner's doom are bound for ever to own the great- 
ness of God's mercies which delivered them. 

Secondly. He begs for God's grace, reviving, quickening grace, according to 
his judgments, that is, according to the tenor of the new covenant, that estab- 
lished rule by which he goes in dispensing that grace. Or, according to his 
manner, his custom or usage with those that love his name, ver. 132. 

157 Many are my persecutors and mine enemies: 
Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. 

Here is, First. David surrounded with difficulties and dangers ; "Many are 
my persecutors and mine enemies." "When Saul, the king, was his persecutor 
and enemy, no marvel that many more were so. Multitudes will follow the 
pernicious ways of abused authority. David, being a public person, had many 
enemies; but withal he had many friends, that loved him and wished him well ; 
let him set the one over against the other. In this David was a type both of 
Christ and his church. The enemies, the persecutors of both are many, very 
many. 

Secondly. David established in the way of his duty notwithstanding; "Yet I 
do not decline from thy testimonies," as knowing that, while I stick to them, 
pod is for me; and then no matter who is against me. A man that is steady 
in the way of his duty, though he may have many enemies, needs fear none. 

J 58 I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; 
Because they kept not thy word. 

Here is, First. David's sorrow for the wickedness of the wicked. Though he 
conversed much at home, yet sometimes he looked abroad, and could not but 
see the wicked walking on every side. He " beheld the transgressors," those 
whose sins were open before all men ; and it grieved him to see them dishonour 
God, serve Satan, debauch the world, and ruin their own souls; to see the 
transgressors so numerous, so daring, so very impudent, and so industrious to 
draw unstable souls into their snares. All this cannot but be a grief to those 
that have anv regard to the glory of God, and the welfare of mankind. 

Secondly. The reason of that sorrow. He was grieved, not because they were 
vexatious to him, but because they were provoking to God ; " They kept not 
thy word." They that hate sin truly, hate it as sin, as a transgression of the 
law of God, and a violation of his word. 

159 Consider how I love thy precepts : 

Quicken me, 0 Lord, according to thy lovingkindness. 

Here is, First. David's appeal to God concerning his love to his precepts. 
Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love them ; consider it then, 
and deal with me as thou usest to deal with those that love thy word, which 
thou hast magnified above all thy name. He doth not say, ' Consider how I 
fulfil thy precepts ;' he was conscious to himself that in many things he came 
short, but, " Consider how I love them." And our obedience is then only pleas- 
ing to God, and pleasant to ourselves, when it comes from a principle of love. 

Secondly. His petition thereupon : " Quicken me," to do my duty with vigour ; 
revive me, keep me alive, not according to any merit of mine, though I love thy 
word, but "according to thy lovingkindness." It is to that we owe our lives ; 
nay, that is better than life itself. We need not desire to be quickened any 
farther than God's lovingkindness will quicken us. 

160 Thy word is true from the beginning: [ever. 
And every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for 



£14 PSALM CXIX. 

David here comforts himself with the faithfulness of God's word, for >>a 

encouragement of himself and others to rely upon it. 

First. It has always been found faithful hitherto, and never failed any that 
ventured upon it. It is true from the beginning. Ever since God began to 
reveal himself to the children of men, all he said was true, and to be trusted. 
The church from its beginning was built upon this rock. It has not gained its 
validity by tract of time, as many governments, whose best plea is prescription 
and long usage, (quod initio non valet tractu temporis convalescit,— that which 
at first wanted validity in the progress of time acquired it ; ') but the beginning 
of God's word was true, so some read it. His government was laid on a sure 
foundation; and all in every age that have received God's word in faith and 
love have found every saying in it faithful and well worthy of all acceptation. 

Secondly. It will be found faithful to the end, because righteous ; '* every one 
of thy judgments endureth for ever," unalterable, and of perpetual obligation, 
and reading men's everlasting doom. 

21. SCHIN. 

161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause : 
But my heart standeth in awe of thy word. 

David here lets us know, 

First. How he was discouraged in his duty by the fear of man. Princes per- 
secuted him; they looked upon him as a traitor and an enemy to the govern- 
ment, and under that notion sought his life, and bade him go serve other gods, 
1 Sam. xxvi. 19. It hath been the common lot of the best men to be persecuted ; 
and the case is the worse if princes be the persecutors, for they have not only 
the sword in their hand, and therefore can do the more hurt, but they have the 
law on their side, and can do it with reputation, and a colour of justice. It is 
sad that the power which magistrates have from God, and should use for him, 
should ever be employed against him,— but marvel not at the matter, EccL. v. 8. 
It was a comfort to David, that when princes persecuted him, he could truly 
say it was without cause, he never gave them any provocation. 

Secondly. How he was kept to his duty, notwithstanding, by the fear of God. 
They would make me stand in awe of them and their word, and do as they bid 
me; but "my heart stands in awe of thy word," and I was resolved to please 
God, and keep in with him, whoever is displeased, and falls out with me. 
Every gracious soul stands in awe of the word of God, of the authority of its 
precepts, and the terror of its threatenings ; and to those that do so nothing 
appears in the power and wrath of man at all formidable. We ought to obey God 
rather than men, and to make sure of God's favour, though we throw ourselves 
under the frowns of all the world, Lu. xii. 4, 5. The heart that stands in awe 
of God*s word is armed against the temptations that arise from persecution. 

162 I rejoice at thy word. 

As one that findeth great spoil. 

Here is, First. The pleasure David took in the word of God. He rejoiced 
at it, rejoiced that God had made such a discovery of his mind, that Israel was 
blessed with that light, when other nations sat in darkness ; that he was him- 
self let into the understanding of it, and had had experience of the power of it. 
He took a pleasure in reading it, hearing it, and meditating on it, and every 
thing he met with in it w r as agreeable to him. He had just now said, that his 
heart stood in awe of his word, and yet here that he rejoiced in it. The more 
reverence we have for the word of God, the more joy we shall find in it. 

Secondly. The degree of that pleasure ; " as one that findeth great spoil." 
This supposeth a victory over the enemy ; it is through much opposition that 
a soul comes to this, to rejoice in God's word. But, besides the pleasure and 
honour of a conquest, there is great advantage gained by the plunder of the 
field, which adds much to the joy. By the word of God we become more than 
conquerors, that is, unspeakable gainers. 

163 I hate and abhor lying : 
But thy law do I love. 

Love and hatred are the leading affections of the soul ; if those be fixed right, 

the rest move accordingly. Here we have them fixed right in David. 

First. He had a rooted antipathy to sin, he could not endure to think of it. 
"I hate and abhor lying," which may be taken for all sin; inasmuch as by it we 
deal treacherously and perfidiously with God, and put a cheat upon ourselves. 
Hypocrisy is lying ; false doctrine is lying ; breach of faith is lying. Lying in 
commerce or conversation is a sin which every good man hates and abhors, 
hates and double hates ; because of the seven things which the Lord hates, one 



PSALM CXIX. 615 

is a lying tongue, and another is a false witness that speaketh lies, Pr. vi. 16. 
Every man hates to have a lie told him ; but we should more hate telling a lie, 
because by the former we only receive an affront from men, by the latter we give 
an affront to God. 

Secondly. He had a rooted affection to the word of God. " Thy law do 1 
love;" and therefore he abhorred lying, for lying is contrary to the whole law 
of God : and the reason why he loved the law of God, was because of the truth 
of it. The more we see of the amiable beauty of truth, the more w r e shall see 
of the detestable deformity of a lie. 

164 Seven times a day do I praise thee 
Because of thy righteous judgments. 

David in this psalm is full of complaints, yet those did neither jostle out his 
praises nor put him out of tune for them. Whatever condition a child of God 
ss in, he doth not want matter for praise, and therefore should not want a heart. 
See here, 

First. How often David praised God. "Seven times a day," that is, very 
frequently ; not only every day, but often every day. Many think once a week 
will serve, or once or twice a day; but David would praise God seven times 
a day at least. Praising God is a duty which we_ should very much abound 
in. We must praise God at every meal, praise him upon all occasions, in 
every thing give thanks. We should praise God seven times a day, for the 
subject can never be exhausted, and our affections should never be tired: 
see ver. 62. 

Secondly. What he praised God for. " Because of thy righteous judgments." 
We must praise God for his precepts, which are all just and good, for his 
promises and threatenings, and the performance of both in his providence 
We are to praise God even for our afflictions, if through grace we get good by 
them. 

165 Great peace have they which love thy law : 
And nothing shall offend them. 

Here is an account of the happiness of good men that are governed by a 
principle of love to the word of God ; that make it their rule, and are ruled 
by it. 

First. They are easy, and have a holy serenity; none enjoy themselves more 
than they do. " Great peace have they that love thy law;" abundant satis- 
faction in doing their duty, and pleasure in reflection upon it. " The work of 
righteousness is peace," Isa. xxxii. 17 ; such peace as the world can neither give 
nor take away. They may be in great troubles without, and yet enjoy great 
peace within; sat lucis intus,— ' abundance of internal light.' They that love 
the world have great vexation, for it doth not answer their expectations ; they 
that love God's word have great peace, for it outdoes their expectation, and in 
it they have sure footing. 

Secondly. They are safe, and have a holy security. "Nothing shall offend 
them;" nothing shall be a scandal, snare, or stumblingblock to them; to 
entangle them either in guilt or grief. No event of providence shall be either 
an invincible temptation or an intolerable affliction to them ; but their love 
to the word of God shall enable them both to hold fast their integrity and 
preserve their tranquillity. They will make the best of that which is, and not 
quarrel with any thing that God doth ; " Nothing shall offend" or hurt "them," 
for every thing shall work for good to them ; and, therefore, shall please them, 
and they reconcile themselves to it.^ They in whom this holy love reigns will 
not be apt to pemlex themselves with needless scruples, nor to take offence at 
their brethren, 1 Cor. xiii. 6, 7. 

166 Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, 
And done thy commandments. 

Here is the whole duty of man ; for we are taught, 

First. To keep our eye upon God's favour as our end. " Lord, I have hoped 
for thy salvation ;" not only temporal, but eternal salvation. I have hoped for 
that as my happiness, and laid up my treasure in it ; I have hoped for it as 
thine, as a happiness of thy preparing, thy promising, and which consists in 
being with thee. Hope of this has raised me above the world, and borne me up 
>mder all my burthens in it. 

Secondly. To keep our eye upon God's word as our rule. " 1 have done thy 
commandments ;" that is, I have made conscience of conforming myself to thy 
frill in every thing. Observe here how God has joined these two together, and 



616 PSALM CXIX. 

let no man put them asunder. We cannot upon good grounds hope for God's 
salvation, unless we set ourselves to do his commandments, Rev. xxii. 14. But 
those that sincerely endeavour to do his commandments ought to keep up a 
good hope of the salvation; and that hope will both engage and enlarge the 
heart in doing the commandments. The more lively the hope is, the more lively 
the obedience will be. 

167 My soul hath kept thy testimonies ; 
And I love them exceedingly. 

168 I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies : 
For all my ways are before thee. 

David's conscience here witnesseth for him, 

First. That his practices were good. ]. He loved God's testimonies, he loved 
them exceedingly. Our love to the word of God must be a superlative love; 
we must love it better than the wealth and pleasure of this world. And it 
must be a victorious love ; such as will subdue and mortify our lusts, and extir- 
pate carnal alfections. 2. He kept them, his soul kept them. Bodily exercise 
profits little in religion, we must make heartwork of it, or make nothing of it. 
The soul must be sanctified, and renewed, and delivered into the mould of the 
word ; the soul must be employed in glorifying God, for he will be worshipped 
in the spirit. We must keep both the precepts and the testimonies ; the com- 
mands of God by our obedience to them, and his promises by our reliance on 
them. 

Secondly. That he was governed herein by a good principle ; Therefore I have 
kept thy precepts, because by faith I have seen thine eye always upon me. "All 
my ways are before thee :" thou knowest every step I take, and strictly observest 
all I say and do. Thou dost see and accept all that I say and do well : thou dost 
see and art displeased with all I say and do amiss. Note, The consideration of 
this, that God's eye is upon us at all times, should make us very careful in every 
thing to keep his commandments, Gen. xvii. 1. 

22. TAU. 

169 Let my cry come near before thee, 0 Lord : 
Give me understanding according to thy word. 

1 70 Let my supplication come before thee : 
Deliver me according to thy word. 

Here is, First. A general petition for audience repeated. "Let my cry come 
near before thee," and again, "Let my supplication come before thee. He calls 
his prayer his cry, which notes the fervency and vehemence of it; and his 
supplication, which notes the humility of it. We must come to God as beggars 
come to our doors for an alms. He is concerned that his prayer might come 
before God, might come near before him, that is, that he might have grace and 
strength by faith and fervency to lift up his prayers; that no guilt might 
interpose to shut out his prayers, and to separate between him and God; and 
that God would graciously receive his prayers, and take notice of them. His 
prayer that his supplication might come before God implies a deep sense of 
his unworthiness, and a holy fear that his prayer should come short, or mis- 
carry, as not fit to come before God; nor would any of our prayers have had 
access to God, if Jesus Christ had not approached to him as an advocate for us, 
Jer. iii. 4. 

Secondly. Two particular requests, which he is thus earnest to present: 
1. That God by his grace would give him wisdom to carry himself well under 
his troubles. Give me understanding ; he means that wisdom of the prudent 
which is to understand his way ; give me to know thee, and myself, and my 
duty to thee. 2. That God by his providence would rescue him out of his 
troubles. Deliver me, that is, with the temptation make a way to escape, 
1 Cor. x. 13. 

Thirdly. The same general plea to enforce these requests ; " according to thy 
word." This directs and limits his desires ; Lord, give me such an under- 
standing as thou hast promised, and such a deliverance as thou hast promised, 
I ask for no other. It also encouraged his faith and expectation ; Lord, that 
which I pray for is what thou hast promised, and wilt not thou be as good as 
thy word? 

171 My lips shall utter praise, 

When thou hast taught me thy statutes. 



PSALM OXIX. 617 

Here is, First. A great favour which David expects from God, that he will 
teach him his statutes. This he had often prayed for in this psalm, and urged 
his petition for it with various arguments ; and, now he is drawing towards the 
close of the psalm, he speaks of it as taken for granted. They that are humbly 
earnest with God for his grace, and resolve, with Jacob, they will not let him go 
unless he bless them with spiritual blessings, may be humbly confident that they 
shall at length obtain what they are so importunate for. The God of Israel will 
grant them those things which they request of him. 

Secondly. The grateful sense he promiseth to have of that favour. " My lips 
shall utter praise when thou hast taught me." 1. Then he shall have cause to 
praise God. Those that are taught of God, have a great deal of reason to be 
thankful; for this is the foundation of all these spiritual blessings which are 
the best blessings, and the earnests of eternal blessings. 2. Then he shall 
know how to praise God, and have a heart to it. All that are taught of God 
are taught this lesson, — when God opens the understanding, opens the heart, 
and so opens the lips, it is that the mouth may shew fortn his praise. We 
have learned nothing to purpose, if we have not learned to praise God. 
3. Therefore he is thus importunate for Divine instructions, that he might 
praise God. They that pray for God's grace must aim at God's glory, Eph. i. 12. 

1 72 My tongue shall speak of thy word : 

For all thy commandments are righteousness. 

Observe here, First. The good knowledge David had of the word of God. 
He knew it so well that he was ready to own with the utmost satisfaction, that 
all God's commandments are not only righteous, but righteousness itself, the 
rule and standard of righteousness. 

Secondly. The good use he resolved to make of that knowledge ; " My tongue 
shall speak of thy word." Not only utter praise for it to the glory of God, 
but discourse of it for the instruction and edification of others ; as that which 
he was himself full of, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will 
speak, and as that which he desired others also might be filled with. The 
more we see of the righteousness of God's commandments, the more indus- 
trious we should be to bring others acquainted with them, that they may be 
ruled by them. We should always make the word of God the governor of our 
discourse, so as never to transgress it by sinful speaking, or sinful silence; and 
we should often make it the subject matter of our discourse, that it may feed 
many, and minister grace to the hearers. 

1 73 Let thine hand help me ; 

For I have chosen thy precepts. 

1 74 I have longed for thy salvation, 0 Lord ; 
And thy law is my delight. 

Here, First. David prays that Divine grace would work for him ; 11 Let thine 
hand help me." He finds his own hands are not sufficient for him, nor can any 
creature lend him a helping hand to any purpose ; therefore he looks up to 
God in hopes that the hand that made him would help him, for if the Lord do 
not help us whence can any creature help us ? All our help must be expected 
from God's hand, from his power, and his bounty. 

Secondly. He pleads what Divine grace had already wrought in him, as a 
pledge of farther mercy, being a qualification for it. Three things he pleads : 
1. That he had made religion his serious and deliberate choice; " I have chosen 
thy precepts." I took them for my rule, not because I knew no other, but 
because upon trial I knew no better. Those are good, and do good indeed, 
who are good, and do good, not by chance, but of choice ; and those who have 
thus chosen God's precepts may depend upon God's helping hand in all their 
services and under all their sufferings. 2. That his heart was upon heaven; 
"I have longed for thy salvation." David, when he was got to the throne, 
met with enough in the world to court his stay, and to make him say, " It is 
good to be here," but still he was looking farther, and longing for something 
better in another world. There is an eternal salvation which all the saints are 
longing for, and therefore pray that God's hand would help them forwards in 
their way to it. 3. That he took pleasure in doing his duty ; " Thy law is my 
delight;" not only I delight in it, but it is my delight, the greatest delight I 
have in this world. Those that are cheerful in their obedience may in faith 
beg help of God to carry them on in their obedience; and those that expect 
God's salvation must take delight in his law, and their hopes must increase 
their delight. 



618 



PSALM CXX. 



1 75 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee ; 
And let thy judgments help me. 

David's heart is still upon praising God, and therefore, First. He prays 
that God would give him time to praise him; "Let my soul live, and it shall 
praise thee;" that is, Let my life be prolonged, that I may live to thy glory. 
The reason why a good man desires to live, is, that he may praise God in the 
land of the living, and do something to his honour. Not, Let me live and serve 
my country, live and provide for my family; but, Let me live, that in doing 
this i may praise God here in this world of conflict and opposition. When we 
die we hope to go to a better world to praise him, and that is more agreeable 
for us; but here there is more need of us. And therefore one would not 
desire to live any longer than we may do God some service here ; " Let my soul 
live," that is, let me be sanctified and comforted, (these are the life of the soul,) 
and then it shall praise thee. Our souls must be employed in praising God, 
and therefore we must pray for grace and peace, that we may be fitted to 
praise God. 

Secondly. He prays that God would give him strength to praise him ; Let 
thy judgments help me," that is, Let all ordinances and all providences (both 
are God's judgments) further me in glorifying God ; let them be the matter of 
my praise, and let them help to fit me for that work. 

176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek thy servant; 
For I do not forget thy commandments. 

Here is, First. A penitent confession ; " I have gone astray," or wandered 
up and down, " like a lost sheep." As unconverted sinners are like lost sheep, 
Lu. xv. 4, so weak unsteady saints are like lost sheep, Mat. xviii, 12, 13. We 
are apt to wander, like the sheep, and very unapt, when we have gone astray, 
to find the way again. By going astray we lose the comfort of the green 
pastures, and expose ourselves to a thousand mischiefs. 

Secondly. A believing petition; "Seek thy servant," as the good shepherd 
seeks a wandering sheep to bring it back again, Eze. xxxiv. 12. Lord, seek me, 
as I used to seek my sheep when they went astray, for David had been himself 
a tender shepherd. Lord, own me for one of thine, for though I am a stray 
sheep I have thy mark; concern thyself fur me; send after me by the word, 
and conscience, and providences; bring me back by thy grace. Seek me, that 
is, find me ; for God never seeks in vain ; " Turn me, and I shall be turned." 

Thirdly. An obedient plea; Though I have gone astray, yet I have not 
wickedly departed, " I do not forget thy commandments," Thus he concludes 
the psalm with a penitent sense of his own sin, and a believing dependence on 
God's grace. With these a devout Christian will conclude his duties, will 
conclude his life ; he will live and die repenting and praying. Observe here, 
1. It is the character of good people that they do not forget God's command- 
ments, being well pleased with their convictions and well settled in their 
resolutions. 2. Even those who through grace are mindful of their duty, yet 
cannot but own that they have in many instances wandered from it. 3. Those 
that have wandered from their duty, yet, if they continue mindful of it, may 
with an humble confidence commit themselves to the care of God's grace. 



PSALM CXX. 

This psalm is the first of those fifteen which are here put together under the title of 
songs of degrees : it is well it is not material what the meaning of that title should be, 
for nothing is offered towards the explication of it, no, not by the Jewish writers 
themselves, but what is conjectural. These psalms do not seem to be composed all 
by the same hand, much less all at the same time. Four of them are expressly ascribed 
to David, and one said to be designed for Solomon, and perhaps penned by him ; yet 
Ps. cxxvi. and cxxix. seem to be of a much later date. Some of them are calculated 
for the closet, as Ps. cxx. and cxxx. ; some for the family, as Ps. cxxvi., cxxviii. ; some 
tor the public assembly, as Ps. cxxii., cxxxiv. ; and some occasional, as Ps. cxxiv., 
cxxxii. So that it should seem they had not this title from the author, but from the 
publisher. Some conjecture that they are so called from their singular excellency ; as 
the song of songs, so the song of degrees is a most excellent song, in the highest 
degree; others, from the tune they were set to, or the musical instruments they were 
sung to, or the raising of the voice in singing of them. Some think they were sung 
on the fifteen steps or stairs, by which they went up from the outward court of 
the temple to the inner ; others, at so many stages of the people's journey when 
they returned out of captivity. 1 shall only observe, 1. That they are all short psalms, 
all but one very short, three of them have but three verses apiece; and that they 



PSALM CXX. 



619 



are placed next to Ps. cxix., which is much the longest of all. Now as that was 
one ps3lm divided into many parts, so these were many psalms which, being short, 
were sometimes sung all together, and made as it were one psalm, observing only a 
pause between each ; as many steps make one pair of stairs. 2. That in the com- 
posure of them we frequently meet with the figure they call climax, or an ascent; 
the preceding word repeated, and then rising to something farther, as Ps. cxx., 
" With him that hated peace; I peace." Ps. cxxi., " From whence cometh my help ; 
my help cometh." " He that keepeth thee shall not slumber ; he that keepeth Is- 
rael." Ps. cxxii., " Within thy gates, O Jerusalem ; Jerusalem is builded." Ps. cxxiii., 
" Until that he have mercy upon us ; have mercy upon us," And the like in most of 
them, if not all. Perhaps for one of these reasons they are called songs of degrees. 
This psalm is supposed to have been penned by David upon occasion of Doeg's accusing 
him and the priests to Saul, because it is like Ps. lii., which was penned on that 
occasion ; and because the psalmist complains of his being driven out of the congrega- 
tion of the Lord, and his being forced among barbarous people. I. He prays to God to 
deliver him from the mischiefs designed him by false and malicious tongues, ver. 1, 2. 
II. He threatens the judgments of God against such, ver. 3, 4. III. He complains of 
his ill neighbours that were quarrelsome and vexatious, ver. 5 — 7. In singing this 
psalm we may comfort ourselves in reference to the scourge of the tongue, when at auy 
time we fall unjustly under the lash of it, that better than we have smarted from it. 



2 Deliver my soul, 0 Lord, from lying lips, 

And from a deceitful tongue. 
8 What shall be given unto thee ? 

Or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue ? 
4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, 

With coals of juniper. 

Here is, First. Deliverance from a false tongue obtained by prayer; David 
records his own experience of this. 

1. He was brought into distress, into great distress, by lying lips and a 
deceitful tongue. There were those that sought his ruin, and had almost 
effected it by lying. 1st. By telling lies to him. They flattered him with 
professions and protestations of friendship, and promises of kindness and 
service to him, that they might the more securely, and without suspicion, 
carry on their designs against him, and might have an opportunity, by 
betraying his counsels, to do him a mischief. They smiled in his face and 
kissed him, then when they were aiming to smite him under the fifth rib. 
The most dangerous enemies, and those which it is most hard to guard 
against, are such as carry on their malicious designs under colour of 
friendship. The Lord deliver every good man from such lying lips ! 2nd. By 
telling lies of him. They forged false accusations against him, and laid to 
his charge things that he knew not. This has often been the lot not only 
of the innocent, but of the excellent ones of the earth, who have been 
greatly distressed by lying lips, and have not only had their names black- 
ened and made odious by calumnies in conversation, but their lives and all 
that is dear to them in this world endangered by false witness-bearing in 
judgment. David was herein a type of Christ, who was distressed by lying 
lips and deceitful tongues. 

2. In this distress he had recourse to God by faithful and fervent prayer ; 
"I cried unto the Lord." Having no fence against false tongues, he appealed 
to him who has all men's hearts in his hand, who has power over the eon- 
sciences of bad men, and can, when he pleaseth, bridle men's tongues. His 
prayer was, "Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips," that my enemies 
may not, by these cursed methods, work my ruin. He that had prayed so 
earnestly to be kept from lying, Ps. cxix. 29, and hated it so heartily in 
himself, ver. 163, might with the more confidence ;pray to be kept from being 
belied by others, and from the ill consequences of it. 

3. He obtained a gracious answer to this prayer. God heard him, so that his 
enemies, though they carried their designs very far, were baffled at last, and 
could not prevail to do him the mischief they intended. The God of truth is, 
and will be, the protector of his people from lying lips, Ps. xxxvii. 6. 

Secondly. The doom of a false tongue foretold by faith, ver. 3, 4. As God 
will preserve his people from this mischievous generation, so he will reckon 
with their enemies, Ps. xii. 3, 7. The threatening is addressed to the sinner 



A Song of degrees. 




N my distress I cried unto the Lord, 
. And he heard me. 



620 



PSALM CXX. 



himself, for the awakening his conscience, if lie have any left. Consider " what 
shall be given unto thee and what shall be done unto thee" by the righteous 
judge of heaven and earth, "thou false tongue." Surely sinners durst not do 
as they do if they knew, and would be persuaded to think, what will be in the 
end thereof. Let liars consider what shall be given to them, " Sharp arrows 
of the Almighty, with coals of juniper;" that is, they will fall and lie for ever 
under the wratn of God, and will be made miserable by the tokens of his 
displeasure, which will fly swiftly like arrows, and will strike the sinner ere 
he is aware, and when he sees not who hurts him. This is threatened against 
liars, Ps. lxiv. 7, " God shall shoot at them with an arrow, suddenly shall they 
be wounded." They set God at a distance from them, but from afar his arrows 
can reach them. They are sharp arrows, and arrows of the mighty, the 
Almighty, for they will pierce through the strongest armour, and strike deep 
into the hardest heart. The terrors of the Lord are his arrows, Job vi. 4. 
And his wrath is compared to burning coals of juniper, which do not flame or 
crackle like thorns under a pot, but have a vehement heat, and keep fire very 
long, some say a year round, even when they seem to be gone out. This is the 
portion of the false tongue, for all that love and make a lie shall have their 
portion in the lake that burns eternally, Rev. xxii. 15. 

5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, 
That I dwell in the tents of Kedar ! 

6 My soul hath long dwelt 
With him that hateth peace. 

7 I am for peace : but when I speak, 
They are for war 

The psalmist here complains of the bad neighbourhood into which he was 
driven, and some apply the two foregoing verses to this. What shall the de- 
ceitful tongue give, what shall it do to those that lie open to it? What shall 
a man get by living among such malicious deceitful men ? Nothing but sharp 
arrows and coals of juniper, that is, all the mischiefs of a false and spiteful 
tongue, Ps. lvii. 4. "Woe is me." saith David, that I am forced to dwell among 
such, " that I sojourn in Mesech and Kedar." Not that David dwelt in the 
country of Mesech or Kedar, we never find him so far off from his own native 
country; but he dwelt among rude and barbarous people, like the inhabitants 
of Mesech and Kedar, as when we would describe an ill neighbourhood we say, 
We dwell among Turks and heathens. This made him cry out, " Woe is me ! " 

First. He was forced to live at a distance from the ordinances of God. While 
he was in banishment he looked upon himself as a sojourner, never at home 
out when he was near God's altars, and he cries out, * Woe is me that my 
sojourning is prolonged! ' that I cannot get home to my resting-place, but am 
still kept at a distance, (so some read it.) Note, A good man cannot think 
himself at home while he is banished from God's ordinances, and has not them 
within reach. And it is a great grief to all that love God to want the means of 
grace and of communion with God ; when they are under a force of that kind 
they cannot but cry out as David here, " Woe is me! " 

Secondly. He was forced to live among wicked people, who were upon 
many accounts troublesome to him. He dwelt in the tents of Kedar, where 
the shepherds were probably in an ill name for being litigious, like the herds- 
men of Abraham and Lot. It is a very grievous burthen to a good man to be 
cast into and kept in the company of those whom he hopes to be for ever sepa- 
rated from, like Lot in Sodom, 2 Pet. ii. 8. And to dwell long with such is 
grievous indeed, for they are thorns, vexing, and scratching, and tearing, and 
that will shew the old enmity that is in the seed of the serpent against the seed 
of the woman. Those that David dwelt with were such as not only hated 
him, but hated peace, and proclaimed war with it, who might write on their 
weapons of war, not sic sequimur pacem, — 1 thus we aim at peace/ — but sic 
persequimur, — 'thus we persecute.' Perhaps Saul's court was the Mesech and 
Kedar in which David dwelt, and Saul was the man he means that hated peace, 
whom David studied to oblige and could not, but the more service he did him 
the more exasperated he was against him. 

See here, 1. The character of a very good man in David, who could truly 
say, though he were a man of war, I am for peace, for living peaceably with all 
men, and unpeaceably with none. * I peace,' (so it is in the original,) I love 
peace, and pursue peace, my disposition is to peace, and my delight is in it; I 
pray for peace, and strive for peace; will do any thing, submit to any thing, 
part with any thing in reason for peace. I am for peace, and have made it 
to appear that I am so. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, Xltz* 
peaceable. 



PSALM CXXI. 



621 



2. The character of the worst of bad men in David's enemies, who would 
pick quarrels with those that were most peaceably disposed; " When I speak, 
they are for war," and the more forward for war the more they find me 
inclined to peace. He spoke with all the respect and kindness that could be. 
proposed methods of accommodation, spoke reason, spoke love, but they would 
not so much as hear him patiently, but cried out, To arms, to arms, so fierce and 
implacable were they, and so bent to mischief. Such were Christ's enemies. 
For his love they were his adversaries, and for his good words and good 
works they stoned him. And if we meet with such enemies, we must not think 
it strange, nor love peace the less for our seeking it in vain. "Be not over- 
come of evil," no, not of such evil as this, " but," even when thus tried, still 
try to ** overcome evil with good." 



PSALM CXXI. 

Some eall this the soldier's psalm, and think it was penned in the camp, when David was 
jeoparding his life in the high places of the field, and thus trusted God to cover his 
head in the day of battle. Others call it the traveller's psalm, (for there is nothing in 
it of military dangers,) and think David penned it when he was going abroad, and 
designed it pro vehiculo, — 'for the carriage,' — for a good man's convoy and companion 
in a journey or voyage. But we need not thus appropriate it ; wherever we are, at 
home or abroad, we are exposed to danger more than we are aware of, and this 
psalm directs and encourageth us to repose ourselves and our confidence in God, 
and by faith to put ourselves under his protection, and commit ourselves to his care, 
which we must do with an entire resignation and satisfaction in singing this 
psalm. I. David here assures himself of*help from God, ver. 1, 2. II. He assures 
others of it, ver. 3—8. 

A Song of degrees. 

I WILL lift up mine eyes unto the hills, 
From whence cometh my help. 

2 My help cometh from the Lord, 
Which made heaven and earth. 

3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: 
He that keepeth thee will not slumber. 

4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel 
Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 

5 The Lord is thy keeper : 

The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. 

6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, 
Nor the moon by night. 

7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil : 
He shall preserve thy soul. 

8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in 
From this time forth, and even for evermore. 

This psalm teacheth us, 

First. To stay ourselves upon God as a God of power, and a God all-sufficient 
for us. David did so, and found the benefit of it. 1. We must not rely upon 
creatures, upon men and means, instruments and second causes, nor make flesh 
our arm. 1 Shall I lift up mine eyes to the hills ?' (so some read it.) Doth my 
help come from thence ? shall I depend upon the powers of the earth ? upon 
the strength of the hills, upon princes and great men, that like hills fill the 
earth, and mount their heads towards heaven ? No, " In vain is salvation hoped 
for from hills and mountains," Jer. iii. 23. I never expect help to come from 
them ; my confidence is in God only. We must lift up our eyes above the 
hills, (so some read it ;) we must look beyond instruments to God, who makes 
them that to us that they are. 2. We must see all our hope laid up in God, 
in his power and goodness, his providence and grace, and from him we must 
expect it to come ; "My help comes from the Lord ;" the help I desire is what 



622 PSALM CXXI. 

r 

lie sends, and from him I expect it in his own way and time. If he do not 
help, no creature can help ; if he do, no creature can hinder, can hurt. 3. We g 
must fetch in help from God by faith in his promises, and a due regard to all I 
his institutions. " I will lift up mine eyes to the hills;" probably he means the tl 
hills on which the temple was built, mount Moriah, and the holy hill of Zion, i 
where the ark of the covenant is, the oracle and the altars ; I will have an eye I 
to the special presence of God in his church and with his people; his presence 
by promise, and not only to his common presence. When he was at a distance n 
he would look towards the sanctuary, Ps. xxviii. 2; xlii. 6; from thence I 
cometh our help, from the word and prayer, from the secret of nis tabernacle. t 
" My help cometh from the Lord," so the word is, ver. 2, from before the 
Lord, or from the sight and presence of the Lord; i Which (saithDr. Hammond) 
may refer to Christ incarnate, with whose humanity the Deity being insepa- i 
rably united, God is always present with him. and through him with us, for 
whom, sitting at God's right hand, he constantly maketh intercession.' Christ : 
is called the angel of his presence, that saved his people, Isa. lxiii. 9. 4. We 
must encourage our confidence in God with this, that he made heaven and 
earth, and he that did that can do any thing. He made the world out of 
nothing, himself alone, by a word's speaking, in a little time, and all very good, 
very excellent, and beautiful; and therefore, low great soever our straits and 
difficulties are, he has power sufficient for our succour and relief. He that 
made heaven and earth is sovereign Lord of all the hosts of both, and can 
make use of them as he pleaseth for the help of his people, and restrain them 
when he pleaseth from hurting his people. 

Secondly. To comfort ourselves in God when our difficulties and dangers 
are greatest. It is here promised that if we put our trust in God, and keep in 
the way of our duty, we shall be safelinder his protection, so that no real evil, 
no only evil, shall happen to us, nor any affliction but what God sees good for 
us, and will do us good by. 

1. God himself hath undertaken to be our protector; "The Lord is thy 
keeper," ver. 5. Whatever charge he gives his angels to keep his people, he 
has not thereby discharged himself, so that, whether every particular saint has 
an angel for his guardian or no, we are sure he has God himself for his guar- 
dian. It is infinite wisdom that contrives, and infinite power that works, the 
safety of those that have put themselves under God's protection. These must 
needs be well kept that have the Lord for their keeper; if by affliction they be 
made his prisoners, yet still he is their keeper. 

2. The same that is the protector of the church in general is engaged for the 
preservation of every particular believer ; the same wisdom, the same power, 
the same promises; "He that keepeth Israel," ver. 4, "is thy keeper," ver. 5. 
The shepherd of the flock is the shepherd of every sheep, and will take care 
that not one, even of the little ones, shall perish. 

3. He is a wakeful, watchful keeper : " He that keepeth Israel," that keepeth 
thee, O Israelite, " shall neither slumber nor sleep;" he never did, nor ever 
will, for he is never w r eary ; he doth not only not sleep, but he doth not so much 
as slumber; he has not the least inclination to sleep. 

4. He doth not only protect those whomhe is the keeper of. but he refresheth 
them. He is their shield. The comparison has a great deal of gracious con- 
descension in it; the eternal Being that is infinite substance, is what he is, that 
he may speak sensible comfort to his people, promises to be their umbra, their 
r shadow,' to keep as close to them as the shadow doth to the body, and to 
shelter them from the scorching heat, " as the shadow of a great rock in a 
weary land," Isa. xxxii. 2 ; under this shadow they may sit with delight and 
assurance, Cant. ii. 3. 

5. He is always near to his people for their protection and refreshment, and 
never at a distance ; he is their keeper and shade on their right hand, so that 
he is never far to seek. The right hand is the working hand: let them but 
turn themselves dexterously to their duty, and they shall find God ready to 
them, to assist them and succeed them, Ps. xvi. 8. 

6. He is not only at their right hand, but " he will also keep the feet of his 
saints," 1 Sam. ii. 9. He will have an eye upon them in their motions, "He 
will not suffer thy foot to be moved;" God will provide that his people shall 
not be tempted above what they are able, shall not fall into sin, though they 
may be very near it, Ps. lxxiii. 2, 23; shall not fall into trouble, though there 
be many endeavouring to undermine them by fraud, or overthrow them by 
force. He will keep them from being frightened, as we are when we slip or 
stumble, and are ready to fall. 

7. He will protect them from all the malignant influences of the heavenly 
bodies; ver. 6, "The sun shall not smite thee" with his heat " by day, nor 
the moon," with her cold and moisture, " by night." The sun and moon are 
great blessings to mankind, and yet (such a sad change has sin made in the 
creation) even the sun and moon (though worshipped by a great part of 



PSALM CXXII. 



623 



mankind) are often instruments of hurt and distemper to human bodies ; God 
by *Vi6*x> often smites us, but his favour shall interpose, so that they shall not 
diin*age bis people. He will keep them night and day, Isa. xxvii. 3, as he kept 
l9raei in the wilderness, by a pillar of cloud by day, which screened them from 
the heat of the sun, and of fire by night, which probably diffused a gentle 
warmfch over the whole camp, that they might not be prejudiced by the cold 
and damp of the night; their father Jacob having complained, Gen. xxxi. 40, 
that by day the drought consumed him, and the frost by night. It may be 
understood figuratively : thou shalt not be hurt either by the open assaults of 
thine enemies, which are as visible as the scorching beams of the sun, or by 
their secret treacherous attempts, which are like the insensible insinuations 
of the cold by night. 

8. His protection will make them safe in every respect; "The Lord shall 
preserve thee from all evil," the evil of sin and the evil of trouble. He shall 
prevent the evil thou fearest, and shall sanctify, remove, or lighten the evil 
thou feelest. He will keep thee from doing evil, 2 Cor. xiii. 7 ; and so far from 
suffering evil, as that whatever afflictions happen to thee, there shall be no evil 
in it; even that which kills shall not hurt. 

9. It is the spiritual life especially that God will take under his protection: 
"He shall preserve thy soul." All souls are his, and the soul is the man, and 
therefore he will, with a peculiar care, preserve them, that they be not defiled 
by sin and disturbed by affliction. He will keep them by keeping us in the 
possession of them, and he will preserve them from perishing eternally. 

10. He will keep us in all our ways ; " He shall preserve thy going" out and 
coming in." Thou shalt be under his protection in all thy journeys and voyages, 
outward bound or homeward bound, as he kept Israel in the wilderness, in 
their removes and rests. He will prosper thee in all thy affairs, at home and 
abroad, in the beginning and in the conclusion of them. He will keep thee in 
life and death, thy going out and going on while thou livest, and thy coming in 
when thou diest ; going out to thy labour in the morning of thy days, and 
coming home to thy rest when the evening of old age calls thee in, Ps. civ. 20. 

11. He will continue his care over us "from this time forth and even for 
evermore ;" it is a protection for life, never out of date. He will be thy guide 
even unto death, and will then hide thee in the grave, hide thee in heaven. He 
will preserve thee in his heavenly kingdom. God will protect his church and 
his saints always, even to the end of^ the world. The Spirit, which is their 
preserver and comforter^ shall abide with them for ever 

PSALM CXXII. 

This psalm seems to have been penned by David for the use of the people of Israel when 
they came up to Jerusalem to worship at the three solemn feasts. It was in David's 
time that Jerusalem was first chosen to be the city where God would record his name. 
It being a new thing, this among other means was used to bring the people to be ia 
love with Jerusalem, as the holy city, though it was but the other day in the hands 
of the Jebusites. Observe, I. The joy with which they were to go up to Jerusalem, 
ver. 1, 2. II. The great esteem they were to have of Jerusalem, ver. 3 — 5 III. The 
great concern they were to have for Jerusalem, and the prayers they were to put up for 
its welfare, ver. 6 — 9. In singing this we must have an eye to the gospel church, 
which is called the Jerusalem that is from above. 

A Song of degrees of David. 

I WAS glad when they said unto me, 
Let us go into the house of the Lord, 

2 Our feet shall stand 

Within thy gates, 0 Jerusalem. 

3 Jerusalem is builded 

As a city that is compact together : 

4 Whither the tribes go up, 

The tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, 
To give thanks unto the name of the Lord. 

5 For there are set thrones of judgment, 
The thrones of the house of David. 

Here is, First. The pleasure which David and other pious Israelites took 
in approaching to, and attending upon, God in public ordinances, ver. 1, 2. 

1. The invitation to them was very welcome; David was himself glad, and 
would have every Israelite to say that he was glad when he was called upon 



C24 PSALM CXXIL 

to go up to the house of the Lord. Note, 1st. It is the will of God thai Wf t 
should worship him in concert, that many should join together to wait upcn 
him in public ordinances. We ought to worship God in our own houses; bus 
that is not enough ; we must go into the house of the Lord, to pay our 
homage to him there, and not forsake the assembling ourselves together. 
2nd. We should not only agree with one another, but excite and stir up one 
another to go to worship God in public. "Let us go;" not, Do you go and 
pray for us, and we will stay at home, but, We will go also, Zee. viii. 21 ; not, Do 
you* go before, and we will follow at our'leisure, or we will go first, and you 
shall come after us, but, Let us go together for the honour of God and for our 
mutual edification and encouragement. We ourselves are slow and backward, 
and others are so too, and therefore we should thus quicken and sharpen one 
another to that which is good, as iron sharpens iron. 3rd. They that rejoice 
in God will rejoice in calls and opportunities to wait upon him. David himself, 
though he had as little need of a spur to his zeal in religious exercises as any, 
yet w r as so far from taking it as an affront, that he was glad of it as a kindness, 
when he was called upon to go up to the house of the Lord with the meane?t 
of his subjects. We should desire our Christian friends, when they have any 
good work in hand, to call for us and take us along with them. 

2. The prospect of them was very pleasing. Tney speak it with a holy 
triumph; ver. 2, " Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." They 
that came out of the country, when they found the journey tedious, com- 
forted themselves with this, that they should be in Jerusalem shortly, and 
that would make amends for all the fatigues of their travel. We shall stand 
there as servants ; it is desirable to have a place in Jerusalem, though it be 
among those that sta^d by, Zee. iii. 7, though it be the doorkeeper's place, 
Ps. lxxxiv. 10. We have now got a resting-place for the ark, and where it is 
there will we be. 

Secondly. The praises of Jerusalem, as Ps. xlviii. '2. 

1. It is the beautiful city, not only for situation, but for building. It is built 
into a city, the houses not scattered, but contiguous, and the streets fa^r and 
spacious. It is built uniform, compact together, the houses strengthening and 
supporting one another. Though the city was divided into the higher and 
lower town, yet, the Jebusites being driven out, and it being entirely in the 
possession of God's people, it is said to be compact together. It was a type of 
the gospel church, which is compact together in holy love and Christian com- 
munion, so that it is all as one city. 

2. It is the holy city, ver. 4. It is the place where all Israel meet one 
another; " Thither the tribes go up," from all parts of the country as one man, 
under the character of " the tribes of the Lord," in obedience to his command. 
It is the place appointed for the general rendezvous, and they come together. 
1st. To receive instruction from God; they come "to the testimony of Israe], 
to hear what God has to say to them, and to consult his oracle. 2nd. To 
ascribe the glory to God; u to give thanks to the name of the Lord," which we 
have all reason to do, especially those that have the testimony of Israel among 
them. If God speak to us by his word, we have reason to answer him by our 
thanksgivings. See on what errand we go to public worship, — to give thanks. 

3. It is the royal city; ver. 5, " There areset thrones of judgment;" there- 
fore the people had reason to be in love with Jerusalem, because justice was 
administered there by a man after God's own heart. The civil interest of the 
people were as well secured as their ecclesiastical concerns ; and very happy 
they were in their courts of judicature, which were erected in Jerusalem, as 
with us in Westminster Hall. Observe, what a goodly sight it was to see the 
testimony of Israel and the thrones of judgment such near neighbours, and 
they are good neighbours, which may greatly befriend one another. Let the 
testimony of Israel direct the thrones of judgment, and the thrones of judg- 
ment protect the testimony of Israel. 

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : 
They shall prosper that love thee. 

7 Peace be within thy walls, 

And prosperity within thy palaces. 

8 For my brethren and companions' sakes, 
I will now say, Peace be within thee. 

9 Because of the house of the Lord our God 
I will seek thy good. 

Here, First. David calls upon others to wish well to Jerusalem; ver, 6, 7, 
t{ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," that is, for the welfare of it, for all good to 



PSALM CXXIII. 



62<3 



it, particularly for the uniting of the inhabitants among themselves, and their 
preservation from the incursions of enemies. This we may truly desire, that 
in the peace thereof we may have peace ; and this we must earnestly pray for, 
for it is the gift of God, and for it he will be inquired of. Those that can do 
nothing else for the peace of Jerusalem^ can pray for it, which is something 
more than shewing their good-will ; it is the appointed way of fetching in 
mercy. The peace and welfare of the gospel church, particularly in our land, 
is to be earnestly desired and prayed for by every one of us. Now, 

1. We are here encouraged in our prayers for Jerusalem's peace; "They 
shall prosper that love thee." We must pray for Jerusalem, not out of 
custom, or for fashion's sake, but out of a principle of love to God's govern- 
ment of man and man's worship of God. And in seeking the public welfare, 
we seek our own ; for so well doth God love the gates of Zion, that he will 
love all those- that do love them, and therefore they cannot but prosper, at 
least their soul shall prosper by the ordinances they so dearly love. 

2. We are here directed in our prayers for it, and words are put into our 
mouths ; ver. 7, " Peace be within thy walls." He teacheth us to pray, 1st. For 
all the inhabitants in general, all within the walls, from the least to the greatest. 
Peace be in thy fortifications, that is, let them never be attacked ; or if they 
be, let them never be taken, but be an effectual security to the city. 2nd. For 
the princes and rulers especially ; let prosperity be in the palaces of the great 
men that sit at the stern, and have the conduct of public affairs, for if they 
prosper it will be well for the public. The poorer sort are apt to envy the 
prosperity of the palaces, but they are here taught to pray for it. 

Secondly. He resolves that, whatever others do, he will approve himself a 
faithful friend to Jerusalem, 1. In his prayers, " I will now say," now I see 
the tribes so cheerfully resorting hither to the testimony of Israel, and the 
matter settled, that Jerusalem must be^ the place where God will record his 
name, now I will say, " Peace be within thee." He did not say, Let others 
pray for the public peace, the priests and the prophets, whose business it is, 
and the people that have nothing else to do, and I will fight for it, and rule 
for it : no, I will pray for it too. 2. In his endeavours, with which he will 
second his prayers, "I will" to the utmost of my power, "seek thy good." 
Whatever lies within the sphere of our activity to do for the public good we 
must do it, else we are not sincere in praying for it. 

Now it might be said, no thanks to David to be so solicitous for the welfare 
of Jerusalem; it was his own city, and the interests of his family were lodged 
in it. It is true; yet he professeth that was not the reason why he was in 
such care for the welfare of Jerusalem, but it proceeded from the dear love he 
had, 1st. To the communion of saints ; It is "for my brethren and companions' 
sakes," that is, for the sake of all true-hearted Israelites, whom I look upon 
as my brethren, (so he calls them, 1 Cltr. xxviii. 2,) and who have often been my 
companions in the worship of God, which hath knit my heart to them. 2nd. 
To the ordinances of God. He hath set his affection to the house of his God, 
1 Chr. xxix. 3, took a great pleasure in public worship, and for that reason 
would pray for the good of Jerusalem. Then our concern for the public 
welfare is right, when it is the effect of a sincere love to God's institutions 
and his faithful worshippers. 



PSALM CXXIII. 

This psalm was penned at a time when the church of God was brought low and 
trampled upon ; some think it was when the Jews were captives in Babylon ; though 
that was not the only time that they were insulted over by the proud. The psalmist 
begins as if he spoke of himself only, ver. 1 ; but presently speaks in the name of the 
church. Here is, I. Their expectation of mercy from God, ver. 1, 2. II. Their 
plea for mercy with God, ver. 3, 4. In singing it we must have our eye up to 
God's favour with a holy concern, and then an eye down to men's reproach with a 
holy contempt. 

A Song of degrees. 

UNTO thee lift I up mine eyes, 
0 thou that chvellest in the heavens. 
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of 
their masters, [tress ; 

And as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mis- 
So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, 
Until that he have mercy upon us. 

2R 



026 PSALM CXX1IL 

3 Have mercy upon us, 0 Lord, have mercy upon us : 
For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. 

4 Our soul is exceedingly filled 

With the scorning of those that are at ease,, 
And with the contempt of the proud. 

We have here, 

First. The solemn profession which God's people make of faith and hope ra 
God, ver. I, 2. Observe, 

1. The title here given to God ; " O thou that dwellest in the heavens.' 1 Our 
Lord Jesus has taught us in prayer to have an eye to God, as " our Father in 
heaven;" not that he is confined there, but there especially he manifests his 
glory, as the king in his court. Heaven is a place of prospect, and a place of 
power ; he that dwells there thence beholds all the calamities of his people, and 
from thence can send to save them. Sometimes God seems to have forsaken 
the earth, and the enemies of God's people ask, "Where is now your God?" 
But then they can say with comfort, "Our God is in the heavens." 'O thou 
that sittest in the heavens,' so some, sittest as judge there; for "the Lord has 
prepared his throne in the heavens," and to that throne injured innocency may 
appeal. 

2. The regard here had to God. The psalmist himself lifted up his eyes to 
him. The eyes of a good man are ever towards the Lord, Ps. xxv. 15; in every 
prayer we lift up our soul, the eye of our soul, to God, especially in trouble, 
which was the case here : the eyes of the people waited on the Lord, ver. 2. 
We find mercy coming towards a people, "when the eyes of man, as of all the 
tribes of Israel, are towards the Lord/' Zee. ix. l. The eyes of the body are 
heavenward, (os homine sublime dedii, — ' to man he gave an erect mien,') to teach 
us which way to direct the eyes of the mind. " Our eyes wait on the Lord," 
that is the eye of desire and prayer; the begging eye, and the eye of depend- 
ence, hope, and expectation,— the longing eye. Our eyes must wait upon God 
as the Lord, and our God, " until that he have mercy upon us." We desire mercy 
from him ; we hope he will shew us mercy, and we will continue our attendance 
on him till it doth come. 

This is illustrated, ver. 2, by a similitude ; our eyes are to God as the eyes of 
a servant, or handmaid, to the hand of their master and mistress. The eyes 
of a servant are, 1st. To his master's directing hand, expecting that he will 
appoint him his work, and cut it out for him, and shew him how he must do it. 
"Lord, what wilt thou have > me to do ? " 2nd. To his supplying hand. Servants 
look to their master or their mistress for their portion of meat in due season, 
Pr. xxxi. 15. And to God must we look for daily bread, for grace sufficient; 
from him we must receive it thankfully. 3rd. To his assisting hand. If the 
servant cannot do his work himself, where must he look for help but to his 
master? and in the strength of the Lord God we must go forth and go on. 
4th. To his protecting hand. If the servant meet with opposition in his work, — 
if he be questioned for what he doth, if he be wronged and injured, — who 
should bear him out and right him but his master, that set him on work ? The 
people of God, when they are persecuted, may appeal to their Master ; " We 
are thine, save us." 5th. To his correcting hand. If the servant have provoked 
his master to beat him, he doth not call for help against his master, but looks 
at the hand that strikes him, till it shall say. It is enough ; I will not contend 
for ever. The people of God were now under his rebukes, and whither should 
they turn but to him that smote them? Isa. ix. 13 ; to whom should they make 
supplication but to their judge? They will not do as Hagar did, that outrun 
her mistress, when she put some hardship upon her, Gen.xYi. 6, but they sub- 
mit themselves to, and humble themselves under, God's mighty hand. 6th. To 
his rewarding hand. The servant expects his wages, his " well done," from 
his master. Hypocrites have their eye to the world's hand, thence they have 
their reward, Mat. vi. 2, but true Christians have their eye to God as their 
rewarder. 

Secondly. The humble address which God's people present to him in their 
calamitous condition, ver, 3, 4, wherein, 

1. They sue for mercy; not prescribing to God what he shall do for them, 
nor pleading anv merit of their own, why he should do for them, but, "Have 
mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us." We find little mercy with men, 
their tender mercies are cruel — they are cruel mockings ; but this is our com- 
fort, that with the Lord there is mercy, and we need desire no more to relieve 
us, and make us easy, but the mercy of God. Whatever the troubles of the 
church are, God's mercy is a sovereign remedy. 



PSALM CXXIV. 627 

2. They set forth their grievances; "We are exceedingly filled with con- 
tempt." Reproach is the wound, the burthen they complain of. Observe, 
1st. Who were reproached. We, who have our eyes up to thee. Those that 
are owned of God are oftentimes despised and trampled on by the world. Some 
translate the words which we render, "those that are at ease/' and "the proud," 
to signify the persons that are scorned and contemned : ' Our soul is troubled 
to see how those that are at peace, and the excellent ones, are scorned and 
despised.' The saints are a peaceable people, and yet are abused, Ps. xxxv. 20 ; 
the excellent ones of the earth, and yet undervalued, Lam. iv. 1, 2. 2nd. Who 
did reproach them; taking the words as we read them, they were the epi- 
cures that lived at ease,— carnal, sensual people, Job xii. 5. The scoffers are 
such as walk after their own lusts, and serve their own bellies. And the proud 
that set God himself at defiance, and had a high opinion of themselves, they 
trampled on God's people, thinking they magnified themselves by vilifying 
them. 3rd. To what degree they were reproached; "We are filled," we are 
surfeited with it ; " Our soul is exceedingly filled with it." The enemies 
thought they could never jeer them enough, nor say enough to make them 
despicable. And they could not but lay it to heart ; it w r as a sword in their 
bones, Ps. xlii. 10. Note, (1.) Scorning and contempt has been, and is, and is 
likely to be, the lot of God's people in this world. Ishmael mocked Isaac, 
which is called persecuting him ; and so it is now, Gal. iv. 29. (2.) In reference 
to the scorn and contempt of men, it is matter of comfort that there is mercy 
with God ; mercy to our good names, when they are barbarously used; " Hear, 
O our God, for we are despised." 



PSALM CXXIY. 

David penned this psalm (we suppose) upon occasion of some great deliverance which. 
God wrought for him and his people from some very threatening danger, which was 
likely to have involved them all in ruin, whether by foreign invasion, or intestins 
insurrection, is not certain ; whatever it was, he seems to have been himself much 
affected, and very desirous to affect others, with the goodness of God in making a way 
for them to escape: to him he is careful to give all the glory, and takes none to 
himself, as conquerors used to do. I. He here magnifies the greatness of the danger 
they were in, and of the ruin they were at the brink of, ver. 1 — 5. II. He gives God 
the glory of their escape, ver. 6, 7, compared with ver. 1, 2. III. He takes encourage- 
ment from thence to trust in God, ver. 8. In singing this psalm, besides the 
application of it to any particular deliverance wrought for us and our people, in our 
days, and the days of our fathers, we may have in our thoughts the great work 
of our redemption by Jesus Christ, by which we were rescued from the powers of 
darkness. 

A Song of degrees of David. 

IF it had not been the Lord who was on our side, 
Now may Israel say ; 

2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, 
When men rose up against us : 

3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, 
When their wrath was kindled against us : 

4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, 
The stream had gone over our soul : 

5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. 

The people of God, being here called upon to praise God for their deliverance, 
are to take notice, 

First. Of the malice of men, by which they were reduced to the very brink of 
ruin. Let Israel say, that there was but a step between them and death. The 
more desperate the disease appears tQ have been, the more doth the skill of the 
physician appear in the cure. Observe, 

1. Whence the threatening danger came ; "Men rose up against us." Creatures 
of our own kind, and yet bent upon our ruin ; homo homini lupus, — i man is 
a wolf to man.' No marvel that the red dragon, the roaring lion, should seek 
to swallow us up, but that men should thirst after the blood of men, Absalom 
after the blood of his own father, — that a woman should be drunk with the 
blood of saints, — is what, with St. John, we may wonder at with great admira- 
tion. From men we may expect humanity, yet there are those whose tender 



628 PSALM CXXIV. 

mercies are cruel. But what was the matter with these men? Why, "their 
wrath was kindled against us," ver. 3 ; something or other they were angry at, 
and then no less would serve than the destruction of those they had conceived 
a displeasure against. " Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous." Their wrath 
was kindled as fire, ready to consume us. They were proud ; and " the wicked 
in his pride doth persecute the poor." They were daring in their attempt; they 
rose up against us, — rose in rebellion, with a resolution to swallow us up alive. 

2. How far it went, and how fatal it had been, if it had gone a little farther. 
We had been devoured, as a lamb by a lion; not only slain, but swallowed up, 
so that there should have been no relics of us remaining. Swallowed up with, 
so much haste, ere we were aware, that we should have gone down alive to 
the pit; we had been deluged as the low grounds by a land-flood, or the 
sands by a high spring-tide. This similitude he dwells upon with the ascents 
which speak this a song of degrees, or risings, like the rest. " The waters had 
overwhelmed us." What of us ? ik Why the stream had gone over our soul,"— 
our lives, our comforts, all that is dear to us. What waters ? Why " the proud 
waters." God suffers the enemies of his people sometimes to prevail very far 
against them, that his own power may appear the more illustrious in their 
deliverance. 

Secondly. Of the goodness of God, by which they were rescued from the very 
brink of ruin ; " The Lord was on our side," and if he had not been so we had 
been undone. 1. God was on our side ; he took our part, espoused our cause, 
and appeared for us. He was our helper, and a very present help, a help on 
our side, nigh at hand. He was with us ; not only for us, but among us, and 
commander-in-chief of our forces. 2. That God was Jehovah. There the 
emphasis lies. If it had not been Jehovah himself, a God of infinite power and 
perfection, that had undertaken our deliverance, our enemies had overpowered 
us. Happy the people therefore whose God is Jehovah, a God all- sufficient. 
Let Israel say this to his honour, and resolve never to forsake him. 

6 Blessed be the Lord, 

Who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 

7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the 
The snare is broken, and we are escaped. [fowlers : 

8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, 
Who made heaven and earth. 

Here the psalmist farther magnifies the great deliverance God had lately 
wrought for them. 

First. That their hearts might be the more enlarged in thankfulness to him : 
ver. 6, " Blessed be the Lord." God is the author of all our deliverances, and 
therefore he must have the glory of them. We rob him of his due if we do not 
return thanks to him. And we are the more obliged to praise him, because we 
had such a narrow escape. We are delivered, 1. Like a lamb out of the very 
jaws of a beast of prey; "God hath not given us as a prey to their teeth; 
intimating, that they had no power against God's people, but what was given 
them from above. They could not be a prey to their teeth, unless God gave 
them up, and therefore they were rescued, because God would not suffer them 
to be ruined. 2. Like a bird, a little bird, (the word signifies a sparrow,) out 
of the snare of the fowler. The enemies are very subtle and spiteful; they lay 
snares for God's people, to bring them into sin and trouble, and to hold them 
there. Sometimes they seem to have prevailed so far as to gain their point ; 
they are taken in the snare, and are as unable to help themselves out as any 
weak and silly bird is. And then is God's time to appear for their relief, when 
all other friends fail, then God breaks the snare, and turns the counsel of the 
enemies into foolishness. " The snare is broken, and so we are delivered." 
Isaac is saved, when he lay ready to be sacrificed; " Jehovah -jir eh, in the 
mount of the Lord it shall be seen." 

Secondly. That their hearts and the hearts of others might be more encou- 
raged to trust in God in the like dangers ; ver. 8, " Our help is in the name of 
the Lord." David had directed us, Ps. cxxi. 2, to depend upon God for help as 
to our personal concerns, " My help is in the name of the Lord ;"her,e, as to the 
concerns of the public, our help is so. It is comfort to all that lay the interests 
of God*s Israel near their hearts, that Israel's God is the same that made the 
world ; and therefore will have a church in the world, and can secure that 
church in the times of the greatest danger and distress. In him therefore let 
the church's friends put their confidence, and they shall not be put to confusion- 



PSALM CXXV. 629 

This short psalm may be summed up in those words of the prophet, Isa. iii. 10, 11, 
"Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him. woe to the wicked, it shall 
be ill with him." Thus are life and death, the blessing and the curse, set before us 
often in the psalms, as well as in the law and the prophets. I. It is certainly well 
with the people of God ; for, 1. They have the promises of a good God that they shall 
be fixed, ver. 1, and safe, ver. 2, and not always under hatches, ver. 3 ; 2. They have 
the prayers of a good man. which shall be heard for them, ver. 4. II. It is certainly ill 
with the wicked, and particularly with the apostates, ver. 5. Some of the Jewish 
rabbins are of opinion, that it has reference to the days of the Messiah: however, we 
that are members of the gospel church may certainly in singing this psalm take the 
comfort of these promises, and the more, if we stand in awe of the threatening. 

A Song of degrees. 




HEY that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, 
Which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. 



2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, 

So the Lord is round about his people 

From henceforth even for ever. [the righteous; 

8 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of 

Lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. 

Here are three very precious promises made to the people of God, which, 
though they are designed to secure the welfare of the church in general, yet 
may be applied by particular believers to themselves, as other promises of this 
nature may. 

Here is. First. The character of God's people to whom these promises belong. 
Many call themselves God's people who have no part nor lot in this matter. But 
those shall have the benefit of them, and may take the comfort of them, 1. Who 
are righteous, ver. 3, righteous before God, righteous to God, and righteous to 
all men; for his sake justified and sanctified. 2. Who trust in the Lord, who 
depend upon his care, and devote themselves to his honour. All that deal with 
God # must deal upon trust, and he will give comfort to those only that give 
credit to him, and make it to appear they do so by quitting other confidences, 
and venturing to the utmost for God. The closer our expectations are confined 
to God, the higher our expectations may be raised from him. 

Secondly. The promises themselves. 

1. That their hearts shall be established by faith. Those minds shall be truly 
stayed that are stayed on God. "They shall be as mount Zion."' The church 
in general is called mount Zion, Heb. xii. 18, and it shall in this respect be like 
mount Zion, it shall be built upon a rock, and its interests shall be so well 
secured, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The stability of the 
church is the satisfaction of all its well-wishers. Particular persons that trust 
in God shall be established, Ps. cxii. 7 ; their faith shall be their fixation, 
Isa. vii. 9. They shall be as mount Zion, which is firm, as it is a mountain, sup- 
ported by providence, much more as a holy mountain supported by promise. 
1st. They cannot be removed by the prince of the power of the air, nor by all 
his subtlety and strength. They cannot be removed from their integrity, nor 
from their confidence in God. 2nd. They abide for ever in that grace which is 
the earnest of their everlasting continuance in glory. 

2. That committing themselvesto God, they shall be safe under his protection 
from all the insults of their enemies. As Jerusalem had a natural fastness and 
fortification in the mountains that were round about it, ver. 2, those mountains 
not only sheltered it from winds and tempests, and broke the force of them, but 
made it also very difficult of access for an enemy. Such a defence is God's 
providence to his people. Observe, 1st. The compass of it. The Lord is 
round about his people on every side ; there is no gap in the hedge of protec- 
tion which he makes round about his people, at which the enemy that goes 
about them seeking to do them a mischief can find entrance, Job i. 10. 2nd. 
The continuance of it. "From henceforth even for ever." Mountains may 
moulder and come to nought, and rocks be removed out of their place, 
Job xiv. 18 ; but God's covenant with his people cannot be broken, Isa. liv. 10, 
nor his care of them cease. Their being said to stand fast for ever, ver. 1, and 
here to have God round about them for ever, intimates that the promises of the 
stability and security of God's people will have their full accomplishment in 
their everlasting state. In heaven they shall stand fast for ever, shall be as 
pillars in the temple of our God, and go no more out, Rev. iii. 12, and there 
God himself, with his glory and favour, will be round about them for ever. 



630 PSALM CXXV. 

3. That their troubles shall last no longer than their strength will serve to 
bear them up under them, ver. 3. 1st. It is supposed that the rod of the wicked 
may come, may fall, upon the lot of the righteous. The rod of their power may 
oppress them ; the rod of their anger may Tex and torment them. It may light 
upon their persons, their estates, their liberties, their families, their names, any 
thing that falls to their lot ; only it cannot reach their souls. 2nd. It is pro- 
mised that, though it may come upon their lot, it shall not rest there, it shall not 
continue so long as the enemies design, and as the people of God fear ; but God 
will cut the work short in righteousness, so short, that even with the tempta- 
tion he will make a way for them to escape. 3rd. It is considered as a reason 
of this promise, that if the trouble should continue over long, the righteous 
themselves would be in temptation to put forth their hands to iniquity, that is, 
to join with wicked people in their wicked practices; to say as they say, and do 
as they do. There is danger lest, being long persecuted for their religion, at 
length they grow weary of it, and willing to give it up ; being kept long in 
expectation of promised mercies, they begin to distrust the promise, and to 
think of casting God off upon suspicion of his having cast them off: see 
Ps. lxxiii. 13, 14. Note, God considers the frame of his people, and will pro- 
portion their trials to their strength by the care of his providence, as well as 
their strength to their trials by the power of his grace. " Oppression makes 
a wise man mad," especially if it continue long ; therefore for the elect's sake 
the days shall be shortened, that, whatever goes with their lot in the world, 
they may not lose their lot among the chosen. 

4 Do good, 0 Lord, unto those that he good, 
And to them that are upright in their hearts. 

5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, 

The Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of 

iniquity : 
But peace shall be upon Israel. 

Here is, First. The prayer the psalmist puts up for the happiness of those 
that are sincere and constant ; ver. 4, "Do good, O Lord, unto those that are 
good." This teacheth us to pray for all good people, to make supplication 
tor all saints ; and we may pray in faith for them, being assured that those who 
do well shall certainly be well dealt with. They that are as they should be, 
shall be as they would be ; provided they be upright in heart, that they be 
really as good as they seem to be. "With the upright God will shew himself 
upright." He doth not say, Do good, O Lord, to them that are perfect, that are 
sinless and spotless ; but to them that are sincere and honest. God's promises 
should quicken our prayers. It is comfortable wishing well to those for whom 
God has engaged to do well. 

Secondly. The prospect he has of the ruin of hypocrites and deserters. He 
doth not pray for it, " I have not desired the woful day, thou knowest ; " but he 
predicts it, "As for such," as having known the way of righteousness, for fear of 
the rod of the wicked, basely turn aside out of it to their wicked ways, use 
indirect ways to prevent trouble, or extricate themselves out of it; or, those 
who, instead of reforming, grow worse and worse, and are more obstinate and 
daring in their impieties, "God shall" send them away, cast them out, and 
"lead them forth with the workers of iniquity ; " that is, he shall appoint them 
their portion with the worst of sinners. _ Note, 1. Sinful ways are crooked 
ways. Sin is the perverting of that which is right. 2. The doom of those who 
turn aside to those crooked ways out of the right way will be the same with 
theirs that have all along walked in them ; nay, and more grievous, for if any 
place in hell be hotter than another, that shall be the portion of hypocrites and 
apostates. God shall lead them forth, as prisoners are led forth to execution, 
"Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire ;" and these shall go away, all their former 
righteousness shall not be mentioned unto them. The last words, peace upon 
Israel, may be taken as a prayer : God preserve his Israel in peace when his 
judgments are abroad reckoning with evil-doers. We read them as a promise, 
" Peace shall be upon Israel ; " that is, 1st. When those that have treacherously 
deserted the ways of God meet with their own destruction, they that faithfully 
adhere to them, though they may have trouble in their way, their* end shall be 
peace. 2nd. The destruction of those that walk in crooked ways will contribute 
to the peace and safety of the church. When Herod was cut oft', " the word of 
God grew," Acts xii. 23, 24. 3rd. The peace and happiness of God's Israel will 
be the vexation, and will add much to the torment of those that perish in their 
wickedness, Lu. xiii. 28 ; Jsa. Ixv, 13, "My servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be 
ashamed," 



PSALM CXXVI. 



631 



It was with reference to some great and surprising deliverance of the people of God out 
of bondage and distress that this psalm was penned,- most likely their return out of 
Babylon in Ezra's time, Though Babylon be not mentioned here, as it is Ps. cxxxvii., 
yet their captivity there was the most remarkable captivity, both in itself, and as their 
return out of it was typical of our redemption by Christ. Probably it was penned by 
Ezra, or some of the prophets that came up with the first. We read of singers of the 
children of Asaph, that famous psalmist, that returned then, Ezr. ii. 41. It being a song 
of ascents, in which twice the same things are repeated with advancement, ver. 2, 3, 
and ver. 4, 5, it is put here among the rest of the psalms that bear that title. I. Those 
that had returned out of captivity are here called upon to be thankful, ver. 1 — 3. 
II. Those that were yet remaining in captivity are here prayed for, ver. 4, and 
encouraged, ver. 5, 6. It will be easy in singing this psalm to apply it either to any 
particular deliverance wrought for the church or our own land, or to the great work of 
salvation by Christ. 

A Song of degrees. 

WHEN the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, 
We were like them that dream. 

2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, 
And our tongue with singing : 

Then said they among the heathen, 

The Lord hath done great things for them. 

3 The Lord hath done great things for us ; 
Whereof we are glad. 

While the people of Israel were captives in Babylon, their harps were hung 
upon the willow-trees, for then God called to weeping and mourning, then be 
mourned unto them, and they lamented ; but now their captivity is turned they 
resume their harps ; Providence pipes to them, and they dance. Thus must we 
accommodate ourselves to all the dispensations of providence, and be suitably 
affected with them ; and the harps are never more melodiously tunable than 
after such a melancholy disuse. The long want of mercies greatly sweetens 
their return. 

Here is, First. The deliverance Godhad wrought for them. He "turned 
again the captivity of Zion." It is possible that Zion may be in captivity for 
the punishment of her degeneracy ; but her captivity shall be turned again 
when the end is answered, and the work designed by it is effected. Cyrus, 
for reasons of state, proclaimed liberty to God's captives, and yet it was the 
Lord's doing, according to his word, many years before. God sent them into 
captivity, not as dross is put into the fire to be consumed, but as gold to be 
refined. Observe, the release of Israel is called the turning again of the cap- 
tivity of Zion, the holy hill, where God's tabernacle and dwelling-place was; 
for the restoring of their sacred interests, anu the reviving of the public 
exercise of their religion, was the most valuable advantage of their return out 
of captivity. 

Secondly. The pleasing surprise that this was to them. They were amazed 
at it ; it came so suddenly, that at first they were in confusion, not knowing 
what to make of it, nor what it was tending to. We thought ourselves like 
men that dream, we thought it too good news to be true, and began to question 
whether we were well awake or no, and whether it was not still, as sometimes 
it had been to the prophets, only a representation of it in vision, as St. Peter 
for a while thought his deliverance w 7 as, Acts xii. 9. Sometimes the people 
of God are thus prevented with the blessings of his goodness ere they are 
aware.^ ' We were like them that are recovered to health,' so Dr. Hammond 
reads it; such a comfortable happy change it was to us, as life from the dead, 
or sudden ease from exquisite pain ; we thought ourselves in a new world. And 
the surprise of it put them into an ecstacy and transport of joy, that they could 
scarce contain themselves within the bounds of decency in the expressions of 
it ; " Our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing." Thus 
they gave vent to their joy, gave glory to their God, and gave notice to all about 
them what wonders God had wrought for them. They that were laughed at 
now laugh, and a new song is put into their mouths. It was a laughter of joy 
in God, not scorn of their enemies. 



632 PSALM CXXYI. 

Thirdly. The notice which their neighbours took of it. " They said among 
the heathen, Jehovah," the God of Israel, " hath done great things " for that 
people, such as our gods cannot do for us. The heathen had observed their 
calamity, and had triumphed in it, Jet. xxii. 8, 9 ; Ps. cxxxvii. 7. Now they 
could not but observe their deliverance, and admire that. It put a reputation 
upon those that had been scorned and despised, and made them look consider- 
able. Besides that, it turned greatly to the honour of God, and extorted from 
those that set up other gods in competition with him an acknowledgment of his 
wisdom, power, and providence. 

Fourthly. The acknowledgments which they themselves made of it, ver. 3. 
The heathen were but spectators, and spoke of it only as matter of news ; they 
had no part or lot in the matter ; but the people of God spake of it as sharers 
in it. L With application ; " He hath done great things for us," things that 
we are interested in, and have advantage by. Thus it is comfortable speaking 
of the redemption Christ hath wrought out, as wrought out for us, "who loved 
me, and gave himself for me." 2. With affection : "Whereof we are glad." The 
heathen were amazed at it, and some of them angry, but we are glad. While 
Israel went a whoring from their God joy was forbidden them, Hos. ix. 1 ; but 
now the iniquity of Jacob was purgt,^ by the captivity, and their sin taken 
away, now God makes them to rejoice. It is the repenting, reforming people 
that are and shall be the rejoicing people. Observe here, 1st. God's appear- 
ances for his people are to be looked upon as great things. 2nd. God is to be 
eyed as the author of all the great things done for the church. 3rd. It is good 
to observe how the church's deliverances are for us } that we may rejoice in 
them. 

4 Turn agr n our captivity, O Lord, 
As the streams in the south. 

5 They that sow in tears 
Shall reap in joy. 

6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, 
Bearing precious seed, 

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, 
Bringing his sheaves with him, 

These verses look forward to the mercies that were yet wanted. They that 
were come out of captivity were still in distress, even in their own land, Neh. i. 3, 
and many yet remained in Babylon. And therefore they rejoice with trembling, 
and bear upon their hearts the grievances that were yet to be redressed. We 
have here, 

1. A prayer for the perfecting of their deliverance; ver. 4, "Turn again our 
captivity." Let those that are returned to their own land be eased of the 
burthens which they are yet groaning under. Let those that remain in Baby- 
lon have their hearts stirred up as ours were to take the benefit of the liberty 
granted. The beginnings of mercy are encouragements to us to pray for the 
completing of it. And while we are here in this world, there will still be matter 
for prayer, even then when we are most furnished with matter for praise. And 
when we are free and in prosperity ourselves, we must not be unmindful of our 
brethren that are in trouble and under restraint. The bringing of those that 
were vet in captivity to join with their brethren that were returned, would be 
as welcome to both sides as streams of water in these countries, that, lying far 
south, were parched and dry. As cold water to a thirsty soul, so would this 
good news be from that far country, Pr. xxv. 25. 

Secondly. A promise for their encouragement to wait for it, assuring them 
that, though they had now a sorrowful time, yet it would end well. But the 
promise is expressed generally, that all the saints may comfort themselves with 
this confidence, that their seedness of tears will certainly end in a harvest of joy 
at last, ver. 5, 6. 

1. Suffering saints have a seedness of tears. They are in tears often ; they 
share in the calamities of human life, and commonly have a greater share in 
them than others. But they sjw in tears; that is, they do the duty of an 
afflicted state, and so answer the intentions of the providences they are under. 
Weeping must not hinder sowing; when we suffer ill, we must be doing well. 
Nay, as the ground is by the rain prepared for the seed, and the husbandman 
sometimes chooseth to sow in the wet, so we must improve times of affliction 
as disposing us to repentance, and prayer, and humiliation Nay, there are 



PSALM CXXVIL 



633 



tears which are themselves the seed that we must sow; tears of sorrow for 
sin, our own and others'; tears of sympathy with the afflicted church; and 
tears of tenderness in prayer and under the word. These are precious seed, 
such as the husbandman sows when corn is dear, and he has but little for 
his family, and therefore weeps to part with it, yet buries it under ground in 
expectation of receiving it again with advantage. Thus doth a good man sow 
in tears. 

2. They shall have a harvest of joy. The troubles of the saints will not last 
always, but when they have done their work shall have a happy period. The 
captives in Babylon were long sowing in tears, but at length they were brought 
forth with joy, and then they reaped the benefit of their patient suifering, and 
brought their sheaves with them to their own land in their experiences of the 
goodness of God to them. Job, and Joseph, and David, and many others, had 
Harvests of joy after a sorrowful seedness. They that sow in the tears ofgodly 
sorrow shall reap in the joy of a sealed pardon, and a settled peace. " Those 
that sow to the Spirit " in this vale of tears, " shall of the Spirit reap life ever- 
lasting," and that will be a joyful harvest indeed. " Blessed are they that 
mourn, for they shall be for ever comforted." 



PSALM CXXVII. 

This is a family psalm, as divers before were state poems and church poems. It is 
entitled (as we read it) for Solomon, dedicated to him by his father. He having a house 
to build, a city to keep, and seed to raise up to his father, David directs him to look up 
to God, and to depend upon his providence, without which all his wisdom, care and 
industry would not serve. Some take it to have been penned by Solomon himself, and 
it may as well be read a Song of Solomon, and he wrote a great many ; and they compare 
it with his Ecclesiastes, the scope of both being the same, to shew the vanity of worldly 
care ; and how necessary it is that we keep in with God. On him we must depend 
I. For wealth, ver. 1,2; II. For heirs to leave it to, ver. 3 — 5. In singing this psalm 
we must have our eye upon God for success in all our undertakings, and a blessing 
Upon all our comforts and enjoyments, because every creature is that to us and no more 
than he makes it to be. 

A Song of degrees for Solomon. 

EXCEPT the Lord build the house, 
They labour in vain that build it : 
Except the Lord keep the city, 
The watchman waketh but in vain. 

2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, 
To eat the bread of sorrows : 

For so he giveth his beloved sleep, 

3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord : 
And the fruit of the womb is his reward. 

4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man ; 
So are children of the youth. 

5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them : 
They shall not be ashamed, 

But they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. 

We are here taught to have a continual regard to the Divine providence in 
all the concerns of this life. Solomon was cried up for a wise man, and would 
be apt to lean to his own understanding and forecast, and therefore his father 
teacheth him to look higher, and to take God along with him in his undertak- 
ings. He was to be a man of business, and therefore David instructed him 
how to manage his business under the direction of his religion. Parents in 
teaching their children should suit their exhortations to their condition and 
occasions. We must have an eye to God, 

First. In all the affairs and business of the family, even of the royal family; 
for the king's houses are no longer safe than God protects them. We must 
depend upon God's blessing, and not our own contrivance, 

1. For the raising of a family. "Except the Lord build the house" by his 
providence and blessing, " they labour in vain/' though never so ingenious,, 



634 PSALM CXXYIL 

u that build it." We may understand it of the material house ; except tne Lord 
bless the building it is to no purpose for men to build, no more than for the 
builders of Babel that attempted it in defiance of heaven, or Hiel that built 
Jericho under a curse. If the model and design be laid in pride and vanity, or if 
the foundations be laid in oppression and injustice, Hob. ii. 11, 12, to be sure God 
doth not build there. Nay, if God be not acknowledged, we have no reason 
to expect his blessing, and without his blessing all is nothing. Or rather it is 
to be understood of the making of a family considerable that was mean. Men 
labour to do this by advantageous matches, offices, employments, purchases, 
but all in vain unless God build up the family, and raise the poor out of the 
dust. The best laid project fails unless God crown it with success: see 
Mai. i. 4. 

2. For the securing of a family or a city, for that is it that is instanced in. If 
the guards of the city cannot secure it without God, much less can the good 
man of the house save his house from being broken up. Except the Lord keep 
the city from fire, from enemies, the watchmen that go about the city, or 
patrol upon the walls of it, though they neither slumber nor sleep, wake but 
in vain; for a raging fire may break out which the timeliest discoveries may 
not be able to prevent the mischief of. The guards may be slain, or the city 
betrayed and lost by a thousand accidents, which the most watchful sentinel 
or most cautious governor could not obviate. 

3. For the enriching of a family. That is a work of time and thought; but 
cannot be effected without the favour of Providence, no more than that which 
is the product of one happy turn. " It is vain for you to rise up early and sit 
up late," and so to deny yourselves your bodily refreshments, in the eager 
pursuit of the wealth of the world. Usually those that rise early do not care 
for sitting up late, nor can those that sit up late easily persuade themselves to 
rise early; but there are some so hot upon the world that they will do both, 
will rob their sleep to pay their cares ; and they have as little comfort in their 
meals as in their rest, they "eat the bread of sorrows." It is part of our 
sentence that we eat our bread in the sweat of our face; but those go farther, 
M all their days they eat in darkness," JEccl. v. 17. They are continually full of 
care, which embitters their comforts, and makes their lives a burthen to them. 
All this is to get money, and all in vain except God prosper them ; for riches 
are not always to men of understanding, Ecel. ix. 11. And they that love God, 
and are beloved of him, have their minds easy, and live very comfortably 
without this ado. Solomon was called Jedidiah, "Beloved of the Lord, 
2 Sam. xii. 25. To him the kingdom was promised, and then it was in vain for 
Absalom to rise up early, to wheedle the people, and for Adonijah to make 
such a bustle, and to say, (i I will be king." Solomon sits still, and being 
beloved of the Lord to him he gives sleep and the kingdom too. Note, 
1st. Inordinate excessive care about the things of this world is a vain and 
fruitless thing. We weary ourselves for vanity if we have it, and often weary 
ourselves in vain for it, Hag.'i. 6, 9. 2nd. Bodily sleep is God's gift to his 
beloved. We owe it to his goodness that our sleep is safe, Ps. iv. 8 ; that it 
is sweet, Jer. xxxi. 25, 26. Then God gives us sleep as he gives it to his 
beloved, when with it he gives us grace to lie down in his fear, our souls 
returning to him, and reposing in him as our rest, and w r hen we awake to > be 
still with him ; and to use the refreshment we have by sleep in his service. 
**' He giveth his beloved sleep," that is, quietness and contentment of mind, 
a comfortable enjoyment of what is present, and a comfortable expectation 
of w r hat is to come. Our care must be to " keep ourselves in the love of God," 
and then we may be easy whether we have little or much of this world. 

Secondly. In the increase of his family. He shews, 

1. That children are God's gift, ver. 3. The key of the womb is in his hand. 
If children are withheld it is God that withholds them, Gen. xxx. 2; if they 
are given it is God that gives them, Gen. xxxiii. 5, and they are to us what he 
makes them, comforts or crosses. Solomon multiplied wives contrary to the 
law, but w r e never read of more than one son that he had ; for those that desire 
children as a heritage from the Lord must receive them in the way that he 
is pleased to give them, by lawful marriage to one wife, Mai. ii. 15, " Therefore 
one, that he might seek a seed of God." But " they shall commit whoredom, 
and shall not increase." Children are a heritage and a reward, and are so to 
be accounted blessings, and not burthens ; for he that sends mouths will send 
meat if we trust in him. Obed-edom had eight sons, for the Lord blessed him 
because he had entertained the ark, 1 Chr. xxvi. 5. " Children are a heritage 
for the Lord," as well as from him. They are "my children," saith God, 
4i which thou hast borne unto me," Eze. xvi. 20; and then they are most our 
honour and comfort w T hen they are accounted to him for a generation. 

2. That they are a good gift, and a great support and defence to a family. 
" As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man," that knows how to use them for 
his own safety and advantage, " so are children of the youth," that is, children 



PSALM CXXVIH. 63o 

born to their parents when they are young, which are the strongest and most 
healthful children, and are grown up to serve them by that time they need 
their service. Or, rather, children that are themselves young. They are 
instruments of much good to their parents and families, which may fortify 
themselves with them against their enemies. The family that has a large stock 
of children is like a quiver full of arrows of different sizes, we may suppose, 
but all of use one time or other. Children of different capacities and inclina- 
tions may be several ways serviceable to the family. He that has a numerous 
issue may boldly speak with his enemy in the gate in judgment; in battle he 
need not fear, having so many good seconds, so zealous, so faithful, and in 
the vigour of youth, as his own children, 1 Sam. ii. 4, 5. Observe here, that 
children of the youth are arrows in the hand, which with prudence may be 
directed aright to the mark, God's glory, and the service of their generation; 
but afterwards, when they are gone abroad into the world, they are arrows 
out of the hand; it is too late to bend them then. But these arrows in the 
hand too often prove arrows in the heart, a constant grief to their godly 
parents, whose grey hairs they bring with sorrow to the grave. 



PSALM CXXVIIL 

This, as the former, is a psalm for families. In that we are taught, that the prosperity 
of our families depends upon the blessing of God ; in this we are taught, that the only 
way to obtain that blessing, which will make our families comfortable, is to live in the 
fear of God, and in obedience to him. They that do so, in general, they shall be 
blessed, ver. 1, 2, 4. In particular, I. They shall be prosperous and successful in their 
employments, ver. 2. II. Their relatives shall be agreeable, ver. 3. III. They shall 
have the satisfaction of seeing the church of God in a flourishing condition, ver. 5, 6. 
We must sing this psalm in the firm belief of this truth, that religion and piety is 
the best friend to outward prosperity, giving God the praise that it is so, and that 
we have found it so ; and encourage ourselves and others with it. 

A Song of degrees. 

BLESSED is every one that feareth the Lord ; 
That walketh in his ways. 

2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands : 
Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. 

3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine 

house : 

Thy children like olive plants round about thy table. 

4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed 
That feareth the Lord. 

5 The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion : [thy life. 
And thou shalt see the good of J erusalem all the days of 

6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, 
And peace upon Israel. 

It is here shewed that godliness has the promise of the life that now is, and 
of that which is to come. 

First. It is here again and again laid down as an undoubted truth that they that 
are truly holy are truly happy. They whose blessed state we are here assured 
of are such as fear the Lord, and walk in his ways ; that have a deep reverence 
of God upon their spirits, and evidence it by a regular and constant conformity 
to his will. Where the fear of God is a commanding principle in the heart the 
tenor of the conversation will be accordingly ; and in vain do we pretend to be 
of those that fear God if we do not make conscience both of keeping to his 
ways, and not trifling in them, or drawing back. Such are blessed, ver. 1 ; and 
shall be blessed, ver. 4. God blesseth them, and his pronouncing them blessed 
makes them so. They are blessed now, they shall be blessed still, and for ever. 
This blessedness, arising from this blessing, is here secured, 1. To all the saints 
universally ; " Blessed is every one that fears the Lord," whoever he be. " In 
every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is accepted of him,'' 



636 PSALM CXXVIII. 

and therefore is blessed. Whether he be high or low, rich or poor in the 
world, if religion rule him, it will protect and enrich him. 2. To such a saint 
in particular; Thus shall the man be blessed. Not only the nation, the church 
in its public capacity, but the particular person in his private interests. 3. We 
are encouraged to apply it to ourselves, ver. 2, " Happy shalt thou be." Thou 
mayest take the comfort of the promise, and expect the benefit of it, as if it 
were directed to thee by name ; if thou fear God and walk in his ways, happy 
shalt thou be, that is, "it shall be well with thee." Whatever befalls thee, 
good shall be brought out of it ; it shall be well with thee while thou livest, 
better when thou diest, and best of all to eternity. It is asserted, ver. 4, with 
a note commanding attention, " Behold, thus shall the man be blessed." Behold 
it by faith in the promise ; behold it by observation in the performance of the 
promise ; behold it with assurance that it shall be so, for God is faithful ; and 
with admiration that it should be so, for we merit no favour, no blessing from 
him. 

Secondly. Particular promises are here made to godly people, which they may 
depend upon, as far as is for God's glory and their good, and that is enough. 

1. That by the blessing of God they shall get an honest livelihood, and live 
comfortably upon it. It is not promised that they shall live at ease without 
care or pains, but "thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands." Here is a double 
promise, 1st. That they shall have something to do, (for an idle life is a 
miserable, uncomfortable life,) and shall have health, and strength, and capacity 
of mind to do it, and shall not be forced to be beholden to others for necessary 
food, and to live, as the disabled poor do, upon the labours of other people. It 
is as much a mercy as it is a duty with quietness to work and eat our own 
bread, 2 Thes. hi. 12. 2nd. That they shall succeed in their employments, and 
they and theirs shall enjoy what they get. Others shall not come and eat the 
bread out of their mouths, nor shall it be taken from them either by oppressive 
rulers or invading enemies. > God will not blast it and blow upon it as he did, 
Hag. i. 8, and his blessing will make a little go a great way. It is very pleasant 
to enjoy the fruits of our own industry; as the sleep, so the food, of a labouring 
man is sweet. 

2. That they shall have abundance of comfort in their family relations. As a 
wife and children are very much a man's care, so, if by the grace of God they 
are such as they should be, they are very much a man's delight, as much as any 
creature comfort. 1st. The wife shall be " as a vine by the sides of the house," 
not only as a spreading vine which serves for an ornament, but as a fruitful 
vine which is for profit, and with the fruit whereof both God and man are 
honoured, Jud. ix. 13. The vine is a weak and tender plant, and needs to be 
supported and cherished, but it is a very valuable plant ; and some think, be- 
cause all the products of it were prohibited to the Nazarites, it was the tree of 
knowledge itself. The wife's place is the husband's house, there her business 
lies, and that is her castle. "Where is Sarah thy wife? Behold in the tent," 
where should she be else? Her place is by the sides of the house ; not under 
foot to be trampled on, nor yet upon the house top to domineer ; (if she be so 
she is but as the grass upon the house top, in the next psalm ;) but on the side 
of the house, being a rib out of the side of the man. She shall be a loving wife, 
as the vine that cleaveth to the house side ; an obedient wife, as the vine that 
is pliable, and grows as it is directed. She shall be fruitful as the vine, 
not only in children, but in the fruits of wisdom and righteousness, and 

food management, the branches of which run over the wall, Gen. xlix. 22; 
>s. lxxx. 11. "Like a fruitful vine," not cumbering the ground, or bringing 
forth sour grapes, or grapes of Sodom, but good fruit. 2nd. The children 
shall be as olive-plants, likely in time to be olive-trees ; and, though wild by 
nature, yet grafted into the good olive, and partaking of its root and fatness, 
Mom. xi. 17. It is pleasant to parents that have a table spread, though but 
with ordinary fare, to see their children round about it ; to have many children, 
enough to surround it; and those with them and not scattered, or the parents 
forced from them. Job makes it one of the first instances of his former pros- 
perity that his children were about him, Job xxi. 5. To have them at table to 
keep up the pleasantness of the table talk ; to have them in health, craving 
food and not physic ; to have them like olive-plants, straight and green, suck- 
ing in the sap of their good education, and likely in due time to be serviceable. 

3. That they shall have those good things which God has promised, and 
which they pray for ; " The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion," where the ark 
of the covenant was, and where the pious Israelites attended with their devo- 
tions. Blessings out of Zion are the best blessings, which flow not from 
common providence, but from special grace, Ps. xx. 2. 

4. That they shall live long to enjoy the comforts of the rising generation: 
Thou shalt see thy children's children, as Joseph, Gen. 1. 23. Thy family shall 
be built up, and continued, and thou shalt have the pleasure of seeing it. 



PSALM CXXIX. 



637 



Children's children, if they be good children, are the crown of old men, 
Pr. xvii. 6 ; who are apt to be fond of their grandchildren. 

5. That they shall see the welfare of God's church, and the land of their 
nativity ; which every man that fears God is no less concerned for, than for the 
prosperity of his own family. Thou shalt be blessed in Zion's blessing, and wilt 
think thyself so ; thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem as long as thou livest. 
though thou livest long, and shalt not have thy private comforts allayed and 
embittered by public troubles. A good man can have little comfort in seeing 
his children's children, unless withal he see peace upon Israel, and have hopes 
of transmitting the entail of religion pure and entire to those that shall come 
after him, for that is the best inheritance. 



This psalm relates to the public concerns of God's Israel: it is not certain when it was 
penned, probably when they were in captivity in Babylon, or about the time of their 
return. I. They look back with thankfulness for the former deliverances God had 
wrought for them and their fathers out of the many distresses they had been in from 
time to time, ver. 1 — 4. II. They look forward with a believing prayer for and prospect 
of the destruction of all the enemies of Zicn, ver. 5 — 8. In singing this p.-alm we 
may apply it both ways to the gospel Israel, which, like the Old Testament Israel, has 
weathered many a storm, and is still threatened by many enemies. 



/TANY a time have they afflicted me from my youth. 



2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth : 
Yet they have not prevailed against me. 

3 The plowers plowed upon my back : 
They made long their furrows. 

4 The Lord is righteous : 

He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. 

The church of God in its several ages is here spoken of, or rather, here 
speaks as one single person, now old and grayheaded, but calling to remem- 
brance the former days, and reflecting upon the times of old. And upon the 
review it is found, 

First. That the church has been often greatly distressed by its enemies on 
earth. Israel may now say, I am the people that has been oppressed more than 
any people, that has been as a speckled bird, pecked at by all the birds round 
about, Jer. xii. 9. It is true they brought their troubles upon themselves 
by their sins, it was for them that God punished them ; but it was for the 
peculiarity of their covenant, and the singularities of their religion, that their 
neighbours hated and persecuted them. For these, " Many a time have they 
afflicted me from my youth." Note, God's people have always had many 
enemies, and the state of the church from its infancy has frequently been an 
afflicted state. Israel's youth was in Egypt, or in the times of the Judges ; then 
they were afflicted, and from thenceforward more or less. The gospel church 
ever since it had a being, has been by times afflicted; and it bare this yoke most 
of all in its youth., witness the ten persecutions which the primitive church 
groaned under; ver. 3, "The plowers plow r ed upon ny back." We read, 
Ps. cxxv. 3, of "the rod of the wicked upon the lot of the righteous ;" where we 
rather expected the plough, to mark it out for themselves ; here we read of the 
plough of the wicked upon the back of the righteous, w r here we rather expected 
to find the rod. Bat the metaphors in both places are jumbled; the sense, 
however, of both is the same; and is too plain that the enemies of God's 
people have all along used them very barbarously. They tare them as the 
husbandman tears the ground with his ploughshare, to pull them to pieces, 
and get all they could out of them, and so to " wear out the saints of the Most 
High," as the ground is worn out that has been long tilled, tilled (as w r e say) 
quite out of heart. When God permitted them to plough thus, he intended it 
for his people's good ; that their fallow-ground being thus broken up, he might 
sow the seeds of his grace upon them, and reap a harvest of good fruit from 
them. Howbeit, the enemies meant not so, neither did their hearts think so, 
Jsa. x. 7. " They made long their furrows," never knew when to have done, aiming 
at nothing less than the destruction of the church. Many by the furrows they 



PSALM CXXIX. 



A Song of degrees. 




638 PSALM CXXIX. 

made on the backs of God's people understand the stripes they gave them ; The 
cutters cut upon my back, so they read it. The saints have often had trials of 
cruel scourgings, (probably the captives had,) and cruel mockings, for we read 
of the scourge, or lash of the tongue, Heb. xi. 36. And so it was fulfilled in 
Christ, who gave his back to the smiters, Isa. 1. 6; or, it may refer to the deso- 
lations they made of the cities of Israel. " Zion shall for your sake be plowed 
as a field," Mic. iii. 12. 

Secondly. That the church has been always graciously delivered by her Friend 
in heaven. 

1. The enemies' projects have been defeated. They have afflicted the church 
in hopes to ruin it ; but they have not gained their point. Many a storm it has 
weathered, many a shock, and many a brunt it has borne, and yet is in being; 
" They have not prevailed against me." One would wonder how this ship has 
lived at sea, when it has been tossed with tempests, and all the waves and 
billows have gone over it. > Christ has built his church upon a rock, and the 
gates of hell have not prevailed against it, nor ever shall. 

2. The enemies' power has been broken, " God has cut asunder the cords of 
the wicked ; " has cut their gears, their traces, and so spoiled their ploughing ; 
has cut their scourges, and so spoiled their lashing ; has cut the bands of union 
Dy which they were combined together, has cut the bands of captivity, in which 
they held God's people. God has many ways of disabling wicked men to do 
the mischief they design against his church, and shaming their counsels. These 
words, " The Lord is righteous," may refer either to the distresses or to the 
deliverances of the church. 1st. The Lord is righteous in suffering Israel to be 
afflicted. This the people of God were always ready to own, that, how unjust 
soever their enemies were, God was just in all that was brought upon them, 
Neh. ix. 33. 2nd. The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined, for 
he has promised to preserve it a people to himself, and he will be as good as his 
word. He is righteous in reckoning with their persecutors, and rendering to 
them a recompence, 1 Thes. i. 6. 

5 Let them all be confounded and turned back 
That hate Zion. 

6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, 
Which withereth afore it groweth up : 

7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; 
Nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. 

8 Neither do they which go by say, 

The blessing of the Lord be upon you : 
We bless you in the name of the Lord. 

The psalmist having triumphed in the defeat of the many designs that had 
been laid as deep as hell to ruin the church, here concludes his psalm, as 
Deborah did her song, " So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord," Jud. v. 31. 
. First. There are many that hate Zion, that hate Zion's God, his worship, and 
his worshippers ; that have an antipathy to religion and religious people, that 
seek the ruin of both, and do what they can, that God may not have a church in 
the world. . 

Secondlv. We ought to pray that ail then' attempts against the church may 
be frustrated ; that in them they may be confounded, and turned back with 
shame, as those that have not been able to bring to pass their enterprise and 
expectation. " Let them all be confounded," is as much as, they shall be all 
confounded. The confusion imprecated and predicted is illustrated by a 
similitude; while God*s people shall flourish, as the loaded palm tree, or the 
green and fruitful olive, their enemies shall wither as the grass upon the house- 
top. As men they are not to be feared, for they shall be made as grass, Isa. li. 12. 
But as they are enemies to Zion, they are so certainly marked for ruin, that 
they may be looked upon with as much contempt as the grass on the housetops, 
which is* little, and short, and sour, and good for nothing. 

1. It perisheth presently ; it " withers before it groweth up" to any maturity, 
having no root ; and the higher its place is, which perhaps is its pride, the more 
it is exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, and consequently the sooner doth 
it wither. ' It withers before it is plucked up,' so some read it. The enemies 
of God's church wither of themselves, and stay not till they are rooted out by 
the judgments of God. 

2. It is of no use to anybody ; nor are they but the unprofitable burthens of 
the earth ; nor will their attempts against Zion ever ripen or come to any head, 



PSALM GXXX. 639 

nor, whatever they promise themselves, will they get any more by them than the 
husbandman doth by the grass on his housetop. Their " harvest will be a heap 
in the day of grief," Isa. xvh. 11. 

No wise man will pray God to bless the mowers or reapers, ver. 8. Observe, 
1st. It has been an ancient and laudable custom, not only to salute and wish 
a good day to strangers and travellers ; but particularly to pray for the pros- 
perity of harvest labourers. Thus Boaz prayed for his reapers, Ru. ii. 4, " The 
Lord be with you." We must thus acknowledge God's providence, testify our 
good- will to our neighbours, and commend their industry, and it will be accepted 
of God as a pious ejaculation, if it comes from a devout and upright heart. 
2nd. Religious expressions, being sacred things, must never be made use of in 
light and ludicrous actions. Mowing the grass on the housetop would be a 
jest ; and therefore those that have a reverence for the name of God, will not 
prostitute to it the usual forms of salutation which savoured of devotion ; for 
holy things must not be jested with. 3rd. It is a dangerous thing to let the 
church's enemies have our good wishes in their designs against the church. If 
we wish them God speed, we are partakers of their evil deeds, 2 Jno. 11 ; when 
it is said, none will bless them, and shew them respect, more is implied : that 
all wise and good people will cry out shame on them, and beg of God to defeat 
them; and woe to those that have the prayers of the saints against them. " I 
cursed his habitation," Job v. 3. 

PSALM CXXX. 

This psalm relates not to any temporal concern, either personal or public, but it is wholly 
taken up in the affairs of the soul. It is reckoned one of the seven penitential psalms, 
which have been sometimes made use of by penitents upon their admission into the 
church ; and in singing it we are all concerned to apply it to ourselves. The psalmist 
here expresseth, I. His desire towards God, ver. 1, 2. II. His repentance before God, 
ver. 3, 4. III. His attendance upon God, ver. 5, 6. IV. His expectations from God, 
ver. 7, 8. And as in water face answers to face, so doth the heart of one humble penitent 
to another. 

A Song of degrees. 

OUT of the depths have I cried unto thee, 0 Lord. 
2 Lord, hear my voice : [tions. 
Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplica- 

3 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, 
0 Lord, who shall stand ? 

4 But there is forgiveness with thee, 
That thou mayest be feared. 

In these verses we are taught, 

First. Whatever condition we are in, though never so deplorable, to continue 
calling upon God, ver. 1. The best men may sometimes be in the depths, in 
great trouble and affliction, and utterly at a loss what to do ; in the depths of 
distress, and almost in the depths of despair; the spirit low and dark, sinking 
and drooping, cast down and disquieted. But in the greatest depths it is our 
"rivilege that we may cry unto God, and be heard. A prayer may reach the 
eights of heaven, though not out of the depths of hell, yet out of the depths of 
the greatest trouble we can be in in this world ; Jeremiah's out of the dungeon, 
Daniel's out of the den, and Jonah's out of the fish's belly. It is our duty ana 
interest to cry unto God, for that is the likeliest way both to prevent our sinking 
lower and to recover us " out of the horrible pit, and miry clay," Ps. xl. 1, 2. 

Secondly. "While we continue calling upon God to assure ourselves of an 
answer of peace from him ; for this is that which David in faith prays for, 
ver. 2, " Lord, hear my voice," my complaint and prayer, and "let thine ears be 
attentive to the voice" both of my afflictions and "of my supplications." 

Thirdly. We are taught to humble ourselves before the justice of God, as 
guilty in his sight, and unable to answer him for one of a thousand of our 
offences; ver. 3, "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall 
stand?" His calling God Lord twice, in so few words, Jah and Adonai, is 
very emphatical; and speaks a very awful sense of God's glorious majesty, and 
a dread of his wrath. Let us learn here, 1. To acknowledge our iniquities; 
that w^e cannot justify ourselves before God, or plead, Not guilty. There is 
that which is remarkable in our iniquities, and is liable to be animadverted 



640 PSALM CXXX. 

upon. 2. To own the power and justice of God, which is such, that if he 
should he be extreme to mark what we do amiss, there were no hopes of coming 
off. His eye can discover enough in the best man to ground a condemnation 
upon; and if he proceed against us we have no way to help ourselves, we 
cannot stand, but shall certainly be cast. If God deal with us m strict justice, 
we are undone ; if he make remarks upon our iniquities, he will find them to 
be many and great; greatly aggravated and very provoking. And then, if he 
should proceed accordingly, he would shut us out from all hope of his favour, 
and shut us up under his wrath. And what could we do to help ourselves ? 
We could not make our escape, nor resist or bear up under his avenging hand. 
3. Let us admire God's patience and forbearance ; we were undone if he should 
mark iniquities, and he know r s it, and therefore bears with us. It is of his mercy 
that we are not consumed by his wrath. 

Fourthly. We are taught to cast ourselves upon the pardoning mercy of God, 
and to comfort ourselves with that when we see ourselves obnoxious to his 
justice, ver. 4. Here is, 1. God's grace discovered, and pleaded with him, by 
a penitent sinner ; " But there is forgiveness with thee." It is our unspeakable 
comfort in all our approaches to God, that there is forgiveness with him ; for 
that is it we need. He has put himself into a capacity to pardon sin, he has 
declared himself gracious and merciful, and ready to forgive, Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. 
He has promised to forgive the sins of those that do repent. Never any tnat 
dealt with him found him implacable, but easy to be intreated, and swift to 
shew mercy. With us there is iniquity, and therefore it is well for us that with 
him there is forgiveness. 4 There is a propitiation with thee,' so some read it ; 
Jesus Christ is the great propitiation, the ransom which God has found. He is 
ever with him as advocate for us, and through him we hope to obtain forgive- 
ness. 2. Our duty designed in that discovery, and inferred from it ; " There is 
forgiveness with thee," not that thou mayest be made bold with and presumed 
upon, but "that thou mayest be feared." In general, that thou mayest be 
worshipped and served by the children of men; who, being sinners, could have 
no dealings with God, if he were not a Master that could pass by a great many 
faults. But this encourages us to come into his service, that we shall not be 
turned off for every misdemeanour, no, nor for any, if we truly repent. This 
doth in a special manner invite those that have sinned to repent, and return to 
the fear of God ; that he is gracious and merciful, and will receive them upon 
their repentance, Joel ii. 13 ; Mat. iii. 2. And particularly we are to have a holy 
awe and reverence of God's pardoning mercy, Hos. iii. 5, "They shall fear the 
Lord and his goodness ;" and then we may expect the benefit of the forgiveness 
that is with God when we make it the object of our holy fear. 

o I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait. 
And in his word do I hope. 

6 My soul waiteth for the Lord 

More than they that watch for the morning : 

/ say, more than they that watch for the mormng. 

7 Let Israel hope in the Lord : 
For with the Lord there is mercy, 
And with him is plenteous redemption 

8 And he shall redeem Israel 
From all his iniquities. 

Here, First. The psalmist engageth himself to trust in God, and to wait 
for hmij ver. 5, 6. Observe, i. His dependence upon God; expressed in a 
climax, it being a song of degrees, or ascents. " I wait for the Lord," from him 
I expect relief and comfort; believing it will come, longing till it doth come, 
but patiently bearing the delay of it, and resolving to look for it from no other 
hand. " My soul doth wait ;" that is, I wait for him in sincerity, and not in 
profession only. I am an expectant, and it is for the Lord that my soul waiteth, 
for the gifts of his grace and the operations of his power. 2. The ground of 
that dependence ; " In his word do I hope." We must hope for that only which 
he hath promised in his word, and not for the creatures of our own fancy and 
imagination ; and we must hope for it because he hath promised it, and not 
from any opinion of our own merit. 3. The degree of that dependence ; "More 
than they that watch for the morning," who are, 1st. Well assured that the 
morning will come, and so am I that God will return in mercy to me according 
to his promise ; for God's covenant is more than the firm, ordinances of day and 



PSALM CXXXI. 641 

night, for they shall come to an end, but that is everlasting. 2nd. Very desirous 
that it would come. Sentinels that keep guard upon the walls, they that watch 
with sick people, and travellers that are abroad upon their journey, long before 
day wish to see the dawning of the day ; but more earnestly doth this good man 
long for the tokens of God's favour, and the visits of his grace, and more readily 
will he be aware of his first appearance^ than they are of day. Dr. Hammond 
reads it thus, ' My soul hastens to the Lord, from the guards in the morning, the 
guards in the morning ; ' and gives this sense of it, To thee I daily betake myself, 
early in the morning, addressing my prayers, and my very soul before thee, at 
the time that the priests offer their morning sacrifice^ 

Secondly. He encourageth all the people of God in like manner to depend 
upon him," and trust in him ; " Let Israel hope in the Lord," and wait for him ; 
not only the body of the people, but every good man who surnames himself of 
Israel, Isa. xliv. 5. Let all that devote themselves to God cheerfully stay 
themselves upon him, ver. 7, 8; for two reasons : I. Because the light of nature 
discovers to us that there is mercy with him, that the God of Israel is a 
merciful God, and the Father of mercies. Mercy is with him ; not only inherent 
in his nature, but it is his delight, it is his darling attribute ; it is with him in all 
his works, in all his counsels. 2. Because the light of the Gospel discovers to 
us that there is redemption with him; contrived by him, and to be wrought 
out in the fulness of time: it was in the beginning hid in God. See here, 
1st. The nature of this redemption. It is redemption from sin, from all sin ; 
and therefore can be no other but that eternal redemption which Jesus Christ 
became the author of ; for it is he that saves his people from their sins, 
Mat. i. 21; that redeems them from all iniquity, Tit. ii. 14; and turns away 
ungodliness from Jacob, Rom. xi. 26. It is he that redeems us both from the 
condemning and from the commanding power of sin. 2nd. The riches of this 
redemption. It is plenteous redemption ; there is an all-sufficient fulness of 
merit and grace in the Redeemer, enough for all, enough for each ; enough for 
me, saith the believer. Redemption from sin includes redemption from all 
other evils ; and therefore is a plenteous redemption. 3rd. The persons to 
whom the benefits of this redemption belong. He shall redeem Israel, — Israel 
according to the spirit, all those that are in covenant with God as Israel was, 
and that are Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile. 



PSALM CXXXI. 

This psalm is David's profession of humility ; but humbly made with thankfulness 
to God for his grace, and not in vainglory. It is probable enough, that (as most 
interpreters suggest) David made this protestation in answer to the calumnies of 
Saul and his courtiers, who represented David as an ambitious aspiring man, who 
under pretence of a Divine appointment, sought the kingdom in the pride of his 
heart. But he appeals to God that, on the contrary, I. He aimed at nothing high 
or great, ver. 1. II. He was very easy in every condition which God allotted 
him, ver. 2. And therefore, III. He encourageth all good people to trust in God 
as he did, ver. 3. Some have made it an objection against singing David's psalms, 
that there are many who cannot say their heart is not haughty, &c. It is true 
there are ; but we may sing it for the same purpose that we read it, to teach and 
admonish ourselves and one another what we ought to be; with repentance that 
we have come short of being so, and humble prayer to God for his grace to make 
us so. 

A Song of degrees of David. 

LORD, my heart is not haughty, 
Nor mine eyes lofty : 

Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, 
Or in things too high for me. 

2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, 
As a child that is weaned of his mother : 
My soul is even as a weaned child. 

3 Let Israel hope in the Lord 
From henceforth and for ever. 

Here are two things which will be comforts to us : 

First. Conscience of our integrity. This was David's rejoicing, that his heart 
eculd witness for him, that he had walked humbly with his God, notwith- 
standing the censures he was under, and the temptations he was in. 

2S 



642 



PSALM CXXXII. 



1. He aimed not at a high condition, nor was he fond of making a figure in the 
world; but, if God had so ordered, could have been well content to spend all his 
days as he did the beginning of them, in the sheepfolds. His own brother, in a 
passion, charged him with pride, 1 Sam. xvii. 28, but the charge was groundless 
and unjust; God that searcheth the heart knew, 1st. That he had no con- 
ceited opinion of himself or his own merits ; " Lord, my heart is not haughty." 
Humble saints cannot think so well of themselves as others think of them; are 
not in love with their own shadow, nor do they magnify their own attainments 
or achievements. The love of God reigning in the heart will subdue all inordi- 
nate self-love. 2nd. That he had neither a scornful nor an aspiring look ; " My 
eyes are not lofty ; " either to look with envy upon those that are above me, or 
to look with disdain upon those that are below me. Where there is a proud 
heart there is commonly a proud look, Pr. vi. 15. But the humble publican 
will not so much as lift up his eyes. 3rd. That he did not employ himself in 
things above his station ; in things too great, or too high for him ; not in studies 
too high. He made God's word his meditation, and did not amuse himself with 
matters of nice speculation or doubtful disputation, or covet to be wise above 
what is written. It is learning high enough to know God and our duty. Not in 
affairs too great ; he followed his ewes, and never set up for a politician ; no, 
nor for a soldier, for when his brethren went to the wars he stayed at home to 
keep the sheep. It is our wisdom, and will be our praise, to keep within our 
sphere, and not to intrude into things which we have not seen, or meddle with 
that which doth not belong to us. Princes and scholars must not exercise 
themselves in matters too great, too high for men; and those in a low station, 
and of ordinary capacities, must not pretend to that which is out of their reach, 
and which they were not cut out for. Those will fall under due shame that 
affect undue honours. 

2. He was well reconciled to every condition that God placed him in ; ver. 2, 
"I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother." 
As he had not proudly aimed at the kingdom, so, since God had appointed 
him to it, he had not carried it insolently towards any, nor been restless in his 
attempts to get the crown before the time set. But, 1st. He had been as 
humble as a little child about the age of weaning, as manageable, and govern- 
able, and as far from aiming at high things ; as entirely at God's dispose as the 
child at the dispose of the mother or nurse; as far from taking state upon him, 
though anointed to be king, or valuing himself upon the prospect of his future 
advancement, as a child in the arms. Our Saviour hath taught us humility by 
this comparison, Mat. xviii. 3, we must "become as little children." 2nd. He 
had been as indifferent to the wealth and honour of this world, as a child is to 
the breast when it is thoroughly weaned from it. ' I have levelled and quieted 
myself (so Dr. Hammond reads it) 'as a child that is weaned.' This intimates 
that our hearts are naturally as desirous of worldly things as the babe is of the 
breast, and relish them, cry for them, are fond of them, play with them, and 
cannot live without them. But by the grace of God, a soul that is sanctified is 
weaned from those things. Providence puts wormwood upon the breast, and 
that helps to wean us. The child is perhaps cross and fretful while it is in the 
weaning, and thinks itself undone when it has lost the breast; but in a day or 
two it is forgotten, the fret is over, and it accommodates itself well enough to a 
new way of feeding; cares no longer for milk, but can bear strange meat. Thus 
doth a gracious soul quiet itself under the loss of that which it loved, and dis- 
appointment in that which it hoped for, and is easy whatever happens ; lives, 
and lives comfortably, upon God and the covenant-grace, when creatures prove 
dry breasts. When our condition is not to our mind, we must bring our mind 
to our condition ; and then we are easy to ourselves and all about us, then our 
souls are as a weaned child. 

Secondly. Confidence in God. And this David recommends to all the Israel 
of God, no doubt from his own experience of the benefit of it; ver. 3, ''Let 
Israel hope in the Lord," and let them continue to do so "from henceforth and 
for ever." Though David could himself wait patiently and quietly for the 
crown designed him, yet perhaps Israel, the people whose darling he was, 
would be ready to attempt something in favour of him before the time ; he 
therefore endeavours to quiet them too, and bids them hope in the Lord, that 
they should see a happy change of the face of affairs in due time. " Thus it is 
good to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord." 

PSALM CXXXII. 

It is probable this psalm was penned by Solomon, to be sung at the dedication of 
the temple which he built according to the charge which his father gave him, 
1 Ch. xxviii. 2, &c. Having fulfilled his trust, he begs of God to own what he 
had done : I. He had built this house for the honour and service of God ; and when 
he brings the ark into it, the token of God's presence, he desires God himself 



PSALM CXXXII. 



643 



would come and take possession of it, ver. 8—10. With these words Solomon 
concluded his prayer, 2 Ch. vi. 41, 42. II. He had built it in pursuance of the 
orders he had received from his father, and therefore his pleas to enforce these peti- 
tions refer to David. 1. He pleads David's piety towards God, ver. 1 — 7; 2. He 
pleads God's promise to David, ver. 11 — 18. The former introduceth his petition, the 
latter follows it as an answer to it. In singing this psalm we must have a concern 
for the gospel-church, as the temple of God, and a dependence upon Christ as David 
our king, in whom the mercies of God are sure mercies. 

A Song of degrees. 

LORD, remember David, 
And all his afflictions : 

2 How he sware unto the Lord, 

And vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob ; 

3 Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, 
Nor go up into my bed ; 

4 I will not give sleep to mine eyes, 
Or slumber to mine eyelids, 

5 Until I find out a place for the Lord, 

An habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. 

6 Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah : 

We found it in the fields of the wood. 

7 We will go into his tabernacles : 
We will worship at his footstool. 

8 Arise, 0 Lord, into thy rest ; 
Thou, and the ark of thy strength. 

9 Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness ; 
And let thy saints shout for joy, 

10 For thy servant David's sake 

Turn not away the face of thine anointed. 

In these verses we have Solomon's address to God for his favour to him and 
to his government, and his acceptance of his building a house to God's name. 
Observe, 

First. What he pleads. Two things : 

I. That what he had done was in pursuance of the pious vow which his father 
David had made to build a house for God. Solomon was a wise man, yet pleads 
not any merit of his own : I am not worthy, for whom thou shouldst do this ; 
but, " Lord, remember David," with whom thou madest the covenant, as Moses 
prayed, Ex. xxxii. 13, Remember Abraham, the first trustee of the covenant; 
remember all his afflictions, all the troubles of his life, which his being anointed 
: was the occasion of. Or, his care and concern about the ark, and what an 
uneasiness it was to him that the ark was in curtains, 2 Sam. vii. 2. Remember 
j all his humility and meekness, (so some read it,) all that pious and devout affec- 
I tion with which he had made the following vow. Note, It is not amiss for us 
to put God in mind of our predecessors in profession, and their afflictions, their 
services and sufferings; God's covenant with them, the experiences they have 
had of his goodness; the care they took of, and the many prayers they put up 
for, those that should come after them. We may apply it to Christ the Son of 
David, and to all his afflictions: Lord, remember the covenant made with him, 
and the satisfaction made by him; "Remember all his offerings," Ps. xx. 3. 
that is, all his sufferings. He especially pleads the solemn vow that David 
had made as soon as ever he was settled in his government, and before he 
was well settled in a house of his own, that he would build a house for God. 
Observe, 

j 1st. Who he bound himself to. To the Lord, to the mighty God of Jacob. 

Vows are to be made to God, who is a party as well as a witness. The Lord is 
I the Mighty One of Jacob ; Jacob's God, and a mighty one, whose power is 

engaged for Jacob's defence and deliverance. Jacob is weak, but the God of 

Jacob is a mighty one. 



614 PSALM CXXXII. 

2nd. What he bound himself to do. To "find out a place for the Lord," that 
is, for the ark, the token of his presence. He had read in the law frequent 
mention of the place that God would choose to put his name there, to which all 
the tribes should resort. When he came to the crown there was no such place ; 
Shiloh was deserted, and no other place was pitched upon, for want of which 
the feasts of the Lord were not kept with due solemnity. Well, saith David, 
I will find out such a place for the general rendezvous of all the tribes, a place 
of habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob. A place for the ark, where there 
shall be room both for the priests and people to attend upon it. 

3rd. How intent he was upon it. He would not settle in his house, nay, he 
would not sleep in his bed, till he had brought this matter to some head, 
ver. 3, 4. The thing had been long talked of, and nothing done, till at last 
David, when he went out one morning about public business, made a vow that 
before night he would come to a resolution in this matter, and would determine 
the place either where the tent should be pitched for the reception of the ark 
at the beginning of his reign, or rather, where^ Solomon should build the 
temple, which was not fixed till the latter end of his reign, just after the pesti- 
lence with which he was punished for numbering the people, 1 Chr. xxii. 1, 
"Then David said, This is the house of the Lord." And perhaps it was upon 
occasion of that judgment that he made this vow, being apprehensive that one 
of God's controversies with him was for his dilatoriness in this matter. Note, 
When needful work is to be done for God, it is good for us to task ourselves, 
and tie ourselves to a time, because we are apt to put off. It is good in the 
morning to cut out work for the day, binding ourselves that we will do it 
before we sleep, only with submission to Providence, for " we know not what 
a day may bring forth." Especially in the great work of conversion to God, we 
must be thus solicitous, thus zealous; we have good reason to resolve that we 
will not enjoy the comforts of this life till we have laid a foundation for hopes 
of a better. 

2. That it was in pursuance of the expectations of the people of Israel, 
ver. 6, 7. 1st. They were inquisitive after the ark; for they lamented its ob- 
scurity, 1 Sam. vii. 2. They " heard of it at Ephratah," that is, at Shiloh, in the 
tribe of Ephraim, there they were told it had been, but it was gone. They 
"found it" at last "in the fields of the wood," that is, in Kirjath-jearim, which 
signifies 'the city of woods.' Thence all Israel fetched it with great solemnity, 
in the beginning of David's reign, 1 Chr. xiii. 6. So that, in building this house 
for the ark, Solomon had gratified all Israel; they need not go about to seek 
the ark any more, they now knew where to find it. 2nd. They were resolved 
to attend it. Let us but have a convenient place, and "we will go into his 
tabernacle" to pay our homage there; " we will worship at his footstool," as 
snbjects and supplicants, which w r e neglected to do for want of such a place in 
the days of Saul, 1 Chr. xiii. 3. 

Secondly. What he prays for, ver. 8 — 10. 

1. That God would vouchsafe not only to take possession of, but to take up 
his residence in, this temple which he had built. " Arise, O Lord, into thy rest," 
and let this be it, " Thou, even the ark of thy strength," the pledge of thy pre- 
sence, thy mighty presence. 

2. That God w ould give grace to the ministers of the sanctuary to do their 
duty; "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness;" let them appear right- 
eous both in their administrations and in their conversations, and let both be 
according to the rule. Note, Righteousness is the best ornament of a minister. 
Holiness towards God, and goodness towards all men, are habits for ministers, 
of the necessity of which there is no dispute. They are thy priests, and will 
therefore discredit their relation to thee if they be not clothed with right- 
eousness. 

3. That the people of God might have the comfort of the due administration 
of holy ordinances among them: "Let thy saints shout for joy;" they did so 
when the ark was brought into the city of David, 2 Sam. vi. 15. They will do 
so when " the priests are clothed with righteousness." A faithful ministry is 
the joy of the saints ; it is the matter of it, it is a friend and a furtherance to it ; 
we are helpers of your joy, 2 Cor. i. 24. 

4. That Solomon's own prayer upon occasion of the dedicating of the temple 
might be accepted of God : " Turn not away the face of thine anointed," that is, 
Deny me not the things I have asked of thee, send me not away ashamed. He 
pleads, 1st. That he was the anointed of the Lord ; and this he pleads as a type 
of Christ, the great Anointed, who in his intercession urges his designation to 
his office. He is God's Anointed, and therefore the Father hears him always. 
2nd. That he was the son of David. For his sake do not deny me; and this is 
the Christian's plea; for the sake of Christ our David, in whom thou art well 
pleased, accept me. He is David whose name signifies beloved; and we are 
made accepted in the beloved. He is God's servant whom he upholds. Isa. xiii. I. 
We have no merit of our own to plead, but for his sake in whom there is a 
fulness of merit, let us find favour. When we pray for the prosperity of the 



PSALM CXXXIL 645 

church, we may pray with great boldness, for Christ s sake, who purchased 
the church with his own blood, Let both ministers and people do their duty. 

11 The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; 
He will not turn from it ; 

Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. 

12 If thy children will keep my covenant 
And my testimony that I shall teach them, 

Their children shall also sit upon thy throne for ever- 

13 For the Lord hath chosen Zion ; [more. 
He hath desired it for his habitation. 

14 This is my rest for ever : 

Here will I dwell ; for I have desired it. 

15 1 will abundantly bless her provision : 
I will satisfy her poor with bread. 

16 1 will also clothe her priests with salvation : 
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. 

17 There will I make the horn of David to bud : 
I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. 

18 His enemies will I clothe with shame : 
But upon himself shall his crown flourish. 

These are precious promises confirmed by an oath, that the heirs - of them 
might have strong consolation, Heb. vi. 17, 18. It is all one whether we take 
them as pleas urged in the prayer, or as answers returned to the prayer. 
Believers know how to make use of the promises both ways ; with them to 
speak to God, and in them to hear what God the Lord will speak to us. These 
promises relate to the establishment both in church and state, both to the 
throne of the house of David, and to the testimony of Israel fixed on mount 
Zion; and the promises concerning Zion hill are as applicable to the gospel 
church as these concerning David's seed are to Christ, and therefore both 
pleadable by us and very comfortable to us. Here is, 

First. The choice God made of David's house and Zion hill. Both were 
of Divine appointment. 

1. God chose David's family for the royal family, and confirmed his choice by 
an oath, ver. 11, 12. David, being a type of Christ, was made king with an oath 
" The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent," will not turn from it. Did David 
swear to the Lord that he would find him a house? ver. 2. The Lord sware to 
David that he would build him a house, for God will be behind with none of his 
people in affections or assurances. The promise made to David, refers, 1st. To 
a long succession of kings that should descend from his loins ; " Of the fruit of 
thy body will I set upon thy throne," which was fulfilled in Solomon; David 
himself lived to see it with great satisfaction, 1 Kin. i. 48. The crown was also 
entailed conditionally upon his heirs for ever ; " If thy children " in following 
ages " will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them." God 
himself engageth to teach them, and he did his part. They had Moses and the 
prophets, and all he expects is that they should keep what he taught them, and 
keep to it, and then "their children shall sit upon thy throne for evermore." 
Kings are before God upon their good behaviour, and their commission from 
him runs, quamdiu se bene gesseruit, — 'during good behaviour.' The issue of 
this was, that they did not keep God's covenant, and so the entail was at length 
cut ofi^ and the sceptre departed from Judah by degrees. 2nd. To an everlast- 
ing successor, a king that should descend from his loins, of " the increase of 
whose government and peace there shall be no end." St. Peter applies this to 
Christ, nay, he tells us that David himself so understood it; Acts ii. 30, " He 
knew that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins 
according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;" and in 
the fulness of time he did so, and " gave him the throne of his father David," 
Lu. i. 32. He did fulfil the condition of the promise, he kept God's covenant 
and his testimony, did his Father's will, and in all things pleased him ; and there- 
fore to him and his spiritual seed the promise shall be made good. He and the 



646 PSALM CXXXIL 

children God has given him, all believers, shall sit upon the throne for evermore, 
Rev. iii. 21. 

2. God chose Zion hill for the holy hill, and confirmed his choice by the 
delight he took in it, ver. 13, 14. He chose " the mount Zion which he loved," 
Ps. Ixxviii. 68. He chose it for the habitation of his ark, and said of it ? " This 
is my rest for ever," and not my residence for a time, as Shiloh was. Zion was 
the city of David; he chose it for the royai city, because God chose it for the 
holy city. God said, " Here will I dwell ; and therefore David said, i Here will 
I dwell,' for he stuck to his principle ; "It is good for me to draw near to God." 
Zion must be here looked upon as a type of the gospel church, which is called 
mount Zion, Heb. xii. 18 ; and in it what is here said of Zion has its full accom- 
plishment. Zion was long since ploughed as a field ; but the church of Christ 
is the house of the living God, 1 Tim. iii. 15 ; and it is his rest for ever, and shall 
be blessed with his presence always, even to the end of the world. The delight 
God takes in his church, and the continuance of his presence with his church, 
is the comfort and joy of all its members. 

Secondly. The choice blessings God has in store for David's house and Zion 
hill. Whom God chooseth he will bless. 

1. God having chosen Zion hill, he promiseth to bless that, 

1st. With the blessings of the life that now is; for godliness hath the promise 
•>f them, ver. 15. The earth shall yield her increase ; there where religion is set 
up, there shall be provision, and in blessing God will bless it, (Ps. lxvii. 6 ;) 
he will surely and abundantly bless it. And a little provision, with an abundant 
blessing upon it, will be more serviceable as well as more comfortable than a 
great deal without thy blessing. God's people have a special blessing upon 
common enjoyments; and that blessing puts a peculiar sweetness^ into them. 
Nay, the promise goes farther, "I will satisfy her poor with bread." Zion has 
her own poor to keep ; and it is promised that God will take care even of them. 
First. By his providence they shall be kept from wanting; they shall have pro- 
vision enough. If there be scarcity, the poor are the first that feel it, so that it 
is a sure sign of plenty if they have sufficient. Zion's poor shall not want, for 
God has obliged all the sons of Zion to be charitable to the poor according to 
their ability; and the church must take care that they be not neglected, 
Acts vi. 1. Secondly. By his grace they shall be kept from complaining; though 
they have but dry bread, yet they shall be satisfied. Zion's poor have, of all 
others, reason to be content with a little of this world, because they have 
better things prepared for them. And this may be understood spiritually of the 
provision that is made for the soul in the word and ordinances ; God will abun- 
dantly^ bless that, for the nourishment of the new man, and satisfy the poor 
in spirit with the bread of life. What God sanctifies to us, we shall and may be 
satisfied with. 

2nd. With the blessings of the life that is to come, things pertaining to god- 
liness, ver. 16, which is an answer to the prayer, ver. 9. First. It was desired 
that the priests might be clothed with righteousness. It is here promised that 
God will clothe them with salvation, not only save them, but make them and 
their administrations instrumental for the salvation of his people ; they shall 
both save themselves and those that hear them, and add those to the church 
that shall be saved. Note, Whom God clothes with righteousness he will clothe 
with salvation ; we must pray for righteousness, and then with it God will give 
salvation. Secondly. It was desired that the saints might shout for joy; it is 
promised that they shall shout aloud for joy. God gives more than we ask, 
and when he gives salvation he will give an abundant joy. 

2. God having chosen David's family, he here promiseth to bless that also 
with suitable blessings. 

1st. Growing power. "There "in Zion "will I make the horn of David to 
bud ; " ver. 17. The royal dignity shall increase more and more, and constant 
additions be made to the lustre of it. Christ is the horn of salvation, noting a 
plentiful and powerful salvation, which God hath raised up and made to bud 
in the house of his servant David. David had promised to use his power for 
God's glory, to cut off the horns of the wicked, and to exalt the horns of the 
righteous, Ps. lxxv. 10 ; and in recompence for it God here promises to make 
his horn to bud, for to them that have power and use it well more shall be 
given. 

2nd. Lasting honour. "I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed." "Thou 
wilt light my candle," Ps. xviii. 28. That lamp is likely to burn bright which 
God ordains. A lamp is a successor ; for when a lamp is almost out, another 
may be lighted by it ; it is a succession, for by this means David shall not want 
a man to stand before God. Christ is the lamp and the light of the world. 

3rd. Complete victory. "His enemies" that have formed designs against him 
" will I clothe with shame," w r hen they shall see their designs baffled. Let the 
enemies of all good governors expect to be clothed with shame, and especially 
the er«emies of the Lord Jesus and his government, who shall rise in the great 
day to everlasting shame and contempt. 



PSALM CXXXIII. 



647 



4th. Universal prosperity. " Upon himself shall his crown flourish," that is. 
his government shall be more and more his honour. This was to have its full 
accomplishment in Jesus Christ, whose crown of honour and power shall never 
fade, nor the flowers of it wither. The crowns of earthly princes endure not to 
ail generations, Pr. xxvii. 24. But Christ's crown shall endure to all eternity ; 
and the crowns reserved for his faithful subjects are such as fade not away. 



PSALM CXXXIII. 

This psalm is a brief encomium of unity and brotherly love, which, if we did not see the 
miseries of discord among men, we would think needless ; but we cannot say too much, 
it were well enough if we could say enough, to persuade people to live together in peace. 
The conjecture some make is well enough of the kind, that David penned it upon 
occasion of the union between the tribes when they all met unanimously to make him 
king. It is a psaim of general use to all societies, lesser and larger, civil and sacred. 
Here is, I. The doctrine laid down of the happiness of brotherly love, ver. 1. II. The 
illustration of that doctrine in two similitudes, ver. 2, 3. III. The proof of it, in a good 
reason given for it, ver. 3. And then we are left to make the application, which we 
ought to do in singing of it, provoking ourselves and one another to holy love. The 
contents of this psalm in our Bibles is short, but very proper; it is « the benefit of the 
communion of saints.' 

A Song of degrees of David. 




EHOLD, how good and how pleasant it is 
] For brethren to dwell together in unity ! 



2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, 
That ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: 
That went down to the skirts of his garments ; 

3 As the dew of Herrnon, [Zion : 
And as the dew that descended upon the mountains of 
For there the Lord commanded the blessing, 

Even life for evermore. 

Here see, First. What it is that is commended ; Brethren's dwelling together 
in unity, not only not quarelling and devouring one another, but delighting in 
each other w r ith mutual endearments, and promoting each others' welfare with 
mutual services. Sometimes it is chosen as the best expedient for preserving 
peace, that brethren should live asunder, and at a distance from each other. 
That indeed may prevent enmity and strife, Gen. xiii. 9; but the goodness and 
pleasantness is for brethren to dwell together, and so to dwell in unity; 'to 
dwell even as one,' (so some read it,) as having one heart, one soul, one interest. 
David had many sons by many wives; probably David penned this psalm for 
their instruction, to engage them to love one another ; which if they had done 
much of the mischief that arose in his family had been happily prevented. The 
tribes of Israel had long had separate interests, during the government of the 
judges, and it was often of ill consequence; but now they were united under 
one common head, he would have them sensible how much it was likely to be 
for their advantages, especially since now the ark was fixed, and with it the 
place of their rendezvous for public worship, and the centre of their unity. 
Now let them live in love. 

Secondly. How commendable it is; " Behold, how good and how pleasant it 
is!" It is good in itself, agreeable to the w r ill of God, the conformity of earth 
to heaven. It is good for us, for our honour and comfort ; it is pleasant and 
pleasing to God and all good men. It brings constant delight to those who do 
thus live in unity ; "Behold, how good!" We cannot conceive or express the 
goodness and pleasantness of it. Behold, it as a rare thing, and therefore 
admirable. Behold and wonder that there should be so much goodness and 
pleasantness among men; so much of heaven on this earth. Behold it as an 
amiable thing, which will attract our hearts : Behold it as an exemplary thing, 
which, w r here it is, is to be imitated by us with a holy emulation. ' 

Thirdly _ How the pleasantness of it is illustrated.* 

1. It is fragrant, as the holy anointing oil, w r hich was strongly perfumed, and 
diffused its odours, to the great delight of all the bystanders, w r hen it was 
;>oured upon the head of Aaron, or his successor, the high priest, so plentifully, 
;hat it ran down the face, even to the collar or binding of the garment, ver. 2. 
1st. This was holy ointment; so must our brotherly love be, with a pure heart 
devoted to God. We must love them that are begotten for his sake that begat, 



648 PSALM CXXXIV. 

1 Jno. v. 1. 2nd. This ointment was a composition, made up by a Divine dis- 
pensatory; God appointed the ingredients^ and the quantities. Thus believers 
are taught of God to love one another ; it is a grace of his working in us. 3rd. 
It was very precious, and the like to it was not to be made for any common use. 
Thus holy love is in the sight of God of great price; and that is precious indeed 
which is so in God's sight. 4th. It was grateful both to Aaron himself and to 
all about him. So is holy love ; it is like ointment and perfume which rejoice the 
heart. Christ's love to mankind was part of that oil of gladness with which he 
was anointed above his fellows. 5th. Aaron and his sons were not admitted to 
minister unto the Lord till they were anointed with this ointment, nor are our 
services acceptable to God without this holy love ; if we have it not, we are 
nothing, 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2. 

2. It is fructifying; it is profitable as well as pleasing. It is as the dew; it 
brings abundance of blessings along with it, as numerous as the drops of dew. 
It cools the scorching heat of man's passions, as the evening dews cool the air, 
and refresh the earth. It contributes very much to our fruitfulness in every 
thing that is good; it moistens the heart, and makes it tender, and fit to receive 
the good seed of the word: as on the contrary malice and bitterness disfit us 
to receive it; 1 Pet. ii. 1. It is as the dew of Hermon/' a common hill, for 
brotherly love is the beauty and benefit of civil societies, "and as the dew that 
descended upon mount Zion," a holy hill, for it contributes greatly to the 
fruitfulness of sacred societies. Both Hermon and Zion will wither without 
this dew. It is said of the dew, that it " tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for 
the sons of men," Mic. v. 7. Nor should our love to our brethren stay for theirs 
to us, that is publican's love; but should prevent it, that is Divine love. 

Fourthly. The proof of the excellency of brotherly love. Loving people are 
blessed people. For, 

1. They are blessed of God, and therefore blessed indeed. "There," where 
brethren dwell together in unity, "the Lord commands the blessing," a 
complicated blessing, including all blessings. It is God's prerogative to com- 
mand the blessing ; man can but beg a blessing. Blessings according to the 
promise are commanded blessings, for " he hath commanded his covenant for 
ever;" blessings that take effect are commanded blessings, for he speaks, and 
it is done. 

2. They are everlastingly blessed. The blessing which God commands on 
them that dwell in love, is "life for evermore," that is the blessing of blessings. 
They that dwell in love, not only dwell in God, but do already dwell in heaven. 
As the perfection of love is the blessedness of heaven, so the sincerity of love is 
the earnest of that blessedness. They that live in love and peace, the God of 
love and peace shall be with them now, and they shall be with him shortly, with 
him for ever, in the world of endless love and peace. How good then is it, 
and how pleasant ! 

PSALM CXXX1V. 

This is the last of the fifteen songs of degrees ; and if they were at any time sung all 
together in the temple-service, it is fitly made the conclusion of them, for the design 
of it is to stir up the ministers to go on with their work in the night, when the solem- 
nities of the day were over. Some make this psalm to be a dialogue. I. In the first two 
verses the priests or Levites that sat up all night to keep the watch of the house of the 
Lord, are called upon to spend their time while they were upon the guard, not in idle 
talk, but in the acts of devotion. II. In the last verse they that were thus called upon 
to praise God, pray for him that gave them the exhortation, either the high priest or the 
captain of the guard. Or thus ; they who did that service did mutually exhort one 
another, and pray for one another. In singing this psalm we must both stir up our- 
selves to give glory to God, and encourage ourselves to hope for mercy and grace fr©ia 
him. 

A Song of degrees. 

BEHOLD, bless ye the Lord, 
All ye servants of the Lord, 
Which by night stand in the house of the Lord. 

2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, 
And bless the Lom). 

3 The Lord that made heaven and earth 
Bless thee out of Zion. 

This psalm instructs us concerning a twofold blessing : 

First. Our blessing God, that is, speaking well of him, which here we are 
taught to do, ver. 1 2. 



PSALM CXXXV. 



649 



1. It is a call to the Levites to do it. They were the servants of the Lord by- 
office, appointed to minister in holy things : they attended the sanctuary, and 
kept the charge of the house of the Lord, Num. iii. 6, &c. Some of them did 
by night stand in the house of the Lord, to guard the holy things of the 
temple that they might not be profaned, and the rich things of the temple 
that they might not be plundered. While the ark was in curtains there was the 
more need of guards upon it. They attended likewise to see that neither the 
fire on the altar nor the lamps in the candlestick went out. Probably it was 
usual for some devout and pious Israelites to sit up with them ; we read of 
one that departed not from the temple night or day, Lu. ii. 37. Now these are 
here called upon to bless the Lord. Thus they must keep themselves awake 
by keeping themselves employed ; thus they must redeem time for holy exer- 
cises ; and how can we spend our time better than in praising God? It would 
be an excellent piece of good husbandry to fill up the vacancies of time with 
pious meditations and ejaculations ; and surely it is a very modest and reason- 
able demand to converse with God when we have nothing else to do. They 
that stood in the house of the Lord must remember where they were, and that 
holiness and holy work became that house. Let them, therefore, bless the 
Lord; let them all do it in concert, or each by himself; let them lift up their 
hands in the doing of it, in token of the lifting up of their hearts. Let them 
lift up their hands in holiness, (so Dr. Hammond reads it,) or in sanctification, 
as it is fit, when they lift them up in the sanctuary; and let them remember 
that, when they were appointed to wash before they went into minister, they 
w r ere thereby taught to lift up holy hands in prayer and praise. 

2. It is a call to us to do it, who as Christians are made priests to our God, 
and Levites, Isa. lxvi. 21. We are the servants of the Lord, we have a place and 
a name in his house, in his sanctuary, we stand before him to minister to him, 
even by night we are under his eye, and have access to him. Let us therefore 
bless the Lord, and again bless him, think and speak of his glory and goodness ; 
let us lift up our hands in prayer, in praise, in vows j let us do our work with 
diligence and cheerfulness, and an elevation of mind. This exhortation is 
ushered in with, Behold ! a note commanding attention ; look about you, sirs, 
when you are in God's presence, and carry yourselves accordingly. 

Secondly. God's blessing us, and that is doing well for us, which we are here 
taught to desire, ver. 3. Whether it is the watchmen blessing their captain, or 
the Levites blessing the high-priest, or whoever was their chief, as many take 
it, because it is in the singular number, 11 The Lord bless thee ;" or whether 
the blessing is pronounced by one upon many, " The Lord bless thee," that is, 
each of you in particular, thee and thee, you that are blessing God, the Lord 
bless you, — is not material. We may learn, 1. That we need desire no more 
to make us happy than to be blessed of the Lord, for those whom he blesseth 
they are blessed indeed. 2. That blessings out of Zion, spiritual blessings, the 
blessings of the covenant, and of communion with God, are the best blessings, 
which we should be most earnest for. 3. It is a great encouragement to us, 
when we come to God for a blessing, that it is he that made heaven and earth, 
and therefore has all the blessings of both at his dispose, of the upper and 
nether springs. 4. We ought to beg these blessings not only for ourselves, but 
for others also; not only, The Lord bless me, but, The Lord bless thee ; thus 
testifying our belief of the fulness of Divine blessings, that there is enough for 
others as well as for us, and our good-will also to others. Those that exhort 
us, we must pray for ; though the less is blessed of the greater, fieb. Yii. 7, yet 
the greater must be prayed for by the less. 



PSALM CXXXV. 

This is one of the hallelujah psalms; that is the title of it, and that is the Amen of it, 
both its alpha and its omega. I. It begins with a call to praise God, particularly a call 
to the servants of the Lord to praise him, as in the foregoing psalm, ver. 1 — 3. II. It 
goes on to furnish us with matter for praise. God is to be praised, 1. As the God 
of Jacob, ver. 4 ; 2. As the God of gods, ver. 5 ; 3. As the God of the whole world, 
ver. 6, 7. 4. As a terrible God to the enemies of Israel, ver. 8 — 11 ; 5. As a gracious 
God to Israel, both in what he had done for them, and what he would do, ver. 12 — 14; 
6. As the only living God, all other gods being vanity and a lie, ver. 15 — 18. III. It 
concludes with another exhortation to all persons concerned to praise God, ver. 19 — 21. 
In singing this psalm our hearts must be filled, as well as our mouths, with the high 
praises of God. 

PRAISE ye the Lord. 
Praise ye the name of the Lord ; 
Praise him, 0 ye servants of the Lord. 



650 



PSALM CXXXV. 



2 Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, 
In the courts of the house of our God, 

3 Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: 
Sing praises unto his name ; for it is pleasant. 

4 For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, 
And Israel for his peculiar treasure. 

Here is, First. The duty we are called to: To praise the Lord, to praise 
his name; praise him, and again praise him. We must not only thank him 
for what he has done for us, but praise him for what he is in himself, and has 
done for others. Take all occasions to speak well of God, and to give his 
truths and ways a good word. 

Secondly. The persons that are called upon to do this : The servants of the 
Lord, the priests and Levites that stand in his house, and all the devout and 
pious Israelites that stand in the courts of his house to worship there, ver. 2. 
They have most reason to praise God that are admitted to the privileges of his 
house, and they see most reason that there behold his beauty and taste his 
bounty. From them it is expected, for to that end they enjoy their places; 
who should praise him if they do not ? 

Thirdly. The reasons why we should praise God: I. Because he whom we 
are to praise is good, and goodness is that which every body will speak well of. 
He is good to all, and we must give him the praise of that ; his goodness is his 
glory, and we must make mention of it to his glory. 2. Because the work is 
its own wages; "Sing praises to his name, for it is pleasant." It is best done 
with a cheerful spirit, and we shall have the pleasure of having done our duty. 
It is a heaven upon earth to be praising God, and the pleasure of that should 
quite put our mouths out of taste to the pleasures of sin. 3. Because of the 
peculiar privileges of God's people ; ver. 4, " The Lord hath chosen Jacob to 
himself," and therefore Jacob is bound to praise him, for therefore God chose 
a people to himself, that they might be unto him for a name and a praise, 
Je.r. xiii. 11. And therefore Jacob has abundant matter for praise, being 
thus dignified and distinguished. Israel is God's peculiar treasure above all 
people, Ex. xix. 5. They are his Segullah, a people appropriated to him, and 
that he has a delight in, precious in his sight, and honourable. For this dis- 
tinguishing, surprising favour, if the seed of Jacob do not praise him, they are 
the most unworthy, ungrateful people under the sun. 

5 For I know that the Lord is great, 
And that our Lord is above all gods. 

G Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he 
In heaven, and in earth, 

In the seas, and all deep places. [earth ; 

7 He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the 
He maketh lightnings for the rain ; 

He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. 

8 Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, 

Both of man and beast. [Egypt, 

9 Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, 0 
Upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants. 

10 Who smote great nations. 
And slew mighty kings ; 

1 1 Sihon king of the Amorites, 
And Og king of Bashan, 

And all the kingdoms of Canaan : 

12 And gave their land for an heritage, 
An heritage unto Israel his people. 



PSALM CXXXV. 



651 



13 Thy name, 0 Lord, endureth for ever ; 

And thy memorial, 0 Lord, throughout all generations. 

14 For the Lord will judge his people, 

And he will repent himself concerning his servants. 

The psalmist had suggested to us the goodness of God as the proper matter 
of our cheerful praises ; here he suggests to us the greatness of God as the 
proper matter of our awful praises; and on this he is most large, because this 
we are less forward to consider. 

First. He asserts the doctrine of God's greatness; ver. 5, "The Lord is 
great;" great indeed, who knows no limits of time or place. He asserts it 
with assurance, 1 know that he is so; know it not only by observation of the 
proofs of it, but by belief of the revelation of it. I know it, that is, I am sure 
of it; I know it by my own experience of the Divine greatness working on my 
soul. He asserts it with a holy defiance of all pretenders, though they should 
join in confederacy against him ; he is not only above any gods, but above all 
gods, infinitely above them ; betwixt him and them there is no comparison. 

Secondly. He proves him to be a great God by the greatness of his power, 
ver. 6. 1. He hath an absolute power, and may do what he will ; " Whatsoever 
the Lord pleased, that did he," and none could control him, or say unto him, 
What dost thou ? He doth what he pleaseth because he pleaseth, and giveth 
not account of any of his matters. 2. He hath an almighty power, and can do 
what he will ; if he will work, none shall hinder. 3. This absolute almighty 
power is of universal extent; he doth what he w 7 ill " in heaven, in earth, in the 
seas, and in all the deep places," that are in the bottom of the sea or the 
bowels of the earth. The gods of the heathen can do nothing, but our God 
can do any thing, and doth do every thing. 

Thirdly. He gives instances of his great power, 

1. In the kingdom of nature, ver. 7. All the powers of nature prove the 
greatness of the God of nature, from whom they are derived, and on whom they 
depend. The chain of natural causes was not only framed by him at first, 
but is still preserved by him. 1st. It is by his power that exhalations are 
drawn up from the terraqueous globe. The heat of the sun raiseth them, but 
it has that power from God, and therefore it is given as an instance of the 
glory of God, that nothing is hid from the heat of the sun, Ps. xix. 6. "He 
causeth the vapours to ascend," not only unhelped, but unseen by us, from 
the earth, from the ends of the earth, that is, from the seas by which the earth 
is surrounded. 2nd. It is he that out of those vapours so raised forms the 
rain, so that the earth is no loser by the vapours it sends up, for they are 
returned with advantage in fruitful showers. 3rd. Out of the same vapours 
(such is his wonderful power) "he maketh lightnings for the rain;" by them 
he opens the bottles of heaven, and shakes the clouds, that they may water the 
earth. Here is fire and water thoroughly reconciled by Divine omnipotence; 
they come together, and yet the water doth not quench the fire, nor the fire 
lick up the water, as fire from heaven did when God pleased, 1 Kin. xviii. 38. 
4th. The same exhalations, to serve another purpose, are converted into winds, 
which blow where they list, from what point of the compass they will, and we 
are so far from directing them, that we cannot tell whence they come or 
whither they go, but God brings them out of his treasuries, with as much 
exactness and design as a prudent prince orders money to issue out of his 
exchequer. 

2. In the kingdoms of men. And here he instanceth in the great things God 
had formerly done for his people Israel, which were proofs of God's greatness, 
as w r ell as of his goodness, and confirmations of the truth of the scriptures of 
the Old Testament, which began to be written by Moses, the person employed 
in working those miracles. Observe God's sovereign dominion and irresistible 
power, 1st. In bringing Israel out of Egypt^ humbling Pharaoh by many 
plagues, and so forcing him to let them go. Ihese plagues are called tokens 
and wonders, because they came not in the common course of providence, but 
there was something miraculous in each of them. They were sent upon 
Pharaoh and all his servants, that is, his subjects; but the Israelites, whom 
God claimed for his servants, his son, his firstborn, his freeborn, were 
exempted from them, and no plague came nigh their dwelling. The death of 
the firstborn, both of men and cattle, was the heaviest of all the plagues, and 
that which gained the point. 2nd. In destroying the kingdoms of Canaan 
before them, ver. 10. They that were in possession of the land designed for 
Israel had all possible advantages for keeping possession ; the people were 
numerous and warlike, and confederate against Israel; they were great 
nations. Yet, if a great nation has a meek and mean-spirited prince, it lies 
exposed; but these great nations had mighty kings, and yet they were all 



652 



PSALM CXXXV. 



smitten and slain, — Silion and Og, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, ver. 10, 11. 
No power of hell or earth can prevent the accomplishment of the promise of 
God, when the time, the set time, for it is come. 3rd. In settling them in the 
land of promise. He that gives kingdoms to whomsoever he pleaseth gave 
Canaan to be a heritage to Israel his people. It came to them by inheritance, 
for their ancestors had the promise of it, though not the possession, and it 
descended as an inheritance to their seed. This was done long before, yet 
God is now praised for it, and good reason, for the children were now enjoying 
the benefit of it. 

Fourthly. He triumphs in the perpetuity of God's glory and grace. 1. Of his 
glory ; ver. 13, '* Thy name, O God, endures for ever." God's manifestations 
of himself to his people have everlasting fruits and consequences; "What 
God doth, it shall be for ever," Eccl. iii. 14. His name endureth for ever in 
the constant and everlasting praises of his people; his memorial endures, has 
endured hitherto, and shall still endure, throughout all generations of the 
church. This seems to refer to Ex. iii. 15, where, when God had called him- 
self the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he adds, " This is my name for 
ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." God is, and will be 
always the same to his church, a gracious, faithful, wonder-working God; 
and his church is, and will be, the same to him, a thankful, praising people ; 
and thus his name endures for ever. 2. Of his grace. He will be kind to his 
people. 1st. He will plead their cause against others that contend with them; 
he will judge his people, that is, he will judge for them, and will not suffer 
them to be run down. 2nd. He will not himself contend for ever with them, 
but will repent himself concerning his servants, and not proceed in his con- 
troversy with them. He will be entreated for them, or he will be comforted 
concerning them ; that is, he will return in ways of mercy to them, and will 
delight to do them good. This verse is taken from the song of Moses, 
Deu. xxxii. 36. 

15 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, 
The work of men's hands. 

1 6 They have mouths, but they speak not ; 
Eyes have they, but they see not ; 

17 They have ears, but they hear not; 
Neither is there any breath in their mouths. 

18 They that make them are like unto them: 
So is every one that trusteth in them. 

1 9 Bless the Lord, 0 house of Israel : 
Bless the Lord, 0 house of Aaron : 

20 Bless the Lord, 0 house of Levi : 

Ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord. 

21 Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, 
Which dwelleth at Jerusalem 
Praise ye the Lord. 

The design of these verses is, 

First. To arm the people of God against idolatry, and all false worships, by 
shewing what sort of gods they were that the heathen worshipped, as we had 
it before, Ps. cxv. 4, &c. 1. They were gods of their own making ; being so, 
they could have no power but what their makers gave them ; and then what 
power could their makers receive from them ? The images were the work of 
men's hands, and the deities that were supposed to inform them were as much 
the creatures of men's fancy and imagination. 2. They had the shape of animals, 
but could not perform the least act, no, not of the animal life. They could neither 
see, nor hear, nor speak, nor so much as breathe ; and therefore to make them 
with eyes and ears, and mouths and nostrils, was such a jest, as that one would 
wonder how reasonable creatures could suffer themselves to be so imposed 
upon, as to expect any good from such mock deities. 3. Their worshippers 
were therefore as stupid and senseless as they were ; both those that made 
them to be worshipped, and those that trusted in them when they were made, 
ver. 18. The worshipping of such gods as were the objects of sense, and 
senseless, made the worshippers sensual and senseless. Let our worshipping 
of a God that is a spirit make us spiritual and wise. 



PSALM CXXXVI. 



653 



Secondly. To stir up the people of God to true devotion in the worship of the 
true God, ver. 19 — 21. The more deplorable the condition of the Gentile nations 
is that worship idols, the more are we bound to thank God that we know better 
things. Therefore, 1. Let us set ourselves about the acts of devotion, and 
employ ourselves in them ; " Bless the Lord," and again, and again, "Bless the 
Lord." In the parallel place, Ps. cxv. 9 — 11, by way of inference from the 
impotency of idols, the duty thus pressed upon us is, to trust in the Lord ; here 
to bless him. By putting our trust in God we give glory to him, and they that 
depend upon God shall not want matter for thanksgiving to him. All persons 
that knew God are here called to praise him : the house of Israel, the nation in 
general; the house of Aaron, and the house of Levi, the Lord's ministers that 
attended in his sanctuary ; and all others that feared the Lord, though they 
were not of the house of Israel. 2. Let God have the glory of all; " Blessed be 
the Lord." The tribute of praise ariseth out of Zion. All God's works do praise 
him, but his saints bless him ; and they need not go far to pay their tribute ; for 
he dwelleth in Jerusalem, in his church, which they are members of, so that he 
is always nigh unto them to receive their homage. And the condescensions of 
his grace in dwelling with men upon the earth call for our grateful and thank- 
ful returns, and our repeated hallelujahs. 



The scope of this psalm is the same with that of the foregoing psalm, "but there is 
something very singular in the composure of it, for the latter half of eacli verse is the 
same repeated throughout the psalm, "For his mercy endureth for ever," and yet no 
vain repetition. It is allowed, that such burthens or keepings, as we call them, add 
very much to the beauty of a song, and help to make it moving and affecting ; nor 
can any verse contain more weighty matter, or more worthy to be thus repeated, than 
this, that God's mercy endureth for ever. And the repetition of it here twenty-six 
times intimates, I. That God's mercies to his people are thus repeated and drawn, as 
it were, with a continuando from the beginning to the end, with a progress and advance 
in infinitum. II. That in every particular favour we ought to take notice of the mercy 
of God, and to take notice of it as enduring still the same now that it has heen, and 
enduring for ever the same always that it is. III. That the everlasting continuance 
of the mercy of God is very much his honour, and that which he glories in, and very 
much the saints' comfort, and that which they glory in. It is that which therefore our 
hearts should be full of, and greatly affected with, so as that the most frequent men- 
tion of it, instead of cloying us, should raise us the more, because it will be the subject 
of our praise to all eternity. This most excellent sentence, that God's mercy endureth 
for ever, is magnified above all the truths concerning God, not only by the repetition 
of it here, but by the signal tokens of Divine acceptance, with which God owned the 
singing of it both in Solomon's time, (2 Chr. v. 13,) — when they sang these words, "for 
his mercy endureth for ever, the house was filled with a cloud," — and in Jehoshaphat's 
time, when they sang these words God gave them victory, (2 Chr. xx. 21, 22,) which 
should make us love to sing, " His mercies sure do still endure eternally." We must 
praise God, 1. As great and good in himself, ver. 1 — 3. 2. As the Creator of the 
world, ver. 5 — 9. 3. As Israel's God and Saviour, ver. 10 — 22. 4. As our Redeemer, 
ver. 23, 24. 5. As the great benefactor of the whole creation, and God over all, blessed 
for evermore, ver. 2.5, 26. 



For his mercy endureth for ever. 

2 0 give thanks unto the God of gods : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

3 0 give thanks to the Lord of lords : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

4 To him who alone doeth great wonders : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

5 To him that by wisdom made the heavens ; 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

6 To him that stretched out the earth above the waters : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

7 To him that made great lights : 
For his mercy endureth for ever : 



PSALM CXXXVI 




GI VE thanks unto 




654 



PSALM CXXXVI. 



8 The sun to rule by day : 

For his mercy endureth for ever : 

9 The moon and stars to rule by night : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

The duty we are here again and again called to, is to give thanks; to "offer 
the sacrifice of praise continually," not the fruits of our ground or cattle, but 
"the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name," Heb. xiii. 15. We are never 
so earnestly called upon to pray and repent, as to give thanks ; for it is the will 
of God that we should abound most in the most pleasant exercises of religion, 
in that which is the work of heaven. Now here observe, 

First. Whom we must give thanks to. To him that we receive all good from ; 
to the Lord, Jehovah, Israel's God, ver. 1 ; to the God of gods, the God whom 
angels adore, from whom magistrates derive their power, and by whom all 
pretended deities are and shall be conquered, ver. 2; to the Lord of lords, the 
Sovereign of all sovereigns ; the stay and supporter of all supports, ver. 3. 
In all our adorations we must have an eye to God's excellency as trans- 
cendent, and to his power and dominion as incontestably and uncontrollably 
supreme. 

Secondly. # What we must give thanks for. Not as the Pharisee, that made all 
his thanksgivings terminate in his own praise, " God, I thank thee," that I am 
so and so, but directing them all to God's glory. 

1. We must give thanks to God for his goodness and mercy ; ver. 1, " Give 
thanks to the Lord," not only because he doth good, but because he is good, all 
the streams must be run up to the fountain ; not only because he is merciful to 
us, but because his mercy endures for ever, and will be drawn out to those that 
shall come after us. We must give thanks to God not only for that mercy which 
is now handed out to us here on earth, but for that which shall endure for ever 
in the glories and joys of heaven. 

2. We must give God thanks for the instances of his power and wisdom. In 
general, ver. 4, he "alone doth great wonders." The contrivance is wonderful, 
the design being laid by infinite wisdom : the performance wonderful, being 
put in execution by infinite power. He alone doth marvellous things; that is, 
none but he can do such things, and he doth them without the assistance or 
advice of any other. More particularly, 1st. He made the heavens, and stretched 
them out; and in them we not only see his wisdom and power, but we taste his 
mercy in their benign influences. As long as the heavens endure, the mercy of 
God endures in them, ver. 5. 2nd. He raised the earth out of the waters when 
he caused the dry land to appear, that it might be fit to be a habitation for 
man, and therein also his mercy to man still endures, ver. 6, for "the earth hath 
he given to the children of men," and all its products. 3rd. Having made both 
heaven and earth, he settled a correspondence between them, notwithstanding 
their distance, by making the sun, moon, and stars, which he placed in the 
firmament of heaven, to shed their light and influences upon this earth, ver. 7 — 9. 
These are called the great lights because they appear so to us, for otherwise 
astronomers tell us that the moon is less than many of the stars, but being 
nearer to the earth it seems much bigger, They are said to rule, not only 
because they govern the seasons of the years, but because they are useful to 
the world; and benefactors are the best rulers, Lu. xxii. 25. But the empire is 
divided, one rules by day, the other by night, at least the stars ; and yet all are 
subject to God's direction and dispose. Those rulers which the Gentiles there- 
fore idolized, are the world's servants, and God's subjects; "Sun, stand thou 
still, and thou moon." 

10 To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn : 

For his mercy endureth for ever : 
] 1 And brought out Israel from among them : 

For his mercy endureth for ever : 

12 With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

13 To him which divided the Ked sea into parts : 
For his mercy endureth for ever : 

14 And made Israel to pass through the midst of it : 
For his mercy endureth for ever : 



PSALM CXXXYL 



655 



15 But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Eed sea : . 
For his meroy endureth for ever. 

16 To him which led his people through the wilderness s 
For bis inercy endureth for ever. 

1 7 To him which smote great kings : 
For his mercy endureth for ever : 

J.8 And slew famous kings : 

For his mercy endureth for ever : 

1 9 Sihon, king of the Amorites : 
For his mercy endureth for ever : 

20 And Og the king of Bashan : 
For his mercy endureth for ever : 

21 And gave their land for an heritage : 
For his mercy endureth for ever : 

22 Even an heritage unto Israel his servant : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

The great things God did for Israel when he first formed them into a people, 
and set up his kingdom among them, are here mentioned, as often elsewhere in 
the psalms, as instances both of the power of God and of the particular kind- 
ness he had for Israel : see Ps. cxxxv. 8, &c. 

First. He brought them out of Egypt, ver. 10—12. That was a mercy which 
endured long to them, and our redemption by Christ, which was typified by 
that, doth indeed endure for ever, for it is an eternal redemption. Of all the 
plagues of Egypt none is mentioned but the death of the firstborn, because that 
was the conquering plague ; by that, God, who in all the plagues distinguished 
the Israelites from £he Egyptians, brought them at last from among them ; not 
by a wile, but with a strong hand, and an arm stretched out to reach far, and 
do great things. These miracles of mercy, as they proved Moses' commission 
to give law to Israel, so they laid Israel under lasting obligations to obey that 
law, Ex. xx. 2. 

Secondly. He forced them a way through the Red sea, which obstructed 
them at their first setting out. By the power he has to control the common 
course of nature he divided the sea into two parts, between which he opened a 
path, and made Israel to pass between the parts, now they were to enter into 
covenant with him : see Jer. xxxiv. 18. He not only divided the sea, but gave 
his people courage to go through it when it was divided ; which was an instance 
of God's power over men's hearts, as the former of his power over the waters. 
And, to make it a miracle of justice as well as mercy, the same Red sea that 
was a lane to the Israelites, was a grave to their pursuers. There he shook 
off Pharaoh and his host. 

Thirdly. He conducted them through a vast howling wilderness, ver. 16 ; 
there he led them and fed them; their camp was victualled and fortified by a 
constant series of miracles for forty years; though they loitered and wandered 
there, they were not lost. And in this the mercy of God, and the constancy of 
that mercy, was the more observable, because they often provoked him in the 
wilderness and grieved him in the desert. 

Fourthly. He destroyed kings before them to make room for them, ver. 17, 18. 
Not deposed and banished them ; but smote and slew them, in which appeared 
liis wrath against them, but his mercy, his never failing mercy, to Israel. And 
that which magnified it was that they were great kings, and famous kings, yet 
God subdued them as easily as if they had been the least, and weakest, and 
meanest of the children of men. They were wicked kings, and then their gran- 
deur and lustre would not secure them from the justice of God. The more 
great and famous they were, the more did God's mercy to Israel appear, in 
giving such kings for them. Sihon and Og are particularly mentioned, because 
they were the two first that were conquered on the other side Jordan, ver. 19, 20. 
It is good to enter into the detail of God's favours, and not to view them in the 
gross; and in each instance to observe and own that God's mercy endureth 
for ever. 

Fifthly. He put them in possession of a good land, ver. 21, 22. He whose the 
earth is, and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein, took 



65S PSALM CXXXVII. 

land from one people and gave it to another as pleased him. The iniquity ef the 
Amorites was now full, and therefore it was taken from them ; Israel was his 
servant, and though they had been provoking in the wilderness yet he intended 
to have some service out of them, for to them pertained the service of God. As 
he said to the Egyptians, " Let my people go," so to the Canaanites, Let my 
people in, that they may serve me. In this God's mercy to them endureth for 
ever, because it was a figure of the heavenly Canaan, "the mercy of our Lord 
Jesus Christ unto eternal life." 

23 Who remembered us in our low estate: 
For his mercy endureth for ever : 

24 And hath redeemed us from our enemies : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

25 Who giveth food to all flesh : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

26 0 give thanks unto the God of heaven : 
For his mercy endureth for ever. 

God's everlasting mercy is here celebrated, 

First. In the redemption of his church, ver. 23, 24. In the many redemptions 
wrought for the Jewish church out of the hands of their oppressors; when in 
the years of their servitude their estate was very low, God remembered them, 
and raised them up saviours, the judges, and David at length, by whom God 
gave them rest from all their enemies. But especially in the great redemption 
of the universal church, of which these were types, we have a great deal of 
reason to say, " He remembered us," the children of men, "in our low estate," 
in our lost estate: "for his mercy endureth for ever." And sent his Son to 
redeem us from sin, and death, and hell, and all our spiritual enemies : " for his 
mercy endureth for ever:" us, and not the angels that sinned: "for his mercy 
endureth for ever." 

Secondly. In the provision he makes for all the creatures ; ver. 25, " He gives 
food to all flesh." It is an instance of the mercy of God's providence, that 
wherever he has given life, he gives food agreeable, and sufficient; and he is a 
good housekeeper, that provides for so large a family. 

Thirdly. In all his glories, and all his gifts ; ver. 26, " Give thanks to the God 
of heaven." That speaks him a glorious God, and the glory of his mercy is to be 
taken notice of in our praises; the riches of his glory are displayed in the 
vessels of his mercy, Rom. ix. 23. And it speaks him the great benefactor, "for 
every good and perfect gift is from above, from the Father of lights," the God 
of heaven; and we should trace every stream to the fountain; this and that 
particular mercy may perhaps endure but a while, but the mercy that is in God 
endures for ever ; it is an inexhaustible fountain. 



PSALM CXXXVII. 

There are divers psalms which are thought to have been penned in the latter days of the 
Jewish church, when prophecy was near expiring, and the canon of the Old Testa- 
ment ready to be closed up ; but none of them appears so plainly to be of a late date 
as this here, which was penned when the people of God were captives in Babylon, and 
there insulted over by their proud oppressors- Probably it was towards the latter end 
of their captivity ; for now they saw the destruction of Babylon hastening on apace, 
ver. 8, which would be their discharge. It is a mournful psalm, a lamentation ; and 
the Septuagint make it one of the lamentations of Jeremiah, naming him for the 
author of it. Here, I. The melancholy captives cannot enjoy themselves, ver. 1, 2. 
II. They cannot humour their proud oppressors, ver. 3, 4. III. They cannot forget 
Jerusalem, ver. 5, 6. IV. They cannot forgive Edom and Babylon, ver. 7 — 9. In 
singing this psalm we must be much affected with the concernments of the church, 
especially that part of it that is in affliction, laying the sorrows of God's people near 
our hearts, comforting ourselves in the prospect of the deliverance of the church, and 
the ruin of its enemies in due time, but carefully avoiding all personal animosities, 
and not mixing the leaven of malice with our sacrifices. 

BY the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, 
Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion, [thereof. 
2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst 



PSALM CXXXVII. 657 

3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us 

a song ; 

And they that wasted us required of us mirth, 
Saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 

4 How shall we sing the Lord's song 
In a strange land ? 

5 If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, 

Let my right hand forget her cunning. 

6 If I do not remember thee, 

Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; 
If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. 

We have here the daughter of Zion covered with a cloud, and dwelling with 
the daughter of Babylon; the people of God in tears, but sowing in tears. 
Observe, 

First. The mournful posture they were in. Their affairs were so, and so 
were their spirits. 

1. They were posted by the rivers of Babylon, in a strange land, a great way 
off of their own country, whence they were brought as prisoners of war. The 
land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been 
in their beginning. Their conquerors quartered them by the rivers with design 
to employ them there, and keep them to work in their galleys ; or perhaps they 
chose it as the most melancholy place, and therefore most suitable to their 
sorrowful spirits. If they must build houses there, Jer. xxix. 5, it shall not be 
in the cities, the places of concourse, but by the rivers, the places of solitude, 
where they might mingle their tears with the streams. We find some of them 
by the river Chebar, Eze. i. 3, others by the river Ulai, Dan. viii. 2. 

2. There they sat down to indulge their grief, by poring on their miseries. 
Jeremiah had taught them under this yoke to sit alone, and keep silence, and 
put their mouths in the dust, Lam. iii. 28, 29. We sat down, as those that 
expected to stay, and were content, since it is the will of God it must be so. 

3. Thoughts of Zion drew tears from their eyes ; and it was not a sudden 
passion of weeping, such as we are sometimes put into by a trouble that sur- 
priseth us, but they were deliberate tears, — we sat down and wept ; tears 
with consideration. " We wept when we remembered Zion," the holy hill on 
which the temple was built ; their affection to God's house swallowed up their 
concern for their own houses. They remembered Zion's former glory, and the 
satisfaction they had had in Zion's courts. Lain, i. 7, " Jerusalem remembered 
in the days of her misery, all her pleasant tnings which she had in the days or 
old ;" Ps. xlii. 4. They remembered Zion's present desolations, and favoured 
the dust thereof, which was a good sign that the time for God to favour it was 
not far off, Ps. cii. 13, 14. 

4. They laid by their instruments of music; ver. 2, "We hanged our harps 
upon the willows." 1st. The harps they used for their own diversion and 
entertainment. These they laid aside, both because it was their judgment 
that they ought not to use them now God called to weeping and mourning, 
Isa. xxii. 12, and their spirits were so sad that they had no hearts to use them. 
They; brought their harps with them, designing perhaps to use them for the 
alleviating of their grief, but it proved so great that it would not admit the 
experiment. Music makes some people melancholy As vinegar upon nitre, 
so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart." 2nd. The harps they used in God's 
worship, the Levites' harps, these they did not throw away; being in hopes 
they might yet again have occasion to use them; but they threw 7 them by, 
oecause they had no present use for them. God has cut them out other work, 
by " turning their feasting into mourning, and their songs into lamentations, 
Am. viii. 10. Everything is beautiful in its season. They did not hide their harps 
in the bushes, or the hollows of the rocks : but hung them up in view, that the 
sight of them might affect them with this deplorable change. Yet perhaps they 
were faulty in doing this ; for praising God is never out of season : it is his will 
that we should in every thing give thanks, Isa. xxiv. 15, 16. 

Secondly. The abuses which their enemies put upon them when they were in 
this melancholy condition, ver. 3. They had carried them away captive from 
their own land, and then wasted them in the land of their captivity ; took what 
little they had from them. But this was not enough, to complete their woes, 

2 x 



658 



PSALM CXXXVIL 



they insulted over them;"They required of us mirth and a song." "Vc-. \ ;< This 
was very barbarous and inhuman. Even an eneniy in misery is to 1 . -5 
not trampled upon. It argue- a base and sordid spirit to 'v-raid those tha 
are in distress, either with their former joys or with thi h present griefs, or to 
challenge those to be merry wiiu wc knuw &ie vui, of cane for it; this is adding 
affliction to the afflicted. 2. It was very profane and impious. No songs would 
serve thein but the songs of Zion, with which God had been honoured: so 
that in this demand they reflected upon God himself, as Belshazzar, when 
he drank wine in temple bowls. Their enemies mocked at their sabbaths, 
Lam. i. 7. 

Thirdly. The patience wherewith they bore these abuses, ver. 4. They had 
laid by their harps, and would not resume them, no not to ingratiate themselves 
with those at whose mercy they lay, — would not answer those fools according 
to their folly. Profane scoffers are not to be humoured, nor pearls cast before 
swine. David prudently kept silence even from good, when the wicked were 
before him, who he knew would ridicule M r hat he said, and make a jest of it, 
Ps. xxxix. 1, 2. The reason they gave is very mild and pious; " How shall we 
sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" They do not say, how shall we sing 
vvhen we are so much in sorrow? if that had been all, they might perhaps have 
put a force upon themselves, so far as to oblige their masters with a song ; but 
it is the Lord's song, it is a sacred thing, it is peculiar to the temple service, 
and therefore we dare not sing it in the land of a stranger, among idolaters.' 
We must not serve common mirth, much less profane mirth, with any thing that 
is appropriated to God, who is sometimes to be honoured by a religious silence, 
as well as by religious speaking. 

Fourthly. The constant affection they retained for Jerusalem, the city of their 
solemnities, even now they were in Babylon. Though their enemies banter 
them for talking so much of Jerusalem, and even doting upon it, their love to 
it is not in the least abated ; it is what they may be jeered for, but will never 
be jeered out of, ver. 5, 6. Observe, 1. How these pious captives stood affected 
to Jerusalem. 1st. Their heads were full of it; it was always in their minds; 
they remembered it ; they did not forget it, though they had been long absent 
from it. Many of them had never seen it, nor knew any thing of it but by 
report, and by what they had read in the Scripture, yet it was graven upon the 
palms Of their hands, and even its ruins were continually before them, which 
was an evidence of their faith in the promise of its restoration in due time. In 
their daily prayers they opened their windows towards Jerusalem, and how 
then coula they forget it ? 2nd. Their hearts were full of it. They preferred 
it above their chief joy, and therefore they remembered it, and could not forget 
it. What we love we love to think of. They that rejoice in God do for his 
sake make Jerusalem their joy, and prefer it before that, whatever it is, which 
is the head of their joy, that is. which is dearest to them in this world. A godly 
man will prefer a public good before any private satisfaction or gratification 
whatsoever. 2. How stedfastly they resolved to keep up this affection, which 
they express by a solemn imprecation of mischief to themselves if they should 
let it fall ; Let me be for ever disabled either to sing or play on the harp, if I so 
far forget the religion of my country, as to make use of my songs and harps for 
the pleasing of Babylon's sons, or the praising of Babylon's gods. "Let my 
right hand forget her art," (which the hand of an expert musician never can. 
unless it were withered ;) nay, " Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, 
if I have not a good word to say for Jerusalem, wherever I am. Though they 
dare not sing Zion's songs among the Babylonians, yet they cannot forget them ; 
but as soon as ever the present restraint is taken off they will sing them as 
readily as ever, notwithstanding the long disuse. 

7 Remember, 0 Lord, the children of Edom 
In the day of Jerusalem ; 

Who said, Rase it, 

Rase it, even to the foundation thereof. 

8 0 daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; 
Happy shall he he, that rewardeth thee 

As thou hast served us. 

9 Happy shall he be, 

That taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. 

The pious Jews in Babylon, having afflicted themselves with the thoughts of 
the ruins of Jerusalem, here please themselves with the prospect of the ruin 



PSALM CXXXYIII. 659 

of her impenitent, implacable enemies. But this is not from a spirit of revenge, 
but from a holy zeal for the glory of God, and the honour of his kingdom. 

First. The Edomites will certainly be reckoned with, and all others that 
were accessaries to the destruction of Jerusalem, that were aiding and abetting, 
that " helped forward the affliction." Zee. i. 15, and triumphed in it ; that said, 
in the day of Jerusalem, the day of ner judgment, " Rase it, rase it to the foun- 
dations;" down with it, down with it; do not leave one stone upon another! 
Thus they made the Chaldean army more furious, who were already so enraged 
that they needed no spur. Thus they put shame upon Israel, who would be 
looked upon as a people worthy to be cut off when their next neighbours had 
such an ill-will to them. And all this was a fruit of the old enmity of Esau 
against Jacob, because he got the birthright and the blessing, and a branch ot 
that more ancient enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the 
serpent. Lord, remember them, saith the psalmist, which is an appeal to his 
justice against them. Far be it from us to avenge ourselves, if ever it should 
be in our power, but we will leave it to him who hath said, Vengeance is mine. 
Note, They that are glad at calamities, especially the calamities of Jerusalem, 
shall not go unpunished. They that are confederate with the persecutors of 
good people, and stir them up, and set them on, and are pleased with what they 
do, shall certainly be called to an account for it another day, and God will 
remember it against them. 

Secondly. Babylon is the principal, and it will come to her turn too, to drink 
of the cup of tremblings, the very dregs of it; ver. 8, 9, " O daughter of 
Babylon," as proud and secure as thou art, we know very well by the Scrip- 
tures of truth " thou art to be destroyed ;" or, as Dr. Hammond reads it, ' who 
art the destroyer.' The destroyers shall be destroyed, Rev. xiii. 10; and perhaps 
it is with reference to this that the man of sin, the head of the New Testament 
Babylon, is called a son of perdition, 2 Thes. ii. 3. The destruction of Babylon 
being foreseen as a sure destruction, " Thou art to be destroyed," it is spoken 
of, 1. As a just destruction. She shall be paid in her own coin ; thou shalt be 
served as thou hast served us, as barbarously used by the destroyers, as we 
have been by thee : see Rev. xviii. 6. Let not those expect to find mercy who, 
when they had power, did not shew mercy. 2. As an utter destruction. The 
very little ones of Babylon, when it is taken by storm, and all in it put to the 
sword, shall be dashed to pieces by the enraged and merciless conqueror. None 
escape, if these little ones perish. Those are the seed of another generation, 
so that if they be cut off, the ruin will be not only total, as Jerusalem's was, but 
final. It is sunk like a millstone into the sea, never to rise. 3. As a destruc- 
tion which should reflect honour upon the instruments of it. "Happy shall 
they be" that do it, for they are fulfilling God's counsels, and therefore he calls 
Cyrus that did it his servant, his shepherd, his anointed, Isa. xliv. 28 ; xlv. 1 ; 
and the soldiers that were employed in it his sanctified ones, Isa. xiii. 3. They 
are making way for the enlargement of God's Israel; and happy they that 
are any way serviceable to that. The fall of the New Testament Babylon will 
be the triumph of all the saints, Rev. xix. 1. 



PSALM CXXXVIII. 

It doth not appear, nor is it material to inquire, upon what occasion David penned thi« 
psalm, but in it, I. He looks back with thankfulness upon the experiences he had 
had of God's goodness to him, ver. 1—3. II. He looks forward with comfort, in 
hopes, 1. That others would go on to praise God like him, ver. 4, 5; 2. That God 
would go on to do good to him, ver. 6 — 8. In singing this psalm we must in like 
manner devote ourselves to God's praise and glory, and repose ourselves in his power 
and goodness. 

A Psalm of David. 

I WILL praise thee with my whole heart : 
Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. 

2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, [truth: 
And praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy 
For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. 

3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, 
And strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. 

4 All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, 0 Lord, 
When they hear the words of thy mouth. 



660 



PSALM CXXXVIII. 



5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord : 
For great is the glory of the Lord. 

First. How he would praise God: compare Ps. cxi. 1. 

1. He will praise him with sincerity and zeal. With my heart, "with my 
whole heart; with that which is within me, and with all that is within me; 
with uprightness of intention, and fervency of affection ; inward impressions 
agreeing with outward expressions. 2. With freedom and boldness ; " Before 
the gods will I sing praise unto thee;" before the princes, and judges, and 
great men, either those of other nations that visited him, or those of his own 
nation that attended on him. Even in their presence he will not only praise ] 
God with his heart, which we may do by pious ejaculations in any company, i 
but will sing praise, if there be occasion. Note, Praising God is work which j 
the greatest of men need not be ashamed of; it is the work of angels, tlie work j 
of heaven. Before the angels, so some understand it, that is, in religious assem- j 
blies, where there is a special presence of angels, 1 Cor. xi. 10. 3. In the way 
that God had appointed; "1 will worship towards thy holy temple." The i 
priests only went into the temple, the people at the nearest did but worship 
towards it, and that they might do at a distance. Christ is our temple, and 
towards him we must look with an eye of faith, as Mediator between us and 
God in all our praises of him. Heaven is God's holy temple, and thitherwards 
we must lift up our eyes in all our addresses to God, our Father in heaven. 

Secondly. What he would praise God for. 

1. For the fountain of his comforts; "For thy lovingkindness and for thy 
truth; "for thy goodness, and for thy promise; mercy hid in thee, and mercy 
revealed by thee. That God is a gracious God in himself, and has engaged to 
be so to all those that trust in him ; " For thou hast magnified thy word," that 
is, thy promise, which is truth, "above all thy name." God has made himself 
known to us many ways, in creation and providence, but most clearly by his 
word. The judgments oi his mouth are magnified even above those of his hand, 
and greater are done by them. The wonders of grace exceed the wonders of 
nature ; and what is discovered of God by revelation is much greater than what 
is discovered by reason. In what God had done for David his faithfulness 
to his word appeared more illustrious, and redounded more to his glory than 
any other of his attributes. Some good interpreters understand it of Christ, 
the essential Word, and of his Gospel, which are magnified above all the 
discoveries God had before made of himself to the fathers. He that magnified 
the law, and made that honourable, magnifies the Gospel much more. 

2. For the streams flowing from that fountain^ in which he himself had tasted 
that the Lord is gracious, ver. 3. He had been in affliction, and he remembers 
with thankfulness, 1st. The sweet communion he then had with God. He 
cried, prayed, and prayed earnestly, and God answered him, — gave him to 
understand that his prayer was accepted, and should have a gracious return 
in due time. The intercourse between God and his saints is carried on by his 
promises and their prayers. 2nd. The sweet communications he then had from 
God ; " Thou strengthenedst me with strength in my soul." This was the 
answer to his prayer ; for God gives more than good words, Ps. xx. 6. Observe, 
First. It was a speedy answer ; " In the day when I cried." Note, Those that 
trade with heaven by prayer grow rich by quick returns j " While we are yet 
speaking, God hears," Isa. lxv. 24. Secondly. It was a spiritual answer. God 
gave him strength in his soul, and that is a real and valuable answer tc the 
prayer of faith in the day of affliction. If God give us strength in our souls 
to bear the burthens, resist the temptations, and do the duties of an afflicted 
state : if he strengthen us to keep hold of himself by faith, to maintain the 
peace of our own minds, and to wait with patience for the issue ; we must own 
that he hath answered us, and are bound to be thankful. 

Thirdly. What influence he hoped his praising God would have upon others, 
ver. 4, 5. David was himself a king, and therefore he hoped that kings wouia 
be wrought upon by his experiences and his examples to embrace religion; and 
if kings became religious, their kingdoms would be every way better. Now, 
1. This may have reference to the kings that were neighbours to David, as 
Hiram and others. They shall all praise thee. When they visited David, and 
after his death when they sought the presence of Solomon, as all the kings of 
the earth are expressly said to do, 2 Chr. ix. 23, they readily joined in the wor- ' 
ship of the God of Israel. 2. It may look farther, to the calling of the Gentiles, 
and the discipling of all nations by the Gospel of Christ, of which it is said that 
all kings shall fall down before him, Ps. lxxii. 11. Now it is here foretold, 
1st. That the kings of the earth shall hear the words of God. All that came 
near David should hear them from him, Ps. cxix. 46. In the latter days the 
preachers of the Gospel should be sent into all the world. 2nd. That then they 
shall praise God. as all those have reason to do that hear his word, and receive 
it in the light and love of it, Acts xiii. 48. 3rd. That they shall sing in the ways j 



PSALM CXXXVIII. 661 

of the Lord, in the ways of his providence and grace towards them ; they shall 
rejoice in God, and give glory to him, however he is pleased to deal with them, 
in the ways of their duty and obedience to him. Note, They that walk in the 
ways of the Lord have reason to sing in those ways, that is, to go on in them 
with a great deal of cheerfulness, for they are ways of pleasantness, and it 
becomes us to be pleasant in them. And if we are so, "great is the glory of the 
Lord." It is very much for the honour of God that kings should walk in his 
ways, and that all those that walk in them should sing in them, and so proclaim 
to all the world that he is a good Master, and his work its own wages. 

6 Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the 
But the proud he knoweth afar off. [lowly : 

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive 

me: 

Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of 
And thy right hand shall save me. [mine enemies, 

8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me : 
Thy mercy, 0 Lord, endureth for ever : 
Forsake not the works of thine own hands. 

David here comforts himself with three things : 

First. The favour God bears to his humble people ; ver. 6, " Though the Lord 
be high," and neither needs any of his creatures nor can be benefited by them, 
" yet hath be respect unto the lowly," smiles upon them as well pleased with 
them, overlooks heaven and earth to cast a gracious look upon them, Isa. lvii. 15 ; 
Ixvi. 1, and, sooner or later, he will put honour upon them ; while he knows 
the proud afar off, knows them, but disowns them and rejects them, how 
proudly soever they pretend to his favour. Dr. Hammond makes this to be the 
sum of that Gospel which the kings of the earth shall hear and bid welcome, 
that penitent sinners shall be accepted of God, but the impenitent cast out. 
Witness the instance of the Pharisee and the publican, Lu. xviii. 

Secondly. The care God takes of his afflicted, oppressed people, ver. 7. David, 
though a great and good man, expects to " walk in the midst of trouble," but 
encourageth himself with hope, 1. That God would eomfort him. When my 
spirit is ready to sink and fail, "thou shalt revive me," and make me easy and 
cheerful under my troubles. Divine consolations have enough in them to revive 
us even when we walk in the midst of troubles, and are ready to die away for 
fear. 2. That he would protect him, and plead his cause. " Thou shalt stretch 
forth thine hand," though not against mine enemies, to destroy them, yet 
" against the wrath of mine enemies," to restrain that, and set bounds to it. 
3. That he would in due time work deliverance for him. " Thy right hand 
shall save me." As he has one hand to stretch out against his enemies, so he 
has another to save his own people. Christ is the right hand of the Lord, that 
shall save all those that serve him. 

Thirdly. The assurance we have that, whatever good work God has begun in 
and for his people, he will perform it ; ver. 8, " The Lord will perfect that 
which concerns me," that is, 1. That which is most needful for me, and he 
knows best what is so. We are careful and cumbered about many things that 
do not concern us, but he knows what are the things that really are of con- 
sequence to us, Mat. vi. 32, and he will order them for the best. 2. That which 
we are most concerned about. Every good man is most concerned about his 
duty to God, and his happiness in God, that the former may be faithfully done, 
and the latter effectually secured ; and if, indeed, these are the things that our 
hearts are most upon, and concerning which we are most solicitous, there is 
a good work begun in us, and he that has begun it will perfect it. we may be 
confident he will, Phil. i. 6. Observe, 1st. What ground the psalmist builds 
this confidence upon. " Thy mercy, O Lord, endures for ever." This he had 
made very much the matter of his praise, Ps. xiii. 6, and therefore he could here 
with the more assurance make it the matter of his hope ; for if we give God the 
glory of his mercy we may take to ourselves the comfort of it. Our hopes that 
we shall persevere must be founded, not upon our own strength, for that will 
fail us, but upon the mercy of God, for that will not fail. It is well pleaded, Lord, 
thy mercy endures for ever, let me be for ever a monument of it. 2nd. What use 
lie makes of this confidence. I t doth not supersede, but quicken prayer. He turns 
his expectation into a petition ; " Forsake not," do not let go, " the work of thine 
own hands." Lord, 1 am the work of thine own hands ; my soul is so, do not 



662 PSALM CXXXIX. 

forsake me ; my concerns are so, do not lay by thy care of them. Whatever 
good there is in us, it is the work of God's own hands. He works in us both to 
will and to do ; it will fail if he forsake it ; but his glory, as Jehovah, a perfect- 
ing God, is so much concerned in the progress of it to the end, that we may in 
faith pray. Lord, do not forsake it. Whom he loves, he loves to the end; and, 
as for God, his work is perfect. 



PSALM CXXXIX. 

Some of the Jewish doctors are of opinion that this is the most excellent of all the 
psalms of David, and a very pious, devout meditation it is upon the doctrine of God's 
omniscience, which we should therefore have our hearts fixed upon and filled with in 
singing this psalm. I. This doctrine is here asserted and fully laid down, ver. 1 — 6. 
II. It is confirmed by two arguments: 1. God is everywhere present, therefore he 
knows all, ver. 7 — 12; 2. He made us, therefore he knows us, ver. 13 — 16. II. Some 
inferences are drawn from this doctrine: 1. It may fill us with pleasing admiration 
of God, ver. 17, 18 ; 2. With a holy dread and detestation of sin and sinners, 
ver. 19 — 22; 3. With a holy satisfaction in our own integrity, concerning which we 
may appeal to God, ver. 23, 24. This great and self-evident truth, that God knows 
our hearts, and the hearts of all the children of men, if we did but mix faith with it, 
and seriously consider and apply it, would have a great influence upon our holiness 
and upon our comfort. 

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 




LOED, thou hast searched me, and known me. 
2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, 



Thou understandest my thought afar off. 

3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, 
And art acquainted with all my ways. 

4 For there is not a word in my tongue, 

But, lo, 0 Lord, thou knowest it altogether. 

5 Thou hast beset me behind and before. 
And laid thine hand upon me. 

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; 
It is high, I cannot attain unto it. 

David here lays down this great doctrine, that the God with whom we have 
to do has a perfect knowledge of us; and that all the motions and actions both 
of our inward and of our outward man are naked and open before him. 

First. He lays down this doctrine in the way of an address to God; he saith 
it to him, acknowledging it to him, and giving him the glory of it. Divine truths 
look full as well when they are prayed over as when they are preached over, 
and much better than when they are disputed over. When we speak of God 
to him himself, we shall find ourselves concerned to speak with the utmost 
degree both of sincerity and reverence, which will be likely to make the im- 
pressions deeper. 

Secondly. He lays it down in a way of application to himself. Not, Thou hast 
known all, but, Thou hast known me ; that is it which I am most concerned to 
believe, and which it will be most profitable for me to consider. Then we know 
these tnings for our good, when we know them for ourselves, Job v. 27 ; when 
we acknowledge^ Lord, all souls are thine, we must add, My soul is thine ; thou 
that hatest all sin, hatest my sin ; that art good to all, good to Israel, art good 
to me. So here, " Thou hast searched me and known me," that is, known me as 
thoroughly as we know that which we have most diligently and exactly searched 
into. David was a king, and the hearts of kings are unsearchable to their 
subjects, Pr. xxv. 3, but they are not so to their Sovereign. 

Thirdly. He descends to particulars. Thou knowest me wherever I am, and 
whatever I am doing, me, and all that belongs to me. 1. " Thou knowest " me, 
and all my motions, " my downsitting " to rest, " my uprising " to work, with 
what temper of mind I compose myself when I sit down, and stir up myseif 
when I rise up ; what my soul reposeth itself in as its stay and support, what 
it aims at and reacheth towards as its felicity and end. Thou knowest me when 
I come home, how I walk before my house; and when 1 go abroad, on what 
errands I go. 2. Thou knowest all my imaginations. Nothing more close and 



PSA.LM CXXXIX. 663 

quick than thought ; it is always unknown to others, it is often unobserved by 
ourselves, and yet thou understandest my thought afar off." Though my 
thoughts be never so foreign and distant one from another thou understandest 
the chain of them, and canst make out their connexion, when so many of them 
slip my notice, that I myself cannot. Or, thou understandest them afar off, 
even before I think them, and not long after I have thought them, and have 
myself forgotten them. ( )r, thou understandest them from afar ; from the height 
of heaven thou seest into the depths of the heart, Ps\ xxxiii. 14. 3. Thou 
knowest me, and all my designs and undertakings. Thou compassest every 
particular path. Thou siftest or winnowest my path, (so some,) so as thoroughly 
to distinguish between the good and evil of what I do, as by sifting we separate 
between the corn and the chaff. All our actions are ventilated by the judgment 
of God, Ps. xvii. 3. God takes notice of every step we take, every right step, 
and every by-step. He is acquainted with all our ways, intimately acquainted 
with them; he knows what rule we walk by, what end we walk towards, what 
company we walk with. 4. Thou knowest me in all my retirements. Thou 
knowest my lying down ; when I am withdrawn from all company, and am 
reflecting upon what has past all day ? and composing myself to rest, thou 
knowest what I have in my heart, and with what thoughts 1 go to bed. 5. Thou 
knowest me and all I say ; ver. 4, ;i There is not a word in my tongue," not a 
vain word, not a good word, but thou knowest it altogether," knowest what 
it meant, from what thought it came, and with what design it was uttered. 
There is not a word at my tongue's end, ready to be spoken, yet checked and 
kept in, but thou knowest it. ' When there is not a word in my tongue, O Lord, 
thou knowest all,' (so some read it,) for thoughts are words to God. 6. Thou 
knowest me in every part of me. " Thou hast beset me behind and before," so that 
go which way I w ill 1 am under thine eye, and cannot escape it any way possible ; 
" Thou hast laid thine hand upon me," and I cannot outrun thee. Wherever 
we are, we are under the eye and hand of God. Perhaps it is an allusion to 
the physician's laying^ his hand upon his patient, to feel how his pulse beats, 
or what temper he is in. God knows us as we know not only what we see, but 
what we feel, and have our hands upon. " All his saints are in his hand." 

Fourthly. He speaks of it with admiration ; ver. 6, " It is too wonderful for 
me ; it is high ; " that is, I. Thou hast such a knowledge of me as I have not of 
myself, nor can have. I cannot take notice of all my own thoughts, nor make 
such a judgment of myself as thou makest of me. 2. It is such a knowledge as 

I cannot comprehend, much less describe. That thou knowest all things I am 
sure, but how 1 cannot tell. We cannot by searching find out how God search- 
eth and finds out us, nor do we know how we are known. 

7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit ? 

Or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? 

8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there : 

If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 

9 If I take the wings of the morning, 

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; 
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, 
And thy right hand shall hold me. 

II If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me ; 
Even the night shall be light about me. 

12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ; 
But the night shineth as the day : 

The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. 

13 For thou hast possessed my reins : 

Thou hast covered me in my mothers womb. 

1 4 I will praise thee ; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made : 
Marvellous are thy works ; 

And that my soul knoweth right well. 

15 My substance was not hid from thee, 
When I was made in secret, 



664 



PSALM CXXXIX. 



And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; 
And in thy book all my members were written, 
Which m continuance were fashioned, when as yet there 
was none of them. 

It is of great use to us to know the certainty of the things wherein we have 
been instructed, that we may not only believe them, but be able to tell why we 
believe them, and to give a reason of the hope that is in us. David is therefore 
sure that God perfectly knows him and all his ways, 

First. Because he is always under his eye. If God is omnipresent, he must 
needs be omniscient; but he is omnipresent: this supposeth the infinity and 
immensity of his being, from which follows the ubiquity of his presence. 
Heaven and earth include the whole creation, and the Creator fills both, 
Jer. xxiii. 24. He doth not only know both and govern both, but he fills both. 
Every part of the creation is under God's intuition and influence. David here 
acknowledgeth this also with application, and sees himself thus open before 
God. 

1. No flight can remove ns out of God's presence : " "Whither shall I go from 
thy Spirit, from thy presence.*' that is, from thy spiritual presence, from thyself, 
who art a spirit? God is a spirit, and therefore it is folly to think that, because 
we cannot see him, he cannot see us. " Whither shall I flee from thy presence ?'* 
Not that he did desire to go away from God ; no, he desired nothing more than 
to be near him, but he only puts the case, Suppose I should be such a fool as to 
think of getting out of thy sight, that I might shake off the awe of thee; suppose 
I should think of revolting from my obedience to thee, or disowning a depen- 
dence on thee, and shifting for myself; alas, whither can I go? A heathen 
could say, Quocunque te jiexeris^ ibi Deutn videbis occurrentem tibi, — 1 Whither-' 
ever thou turn est thyself, thou wilt see God meeting thee.' — Seneca. 

He instanceth in the most remote and distant places, and counts upon meeting 
God in them. 1st. In heaven. If I ascend thither, as I hope to do shortly, 
" thou art there," and it will be my eternal bliss to be with thee there. Heaven 
is a vast large place, replenished with an innumerable company, and yet there 
is no escaping God's eye there, in any corner, or any crowd. The inhabitants 
of that world have as necessary a dependence upon God, and lie as open to his 
strict scrutiny, as the inhabitants of this. 2nd. In hell; in Sheol. Which may 
be understood either of the depth of the earth, the very centre of it, — should we 
dig as deep as we can underground, and think to hide ourselves there, we should 
be mistaken; God knows tnat path which the vulture's eye never saw, and to 
him the earth is all surface. Or of the state of the dead, — when we are removed 
out of the sight of all living, yet not out of the sight of the living God ; from his 
eye we cannot hide us in the grave. Or of the place of the damned, — " If I 
make my bed in hell," (an uncomfortable place to make a bed in, where there 
is no rest day or night, yet thousands will make their bed for ever in those 
flames,) " behold thou art there,'' in thy power and justice. God's wrath is the 
fire which will there burn everlastingly, Rev. xiv. 10. 3rd. In the remotest 
corners of this world: "If I take the wings of the morning," the rays of the 
morning light, (called the wings of the sun, Mai. iv. 2,) than which nothing 
more swift, "and flee" upon them "to the uttermost parts of the sea " or of 
the earth, Job xxxviii. 12, 13 ; should I flee to the most distant and obscure 
islands, (the ultima Thule y the terra incognita,) I should find thee there; "there 
shall thy hand lead me " as far as I go, " and thy right hand shall hold me," that 
I can go no farther, that I cannot go out of thy reach. God soon arrested 
Jonah when he fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 

2. No veil can hide us from God's eye, no, not that of the thickest darkness; 
ver. 11, 12, " If I say, Yet the darkness shall cover me," when nothing else will, 
alas ! I find myself deceived ; the curtains of the evening will stand me in no 
more stead than the win^s of the morning, " even the night shall be light about 
me." That which often favours the escape of a pursued criminal, and the 
retreat of a beaten army, yet will do me no kindness in fleeing from thee. When 
God divided between the light and darkness, it was with a reservation of this 
prerogative, that to himself the darkness and the light should still be both alike. 

The darkness darkeneth not from thee,' for there is no darkness or shadow 
of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. No hypocritical 
mask or disguise, how specious soever, can save any person or action from 
appearing in a true light before God. Secret haunts of sin are as open before 
God as the most open and barefaced viilanies. 

Secondly. Because he is the work of his hands. He that framed the engine 
knows all the motions of it; God made us, and therefore no doubt he knows 
us. He saw us when we were in the forming ; and can we be hid from him now 



PSALM CXXXIX. 66.5 

we are formed? This argument he insists upon, ver. 13 — 16, "Thou hast pos- 
sessed my reins:" that is, thou art master of my most secret thoughts and 
intentions, and the innermost recesses of my soul; thou not only knowest, but 
governest them, as we do that which we have possession of. And the possession 
thou hast of my reins is a rightful possession, for " thou coveredst me in my 
mother's womb; " that is, thou madest me, Job x. 11. Thou madest me a secret. 
The soul is concealed from all about us ; " Who knows the things of a man save 
the spirit of a man?" 1 Cor. ii. 11. Hence we read of the hidden man of the 
heart. But it was God himself that thus covered us ; and therefore he can, 
when he pleaseth. discover us. When he hid us from all the world he did not 
intend to hide us from himself. Concerning the formation of man, of each of us, 

1. The glory of it is here given to God, entirely to him ; for it is he that hath 
made us, and not we ourselves. " I will praise thee," the Author of my being; 
my parents were only the instruments of it. It was done, 1st. Under the 
Divine inspection "My substance," when hid in the womb, nay, when it was 
yet but in fieri, — ' in the forming,' an unshapen embryo, " was not hid from thee, 
thine eyes did see my substance." 2nd. By the Divine operation. As the eye 
of God saw us then, so his hand wrought us ; we were his work. 3rd. Accord- 
ing to the Divine model. "In thy book all my members were written. " 
Eternal wisdom formed the plan, and by that almighty power raised the noble 
structure. 

2. Glorious things are here said concerning it. The generation of man is to 
be considered with the same pious veneration as his creation at first. Consider 
it, 1st. As a great marvel, a great miracle we might call it, but that it is done 
in the ordinary course of nature. " We are fearfully and wonderfully made." 
We may justly be astonished at the admirable contrivance of these living 
temples, the composure of every part, and the harmony of all together. 2nd. 
As a great mystery ; a mystery of nature. " My soul knows right well " that 
it is marvellous; but how to describe it I know not, for any one else, for "I 
was made in. secret, and curiously wrought " in the womb as " in the lowest 
parts of the earth," so privately and so far out of sight. 3rd. As a great mercy; 
that all our members " in continuance were fashioned " according as they were 
written in the book of God's wise counsel. " when as yet there was none of 
them ; " or, as some read it, ' and none of tnem was left out.* If any of our 
members had been wanting in God's book, they had been wanting in our bodies; 
but through his goodness we have all our limbs and senses, — the want of any 
of which might have made us burthens to ourselves. See what reason we 
have then to praise God for our creation ? and to conclude that he who saw our 
substance when it was unfashioned sees it now it is fashioned. 

1 7 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, 0 God * 
How great is the sum of them ! 

18 If I should count them, 

They are more in number than the sand : 
When I awake, I am still with thee. 

19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, 0 God : 
Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. 

20 For they speak against thee wickedly, 
And thine enemies take thy name in vain. 

21 Do not I hate them, 0 Lord, that hate thee ? 

And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee ? 

22 I hate them with perfect hatred : 
I count them mine enemies. 

23 Search me, 0 God, and know my heart : 
Try me, and know my thoughts : 

24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, 
And lead me in the way everlasting. 

Here the psalmist makes application of the doctrine of God's omniscience 
divers ways. 

First. lie acknowledgeth with wonder and thankfulness the care God had 
taken of him all his days, ver. 17, 18. God that knew him thought of him. and 
his thoughts towards him were thoughts of love ; " thoughts of good ana not 



666 



PSALM CXXXIX. 



of evil," Jer. xxiv. 11. God's omniscience, which might justly have watched 
over us to do us hurt, has been employed for us, and has watched over us to 
do us good, Jer. xxxi. 28. God's counsels concerning us and our welfare, have 
been, 1. Precious to admiration. "How precious are they!" They are deep 
in themselves, such as cannot possibly be fathomed and comprehended. Pro- 
vidence has had a vast reach in its dispensations concerning us, and has brought 
things about for our good quite beyond our contrivance and foresight. They 
are dear to us ; we must think of them with a great deal of reverence, and 
yet with pleasure and thankfulness. Our thoughts concerning God must be 
delightful to us above any other thoughts. 2. Numerous to admiration ; " How 
great is the sum of them!" We cannot conceive how many God's kind counsels 
have been concerning us, how many good turns he has done us, and what 
variety of mercies we have received from him. "If we would count them," the 
neads of them, much more the particulars of them, "they are more in number 
than the sand," and yet every one great and very considerable, Ps. xl. 5. We 
cannot conceive the multitude of God's compassions, which are all new every 
morning. 3. Constant at all times. " When I awake" every morning, "I am 
still with thee," under thine eye and care, safe and easy under thy protection. 
This speaks also the continual devout sense David had of the eye of God upon 
him: "When 1 awake I am with thee "in my thoughts; and it would help to 
keep us in the fear of the Lord all the day long, if when we awake in the 
morning our first thoughts were of him, and we did then set him before us. 

Secondly. He concludes from this doctrine that ruin will certainly be the end 
of sinners. God knows all the wickedness of the wicked, and therefore he will 
reckon for it. "Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, () God," for all their wicked- 
ness is open before thee, however it may be artfully disguised and coloured 
over to hide it from the eye of the world. However thou suffer them to prosper 
for awhile, surely thou wilt slay them at last. Now observe, 1. The reason 
why God will punish them. Because they daringly affront him, and set him 
at defiance; ver. 20, "They speak against thee wickedly;" they "set their 
mouth against the heavens,'" Ps. lxxiii 9, and shall be called to account for the 
hard speeches they have spoken against him, Jude 15. They are his enemies, 
and declare their enmity by taking his name in vain, as we shew our contempt 
of a man if we make a byword of his name, and never mention him but in a way 
of jest and banter. Those that profane the sacred forms of swearing or praying, 
by using them in an impertinent, irreverent manner, take God's name in vain, 
and thereby shew themselves enemies to him. Some make it to be a description 
of hypocrites; 4 They speak of thee for mischief,' they talk of God, pretending 
to piety ; but it is with some ill design, for a cloak of maliciousness; and being 
enemies to God, while they pretend friendship, they take his name in vain ; that 
is, they swear falsely. 2. The use David makes of this prospect he has of the 
ruin of the wicked. 1st. He defies them. "Depart from me, ye bloody men," 
that is, ye shall not debauch me, for I will not admit your friendship, nor have 
fellowship with you ; and you cannot destroy me, for, being under God's pro- 
tection, he shall force you to depart from me. 2nd. He detests them, ver. 21, 22. 
Lord, thou knowest the heart and canst witness for me, " Do not I hate them 
that hate thee?" and for that reason, because they hate thee; and therefore 
I hate them because I love thee, and hate to see such affronts and indignities 
put upon thy blessed name. " Am not I grieved with those that rise up against 
thee?" grieved to see their rebellion, and to foresee their ruin which it will 
certainly end in. Note, Sin is hated, and sinners lamented, by all that fear God. 
"I hate them;" that is, "I hate the work of them that turn aside," as he 
explains himself, Ps. ci. 3, with a sincere and perfect hatred. I count them that 
are enemies to God as enemies to me, and will not have any intimacy with them, 
Ps. lxix. 9. 

Thirdly. He appeals to God concerning his sincerity, ver. 23, 24. 

1. He desires that as far as he was in the wrong God wouid discover it to 
him. They that are upright can take comfort in God's omniscience as a witness 
of their uprightness, and can with an humble confidence beg of him to search 
and try them, to discover them to themselves ; for a good man desires to know 
the worst by himself, and to discover them to others. He that means honestly 
could wish he had a window in his breast that any man may look into his heart. 
Lord, I hope I am not in a wicked way, but " see if there be any wicked w r ay 
in me," any corrupt inclination remaining ; let me see it, and root it out of me, 
for I do not allow it. 

2. He desires that as far as he w r as in the right he might be forwarded in it ; 
which he that knows the heart knows how to do effectually ; "Lead me in the 
way everlasting." Note, 1st. The way of godliness is an everlasting w T ay, it is 
everlastingly true and good, pleasing to God, and profitable to us, and will end 
in everlasting life. It is the way of antiquity, so some; the good old w r ay. 
2nd All the saints desire to be kept and led in this way, that they may not miss 
it, turn out of it, or tire in it. 



PSALM CXL. 667 

This and the four following psalms are much of a piece, and the scope of them the same 
with many that we met with in the beginning and middle of the book of Psalms, but 
few of late. They were penned by David (as it should seem) when he was persecuted 
by Saul ; one of them is said to be his prayer when he was in the cave, and it is 
probable all the rest were penned about the same time. In this psalm, I. David 
complains of the malice of his enemies, and prays to God to preserve him from them, 
ver. 1 — 5. II. He encourageth himself in God as his God, ver. 6, 7. III. He prays 
for and prophesies the destruction of his persecutors, ver. 8 — 11. IV. He assures all 
God's afflicted people that their troubles would in due time end well, ver. 12, 13, with 
which assurance we must comfort ourselves and one another in singing this psalm. 
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 

DELIVEE me, 0 Lord, from the evil man : 
Preserve me from the violent man ; 
2 Which imagine mischiefs in their heart ; 

Continually are they gathered together for war. 
8 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent ; 
Adders' poison is under their lips. Selah. 

4 Keep me, 0 Lord, from the hands of the wicked ; 
Preserve me from the violent man ; 

Who have purposed to overthrow my goings. 

5 The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords ; 
They have spread a net by the wayside ; 
They have set gins for me. Selah. 

6 I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God : 
Hear the voice of my supplications, 0 Lord. 

7 0 God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, 
Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. 

In this, as in other things, David was a type of Christ, — that he suffered 
before he reigned, was humbled before he was exalted ; and that, as there were 
many who loved and valued him, and sought to do him honour, so there were 
many that hated and envied him, and sought to do him mischief, as appears by 
these verses, where, 

First. He gives a character of his enemies, and paints them out in their own 
colours, as dangerous men, that he had reason to be afraid of ; but ill men that 
he had no reason to think the righteous God would countenance. There was 
one that seems to have been the ringleader of them, whom he calls the evil man, 
and the man of violence, ver. 1, 7; probably he means Saul. The Chaldee 
paraphrast, ver. 9, names both Doeg and Ahithophel; but between them there 
was a great distance of time. Violent men are evil men. But there were many 
besides this one that were confederate against David, who are here represented 
as the genuine offspring and seed of the serpent. For. 1. They are very subtle, 
crafty to do mischief. They have imagined it, ver. 2, have laid the scheme with 
all the art and cunning imaginable. They have purposed and plotted to over- 
throw the goings of a good man, ver. 4, to draw him into sin and trouble, to 
ruin him by blasting his reputation, crushing his interest, and taking away his 
life. To this purpose they have, like mighty hunters, hid a snare, and spread 
a net, and set gins, ver. 5, that their designs against him, being kept undis- 
covered, might be the more likely to take effect, and he might fall into their 
hands ere he was aware. Great persecutors nave often been great politi- 
cians, which has indeed made them the more formidable ; but the Lord pre- 
serveth the simple without all those arts. 2. They are very spiteful, as full 
of malice as Satan himself. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent 
that infuseth his venom with his tongue, and there is so much malignity in all 
they say, that one would think there were nothing under their lips but adders' 
poison, ver. 3; with their calumnies, and with their counsels, they aimed to 
destroy David, but secretly, as a man is stung with a serpent, or a snake, in the 
grass. And they endeavoured, likewise, to infuse their malice into others, 
and to make them seven times more the children of hell than themselves. A 
ir,atfgnant tongue makes men like the old serpent; and poison in the lips is 
a certain sign of poison in the heart. 3 They are confederate. They are many 
of their. , but they are all gathered together against me for war, ver. 2. They 



663 PSALM CXL. 

that can agree in nothing else can agr^e to persecute a good man. Herod ana 
Pilate will unite in this, and in this they resemble Satan, who is not divided 
against himself ; ail the devils agreeing in Beelzebub. 4. They are proud, ver. 5. 
Conceited of themselves, and confident of their success; and herein also they 
resemble Satan, whose reigning, ruining sin was pride. The pride of perse- 
cutors, though at present it be the terror, yet may be the encouragement of 
the persecuted, for the more haughty they are the faster are they ripening 
for ruin. " Pride goes before destruction." 

Secondly. He prays to God to keep him from them, and from being swallowed 
up by them. " Lord, deliver me, preserve me, keep me," ver. 1, 4. Let them 
not prevail to take away my life, my reputation, my interest, my comfort, and 
to prevent my coming to the throne. Keep me from doing as they do, or as they 
would have me do, or as they promise themselves I will do. Note, The more 
malice appears in our enemies against us, the more earnest we should be in 
prayer to God to take us under his protection. In him believers may count 
upon a security, and may enjoy it and themselves with a holy serenity. Those 
are safe whom God preserves. If he be for us who can be against us? 

Thirdly. He triumphs in God, and thereby in effect he triumphs over his per- 
secutors, ver. 6, 7. When his enemies sharpened their tongues against him, 
did he sharpen his against them? t No; " Adders' poison was under their lips, 
but grace was poured into his lips; witness what he here said unto the Lord, 
for to him he looked, to him he directed himself, when he saw himself in so much 
danger through the malice of his enemies; and it is well for us we have a God 
to go to. He comforted himself, 1. In his interest in God, "I said, Thou art 
my God;" and if my God, then my shield and mighty protector. In troublous, 
dangerous times it is good to claim relation to God, and by faith to keep hold 
of him. 2. In his access to God. _ This comforted him, not only that he was 
taken into covenant with God, but into communion with him, that he had leave 
to speak to him, and might expect an answer of peace from him, and could say, 
with an humble confidence, " Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord/' 
3. In the assurance he had of help from God, and happiness in him. " O God 
the Lord,'" Jehovah Adonai : as Jehovah thou art self-existent and self-suifi- 
cient, an infinitely perfect Being; as Adonai thou art my stay and support, 
my ruler and governor; and therefore the strength of my salvation, that is, my 
strong Saviour. Nay, not only my Saviour, but my salvation itself, from whom, 
in whom, my salvation is ; not only a strong Saviour, but the very strength of 
my salvation, on whom the stress of my hope is laid; all in all to make me 
happy, and to preserve me to my happiness. 4. In the experience he had had 
formerly of God's care of him. "Thou hast covered my head in the day of 
battle." As he pleaded with Saul, that for the service of his country he many 
a time jeoparded his life in the high places of the field, so he pleads with God, 
that in those services he had wonderfully protected him, and provided him 
a better helmet for the securing of his head than Goliath's was. Lord, thou hast 
kept me in the day of battle with the Philistines, suffer me not to fall by the 
treacherous intrigues of false-hearted Israelites. God is as able to preserve 
his people from secret fraud as from open force; and the experience we have 
had of his power and care in dangers of one kind may encourage us to trust 
in him, and depend upon him in dangers of another nature, for nothing can 
shorten the Lord's right hand. 

8 Grant not, 0 Lord, the desires of the wicked : 
Further not his wicked device ; 

Lest they exalt themselves. Selah. 

9 As for the head of those that compass me about, 
Let the mischief of their own lips cover them. 

1 0 Let burning coals fall upon them : 

Let them be cast into the fire ; 

Into deep pits, that they rise not up again. 
] 1 Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth : 

Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him. 

12 I know fliat the Lord will maintain the cause of the 
And the right of the pooi\ [afflicted, 

13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name ; 
The upright shall dwell in thy presence. 



PSALM CXL, 



669 



Here is the believing foresight David had, 

First. Of the shame and confusion of persecutors. 

1. Their disappointment. This he prays for, ver. 8, that their lusts might not 
he gratified, their lust of ambition, envy and revenge. " Grant not. O Lord, 
the desires of the wicked," but frustrate them. Let them not see the ruin 
of my interest which they so earnestly wish to see; but ''hear the voice of 
my supplications." That their projects might not take effect, but be blasted, 
" O further not his wicked device;" let not providence favour any of his 
designs, but cross them. " Suffer not his wicked device to proceed," but 
scotch his wheels, and stop him in the career of his pursuits. Thus we are to 
pray against the enemies of God's people that they may not succeed in any 
of their enterprises. Such was David's prayer against Ahithophel, that God 
would turn his counsels into foolishness. Ihe plea is, " lest they exalt them- 
selves," value themselves upon their success, as if it were an evidence that God 
favoured them. Proud men when they prosper are made prouder, grow more 
impudent against God, and insolent against his people, and therefore, Lord, do 
not prosper them. 

2. Their destruction. This he prays for, as we read it ; but some choose to 
read it rather as a prophecy, and the original will bear it. If we take it as a 
prayer that proceeds from a spirit of prophecy, which comes all to one, he 
foretells the ruin, 

1st. Of his own enemies. As for those that compass me about and seek my 
ruin, First. The mischief of their own lips shall cover their heads, ver. 9; that 
is, the evil they have wished to me shall come upon themselves ; their curses 
shall be blown back into their own faces; and the very designs which they 
have laid against me shall turn to their own ruin, Ps. vii. 15, 16. Let those that 
make mischief by slandering, tale-bearing, misrepresenting their neighbours, 
and spreading ill-natured characters and stories, dread the consequence of it, 
and think how sad their condition will be when all the mischief they have been 
accessory to shall be made to return upon themselves. Secondly. The judg- 
ments of God shall fall upon them; compared here to burning coals, in allusion 
to the destruction of Sodom. Nay, as in the deluge the waters from above and 
those from beneath met for the drowning of the world, both the windows 
of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up; 
so here, to complete the ruin of the enemies of Christ and his kingdom, they 
shall not only have burning coals cast upon them from above, Job xx. 23; 
xxvii. 22; but they themselves shall be cast into the fire beneath ; both heaven 
and hell, the wrath of God the judge, and the rage of Satan the tormentor, 
shall concur to make them miserable. And the fire they shall be cast into is 
not a furnace of fire, out of which perhaps they might escape, but a deep pit 
out of which they cannot rise. Tophet is said to be deep and large, Isa. xxx. 33. 

2nd. Of all others that are like them, ver. 11. First. Evil speakers must 
expect to be shaken, for they shall never be established in the earth. "What 
is got by fraud and falsehood, by calumny and unjust accusation, will not 
prosper, will not last. Wealth gotten by vanity will be diminished. Let not 
such men as Doeg think to reign long, for his doom will be theirs, Ps. ii. 5. A 
lying tongue is but for a moment; but " the lip of truth shall be established 
for ever." Secondly. Evil doers must expect to be destroyed. "Evil shall 
hunt the violent man," as the bloodhound hunts the murderer to discover 
him, as the lion hunts his prey to tear it to pieces. Mischievous men will be 
brought to light, and brought to ruin ; the destruction appointed shall run 
them down and overthrow them. "Evil pursues sinners." 

Secondly. Here is his foresight of the deliverance and comfort of the perse- 
cuted, ver. 12, 13. 1. God will do them justice in delivering them who ; being 
wronged, commit themselves to him. " I know that the Lord will maintain 
the just and injured cause of his afflicted people, and will not suffer might 
always to prevail against right, though it be but "the right of the poor," who 
have but little that they can pretend a right to. God is and will be the patron 
of oppressed innocence, much more of persecuted piety. They that know him 
cannot but know this. 2. They will do him justice, (if I may so speak,) in 
ascribing the glory of their deliverance to him. "Surely the righteous," (who 
make conscience of rendering to God his due, as well as to men theirs,) " shall 
give thanks unto thy name" when they find their cause pleaded with jealousy, 
and prosecuted with effect. The closing words, " The upright shall dwell in 
thy presence," include both God's favour to them,— Thou shalt admit them to 
dwell in thy presence in grace here, in glory hereafter, and it shall be their 
safety and happiness,— and their duty to God; they shall attend upon thee as 
servants that keep in the presence of their masters, both to do them honour and 
to receive their commands. This is true thanksgiving, even thanksliving : and 
mis use we should make of all our deliverances, we should serve God the 
Hioie cioseiy and cheerfully. 



670 PSALM CXLL 

David was in distress when he penned this psalm ; it is most likely pursued by Saul, 
that violent man. Is any distressed ? let him pray ; David did so, and had the com- 
fort of it. I. He prays for God's favourable acceptance, ver. 1, 2. II. For his powerful 
assistance, ver. 3, 4. III. That others might be instrumental of good to his soul, 
as he hoped to be to the souls of others, ver. 5, 6. IV. That he and his friends being 
now brought to the last extremity, God would graciously appear for their relief and 
rescue, ver. 7 — 10. The mercy and grace of God are as necessary to us as they were 
to him, and therefore we should be humbly earnest for them in singing this psalm. 

A Psalm of David. 




ORD, I cry unto thee : make haste unto me ; 
Give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. 



2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense ; 
And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. 

3 Set a watch, 0 Lord, before my mouth ; 
Keep the door of my lips. 

4 Incline not my heart to any evil thing, 

To practise wicked works with men that work iniquity : 
And let me not eat of their dainties. 

Mercy to accept what we do well, and grace to keep us from doing ill, are the 
two things which we are here taught by David's example to pray to God for. 

First. David was in love with prayer, and he begs of God that his prayers 
might be heard and answered, ver. 1, 2. David cried unto God ; his crying 
notes fervency in prayer, he prayed as one in earnest j his crying to God notes 
faith and fixedness in prayer. And what did he desire as the success of his 
prayer ? 1. That God would take cognizance of it, " Give ear to my voice; " 
let me have a gracious audience. They that cry in prayer may hope to be heard 
tn prayer, not for their loudness but their liveliness. 2. That he would visit 
him upon it, " Make haste unto me." Those that know how to value God's 
gracious presence will be importunate for it, and humbly impatient of delays. 
He that believes doth not make haste, but he that prays may be earnest with 
God to make haste. 3. That he would be well pleased with him in it; well 
pleased with his praying and the lifting up of his hands in prayer; which notes 
both the elevation and enlargement of his desire, and the outgoings of his hope 
and expectation ; the lifting up of the hands signifying the lifting up of the 
heart, and being used instead of lifting up the sacrifices which were heaved 
and waved before the Lord. Prayer is a spiritual sacrifice, it is the offering up 
of the soul and its best affections to God. Now he prays that this may be set- 
forth and directed before God as the incense which was daily burned upon the 
golden altar, and as the evening sacrifice, which he instances in rather than the 
morning sacrifice, perhaps because this was an evening prayer, or with an eye 
to Christ, who in the evening of the world, and in the evening of the day, w T as 
to offer up himself a sacrifice of atonement, and establish the spiritual sacrifices 
of acknowledgment, having abolished all the carnal ordinances of the law. 
They that pray in faith may expect it will please God better than an ox or 
bullock. David was now banished from God's court, and could not attend 
the sacrifice and incense, and therefore begs that his prayer might be instead 
of them. Note, Pray er is of a sweet smelling savour to God, as incense, which 
yet had no savour without fire ; nor has prayer without the fire of holy love 
and fervour. 

Secondly. David was in fear of sin ; and he begs of God that he might be kept 
from sin, knowing that his prayers would not be accepted unless he took care 
to watch against sin. We must be as earnest for God's grace in us as for his 
favour towards us. 

1. He prays that he might not be surprised into any sinful words; ver. 3, " Set 
a watch, O Lord, before my mouth ; " and nature having made my lips to be a 
door to my words, let grace keep that door, that no word may be suffered to go 
out which may any way tend to the dishonour of God or the hurt of others. 
Good men know the evil of tongue sins, and how prone they are to them. 
When enemies are provoking we are in danger of carrying our resentments too 
far, and of speaking unadvisedly, as Moses did, though the meekest of men; 
ana therefore they are earnest with God to prevent their speaking amiss, as 
knowing no watchfulness or resolution of their own is sufficient for the govern- 
ing of their tongues, much less of their hearts, without the special grace bt God, 
W e must keep our mouths as with a bridle, but that will not serve, we mu»t 



PSALM CXLI. 671 

pray to God to keep them. Nehemiah prayed to the Lord then, when he set a 
watch, and so must we, for without him the watchman waketh but in vain. 

2. That he might not be inclined to any sinful practices ; ver. 4, " Incline not 
my heart to any evil thing ;" that is whatever inclination there is in me to sin 
let it be not only restrained but mortified by Divine grace. The example of 
those about us, and the provocations of those against us, are apt to stir up and 
draw out corrupt inclinations; we are ready to do as others do, and to think 
that if we received injuries we may return them, and therefore we have need to 
pray that we may never be left to ourselves to practise any wicked work, either 
in confederacy with, or in opposition to, the men that work iniquity. While we 
live in such an evil world, and carry about with us such evil hearts, we have 
need to pray that we may neither be drawn in by any allurement, nor driven on 
by any provocation, to do an ill thing. 

3. That he might not be ensnared by any sinful pleasures. " Let me not eat 
of their dainties." Let me not join with them in their feasts and sports, lest 
thereby I be inveigled into their sins ; better is a dinner of herbs out of the way 
of temptation than a stalled ox in it. Sinners pretend to find dainties in sin : 
stolen waters are sweet, forbidden fruit is pleasant to the eye; but they that 
consider how soon the dainties of sin will turn into wormwood and gall, how 

I certainly it will at last bite like a serpent and sting like an adder, will dread 
i those dainties, and pray to God by his providence to take them out of their 

sight, and by his grace to turn their stomachs (as I may say) against them. 

Good men will pray against even the sweets of sin. 

5 Let the righteous smite me ; it shall be a kindness : 
And let him reprove me ; it shall be an excellent oil, 

which shall not break my head : 
For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. 

6 When their judges are overthrown in stony places, 
They shall hear my words ; for they are sweet. 

7 Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, 

As when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. 

8 But mine eyes are unto thee, 0 God the Lord : 
In thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute. 

9 Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, 
And the gins of the workers of iniquity. 

1 0 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, 
Whilst that I withal escape. 

Here, First. David desires to be told of his faults. His enemies reproached 
him with that which was false, which he could not but complain of, yet at the 
same time he desires his friends would reprove him for that which was really 
amiss in him, particularly if there were any thing that gave the least colour to 

* those reproaches ; ver. 5, " Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness." 
The righteous God, (so some ;) I will welcome the rebukes of his providence, and 
be so far from quarrelling with them that I will receive them as tokens of love, 

I and improve them as means of grace, and will pray for those that are the 
instruments of my trouble. But it is commonly taken for the reproofs given 
by righteous men ; and it best becomes those that are themselves righteous to 

j reprove the unrighteousness of others, and from them it will be best taken. 
But if the reproof be just, though the reprover be not so, we must make a good 

| use of it, and learn obedience by it. But the reproofs of the righteous and wise 
we are here taught how to receive. 1. We must desire to be reproved for 

I whatever is amiss in us, or is done amiss by us. Lord, put it into the heart of 

j the righteous to smite me and reprove me. If my own heart doth not smite 

I me as it ought, let my friend do it; let me never fall under that dreadful 
judgment of being let alone in sin. 2. We must account it a piece of friend- 
ship. We must not only bear it patiently, but take it as a kindness, for "re- 

! proofs of instruction are the way of life," Pr. vi. 23 ; are means oi good to 
as. to bring us to repentance for the sins we have committed, and to prevent 

! relapses into sin. Reproofs, though they cut, it is in order to a cure, and 

! therefore much more desirable than the kisses of an enemy, Pr. xxvii. 6, or 
t&e song of fools, Eccl. vii. 5. David blessed God for Abigail's seasonable 



672 PSALM CXLII. 

admonition, I Sam. xxi. 32. 3. "We must reckon ourselves helped and healed 
by it. "It shall be as an excellent oil "to a wound to mollify it, and close it 
up ; " It shall not break my head," as some reckon it to do, who could as well 
bear to have their heads broken as to be told of their faults, but, saith David, 
I am not of that mind; it is my sin that has broken my heaa, that has broken 
my bones, Ps. li. 8. The reproof is an excellent oil to cure tne bruises sin has 
given me. "It shall not break my head," if it may but help to break my heart. 
4. We must requite the kindness of those that deal thus faithfully, thus friendly 
with us, at least by our prayers for them in their calamities; and hereby we must 
shew that we took it kindly. Dr. Hammond gives quite another reading of this 
verse; 'Reproach will bruise me that am righteous, and rebuke me; but that 
poisonous oil shall not break my head,' that is, shall not destroy me, shall not 
do me the mischief intended, 'for yet my prayer shall be in their mischiefs/ 
that God would preserve me from them, and my prayer shall not be in vain. 

Secondly. David hopes his persecutors will some time or other bear to be 
told of their faults, as he was willing to be told of his ; ver. 6, " when their 
judges," (Saul and nis officers that judged and condemned David, and would 
themselves be sole judges,) when they " are overthrown in stoiry places," among 
the rocks in the wilderness, then "they shall hear my words, for they are 
sweet." Some think this refers to the relentings that were in Saul's breast, when 
he said with tears, " Is this thy voice, my son David ? " 1 Sam. xxiv. 16 ; xxvi. 21. 
Or we may take it more generally ; even judges, as great as they are, may come 
to be overthrown; those that make the greatest figure in this world do not 
always meet with level, smooth ways through it. And those that slighted the 
word of God before will relish it and be glad of it when they are in affliction, 
for that opens the ear to instruction. When the world is bitter the word is 
sweet. Oppressed innocency cannot gain a hearing with those that live in 
pomp and pleasure, but when they come to be overthrown themselves they 
will have more compassionate thoughts of the afflicted. 

Thirdly. David complains of the great extremity to which he and his friends 
were reduced ; ver. 7, Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth," out of 
which they are thrown up, so long have we been dead; or into which they are 
ready to be thrown, so near are we to the pit, and they are as little regarded at 
chips among the hewers of wood, which are thrown in neglected heaps. 4 As 
one that cuts and cleaves the earth,' so some read it, alluding to the ploughman 
that tears the earth in pieces with his ploughshare, Ps. cxxix. 3. "Can these 
dry bones live ? " 

Fourthly. David casts himself upon God, and depends upon him for deliver- 
ance. " But mine eyes are unto thee," yer. 8, for when the case is never so 
deplorable thou canst redress all the grievances; from thee I expect relief as 
bad as things are, " and in thee is my trust." Those that have their eye towards 
God may have their hopes in him. 

Fifthly. He prays that God would succour and relieve him as his necessity 
required. 1. That he would comfort him. "Leave not my soul desolate and 
destitute ; " still let me seewhere my help is. 2. That he would prevent the 
designs of his enemies against him; ver. 9, "Keep me from" being taken in 
"the snare they have laid for me ;" give me to discover it, and to evade it. Be 
the gin placed with never so much subtlety God can and will secure his people 
from being taken in it. 3. That God would in justice turn the designs of his 
enemies upon themselves, and in mercy deliver him from being ruined by them ; 
yer. 10, "Let the wicked fall into their own net," the net which intentionally 
they procured for me, but which meritoriously they prepared for themselves. 
Nec lex est justior ulla quam necis artifices arte perire sua,— No law can be 
more just than that the architects of destruction should perish by their own 
contrivances. ' All that are bound over to God's justice are held in the cords 
of their own iniquity ; but let me at the same time obtain a discharge. The 
entangling and ensnaring of the wicked sometimes proves the escape and 
enlargement of the righteous. 



PSALM CXLIT. 

This psalm is a prayer, the substance of which David offered up to God when he was 
forced by Saul to take shelter in a cave, and afterwards penned it in this form. Here 
is, I. The complaint he makes to God, ver. 1, 2, of the subtlety, strength, and malice 
of his enemies, ver. 3, 6 ; and the coldness and indifferency of hi3 friends, ver. 4. 
II. The comfort he takes in God, that he knew his case, ver. 3 ; and was his refuge, 
ver. 5. III. His expectation from God, that he would hear and deliver him, ver. 6. 7. 
IV. His expectation from the righteous, that they would join with him in p.'aises, 
ver. 7. Those that are troubled in mind, body, or estate may, in singing this psaira, 
(if they sing it in some measure with David's spirit,) both warrant his compiaiLts, ua<X 
fetch in his comforts. 



PSALM CXLII. 673 
Maschil of David ; A Prayer when he was in the cave. 

I CRIED unto the Lord with my voice ; [tion. 
With my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplica- 

2 I poured out my complaint before him ; 
I shewed before him my trouble. 

3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, 
Then thou knewest my path. 

In the way wherein I walked 

Have they privily laid a snare for me. 

"Whether it was in the cave of Adullam, or that of Engedi, that David prayed 
this prayer is not material; it is plain he was in distress. It was a great- 
disgrace to so great a soldier, so great a courtier, to be put to such mean shifts 
for his own safety ; and a great terror to be so hotly pursued, and every moment 
in expectation of death; yet then he had such a presence of mind as to pray 
this prayer, and wherever he was still he had his religion about him. Prayers 
and tears were his weapons; and when he durst not stretch forth his hands 
against his prince, he lifted them up to his God. There is no cave so deep, so 
dark, but we may out of it send up our prayers and our souls in prayer to God. 
He calls this prayer, Maschil, a psalm of instruction, because of the good lessons 
he had himself learned in the cave, learned on his knees, which he desired to 
teach others. In these verses observe, 

First. How David complained to God, ver. 1, 2. When the danger was over, 
he was not ashamed to own (as great spirits sometimes are) the fright he had 
been in, and the application he had made to God. Let not men of the first 
rank think it any diminution or disparagement to them when they are in afflic- 
tion to cry to God ; and to cry like children to their parents, when any thing 
frightens them. David poured out his complaint, which notes a free and full 
complaint, he was large and particular in it. His heart was as full of his 
grievances as it could hold, but he made himself easy by pouring them out 
before the Lord ; and this he did with great fervency. He "cried unto the Lord 
with his voice, with the voice of his mind, so some think: for, being hid in the 
cave, he durst not speak with an audible voice, lest that should have dis- 
covered him. But mental prayer is vocal to God, and he hears the groanings 
which cannot or dare not be uttered, Rom. viii. 26. Two things David laid open 
to God in this complaint : 

1. His distress. He exhibited a remonstrance or memorial of his case; "I 
shewed before him my trouble," and all the circumstances of it. He did not 
prescribe to God, nor shew him his trouble, as if God did not know it with- 
out his shewing, but as one that put^ a confidence in God, desired to keep up 
communion with him, and was willing to refer himself entirely to him ; 
he unbosomed himself to him, humbly laid the matter before him, and then 
cheerfully left it with him. We are apt to shew our trouble too much to our- 
selves, aggravating it, and poring upon it, which doth us no kindness, whereas 
by shewing it to God we might cast the care upon him who careth for us, and 
thereby ease ourselves. Nor should we allow of any complaint to ourselves 
or others, which we cannot with the due decency and sincerity of devotion make 
to God, and stand to before him. 

2. His desire. When he made his complaint, he made his supplication, ver. 1 ; 
not claiming relief as a debt, but humbly begging it as a favour. Complainants 
must be supplicants, for God will be sought unto. 

Secondly. What he complained of. " In the way wherein I walked," sus- 
pecting no danger, " have they privily laid a snare for me," to entrap me. Saul 
gave Michal his daughter to David on purpose that she might be a snare to him, 
1 Sam. xviii. 2i. This he complains of to God, that every thing was done with 
design upon him. If he had gone out of his way, and met with snares, he might 
have thanked himself; but when he met with them in the way of his duty, he 
might with humble boldness tell God of them. 

Thirdly. What comforts him in the midst of these complaints ; ver. 3, " When 
my spirit was overwhelmed within me," and ready to sink under the burthen 
of grief and fear, when I was quite at a loss, and ready to depair, " then thou 
knewest my path;" that is, then it was a pleasure to me to think that thou 
knewest it. Thou knewest my sincerity, the right path which I have walked 
in, and that I am not such a one as my persecutors represent me. Or thou 
knewest my condition in all the particulars of it ; when my spirit was so over- 
whelmed that I could not distinctly shew it, this comforted me, that thou knewest 
it, Job xxiii. 10. Thou knewest it; that is, thou didst protect, preserve, and 
secure it, Ps. xxxi. 7 ; Beu. ii. 7. 



674 PSALM CXLII. 

4 I looked on my right hand, and beheld, 
But there was no man that would know rne : 
Eefuge failed me ; 

No man cared for my soul. 

5 I cried unto thee, 0 Lord : 
I said, Thou art my refuge 

And my portion in the land of the living. 

6 Attend unto my cry ; for I am brought very low : 
Deliver me from my persecutors ; 

For they are stronger than I. 

7 Bring my soul out of prison, 
That I may praise, thy name : 

The righteous shall compass me about ; 
For thou shalt deal bountifully with me. 

The psalmist here tells us for our instruction, 

First. How he was disowned and deserted by his friends, ver. 4. When he 
was in favour at court, he seemed to have a great interest, but when he was 
made an outlaw, and it was dangerous for anybody to harbour him, — witness 
Ahimelech s fate,— then no man would know him, but everybody was shy of 
him. He looked on his right hand for an advocate, [Ps. cix. 31,) some friend 
or other to speak a good word for him. But since Jonathan's appearing for 
him had like to have cost him his life, nobody was willing to venture in defence 
of his innocency, but were ready to say they knew nothing of the matter. He 
looked round to see if any would open their doors to him, but refuge failed him ; 
none of all his old friends would give him a night's lodging, or direct him to 
any place of secrecy and safety. Such swallow-friends how many good men 
have been deceived by, that are gone when winter comes ! David's life was 
exceedingly precious, and yet when he was unjustly proscribed no man cared 
for it, nor w ould move a hand for the protection of it. Herein he was a type of 
Christ, who in his sufferings for us was forsaken of all men, even of his own 
disciples, and trod the winepress alone, for there was none to help, none to 
uphold, Isa. lxiii. 5. 

Secondly. How he then found satisfaction in God, ver. 5. Lovers and friends 
stood aloof from him, and it was in vain to call to them, but " I cried unto thee, 

0 Lord;" who knowest me and carest for me, when none else will, and wilt 
not fail me nor forsake me, when men do ; for God is constant in his love. 
David tells us what he said to God in the cave; " Thou art my refuge and my 
portion in the land of the living." I depend upon thee to be so, my refuge to 
save me from being miserable, my portion to make me happy. The cave I am 
in is but a poor refuge, Lord, thy name is the strong tower that I run into ; thou 
art my refuge, in whom alone I shall think myself safe. The crown I am In 
hopes of is but a poor portion ; I can never think myself well provided for till 

1 know that "the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.'' 
Those that in sincerity take the Lord for their God shall find him all-sufficient, 
both as a refuge and as a portion ; so that, as no evil shall hurt them, so no good 
shall be wanting to them. And they may humbly claim their interest ; Lord, 
"thou art my refuge and my portion," every thing else is a refuge of lies, and 
a portion of no value. Thou art so in the land of the living ; that is, while I 
live and have my being, in this world and in a better. _ There is enough in God 
to answer all the necessities of this present time ; we live in a world of dangers 
and wants, but what danger need we fear if God is our refuge, or what wants 
if he be our portion ? Heaven, which alone deserves to be called the land of the 
living, will be to all believers both a refuge and a portion. 

Thirdly. How in this satisfaction he addressed himself to God, ver. 6, 7. 
Lord, give a gracious ear to my cry, the cry of my affliction, the cry of my sup- 
plication, "for I am brought very low," and if thou help me not I shall be 
quite sunk. Lord, " deliver me from my persecutors ; " either tie their hands, 
or turn their hearts, break their power or blast their projects, restrain them, or 
rescue me, "for they are stronger than I ;" and it will be thine honour to take 
part with the weakest. Deliver me from them, or I shall be ruined by them ; 
for I am not yet myself a match for them. Lord, "bring my soul out of 
prison ; " not only bring me safe out of this cave, but bring me out of all my 
perplexities. We may aoply it spiritually ; the souls of good men are often 



PSALM CXLIII. 675 

straitened by doubts and fears, cramped and fettered through the weakness 
of faith, and the prevalency of corruption. And it is then their duty and inte- 
rest to apply themselves to God, and beg of him to set them at liberty ; and to 
enlarge their hearts that they may run the way of his commandments. 

Fourthly. How much he expected his deliverance would redound to the 
glory of God. 1. By his own thanksgivings, into which his present complaints 
would then be turned. "Bring my soul out of prison," not that I may enjoy 
myself and my friends, and live at ease ; no, nor that I may secure my country, 
but " that I may praise thy name." This we should have an eye to in all our 
prayers to God for deliverance out of trouble, that we may have occasion to 
praise God, and may live to his praise. This is the greatest comfort of tem- 
poral mercies, that they furnish us with matter, and give us opportunity, for 
the excellent duty of praise. 2. By the thanksgivings of many on his behalf, 
2 Cor. i. 11; when I am enlarged, "the righteous shall compass me about;" 
for ' my cause they shall make thee a crown of praise,' so the Chaldee. They 
shall fiock about me to congratulate my deliverance, to hear my experiences, 
and to receive (Maschil) instruction from me; they shall compass me to join 
with me in my thanksgivings, because thou shalt have dealt bountifully with 
me. Isote, Others' mercies ought to be the matter of our praises to God; and 
others' praises to God on our behalf ought to be both desired and rejoiced in 

PSALM CXLIII. 

This psalm, as those before, is a prayer, and full of complaints of the great distress and 
danger he was in, probably when Saul persecuted him. He did not only pray in that 
affliction, but he prayed very much and very often, not the same over again, but new 
thoughts. In this psalm, I. He complains of his troubles through the oppression of his 
enemies, ver. 3; and the weakness of his spirit under it, notwithstanding the likely 
course he took to support himself, ver. 4, 5. II. He prays, and prays earnestly, ver. 6, 
1. That God would hear him, ver. 1,7; 2. That he would not deal with him according 
to his sins, ver. 2; 3. That he would not hide his face from him, ver. 7, but manifest 
his favour to him, ver. 8; 4. That he would guide and direct him in the way of his 
duty, ver. 8, 10, and quicken him in it, ver. 11 ; 5. That he would deliver him out o* 
his troubles, ver. 9, 11; 6. That he would in due time reckon with his persecutors, 
ver. 12. We may the easier accommodate this psalm to ourselves in the singing of it, 
because most of the petitions in it are for spiritual blessings, which we all need at all 
times, mercy and grace. 

A Psalm of David. 

HEAR my prayer, 0 Lord, 
Give ear to my supplications : 
In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. 

2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant : 
For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. 

3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul ; 

He hath smitten my life clown to the ground ; 
He hath made me to dwell in darkness, 
As those that have been long dead. 

4 Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me ; 
My heart within me is desolate. 

5 I remember the days of old ; 
I meditate on all thy w T orks : 

I muse on the work of thy hands. 

6 I stretch forth my hands* unto thee : 

My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah. 

Here, First. David humbly begs to be heard, ver. 1 ; not as if he questioned 
it, but he earnestly desired it, and was in care about it, for having directed his 
prayer, he looked up to see how it sped, Hub. ii. 1. He is a supplicant to his God, 
and he begs that his requests might be granted; "Hear my prayer, give ear to 
ray supplications." He is an appellant against his persecutors, and he begs that 
his cause might be brought to hearing, and that God would give judgment 
upon it in his faithfulness and righteousness, as the Judge of right and wrong. 



676 PSALM CXLIIL 

Or, Answer my petitions in thy faithfulness ; that is, according to the promises 
thou hast made, which thou wilt be just to. We have no righteousness of our 
own to plead; and therefore must plead God's righteousness, the word of pro- 
mise which he has freely given us, and caused us to hope in. 

Secondly. He humbly begs not to be proceeded against in strict justice, ver. 2. 
He seems here, if not to correct, yet to explain his plea; ver. 1, Deliver me in 
thy righteousness, I mean, saith he, the righteous promises of the Gospel, 
not the righteous threatenings of the law. If 1 be answered according to the 
righteousness of this broken covenant of innocency, I am quite undone ; and, 
therefore, 1. His petition is, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant;" 
that is, do not deal with me in strict justice, as I deserve to be dealt with. In 
this prayer we must own ourselves to be God's servants ; bound to obey hrm, 
accountable to him, and solicitous to obtain his favour, and approve ourselves 
to him. We must acknowledge that in many instances we have offended him, 
and have come short of our duty to him ; that he might justly inquire into our 
offences, and proceed against us for them, according to law ; and that, if he 
should do so, judgment would certainly go against us. We have nothing to move 
in arrest or mitigation of it ; but execution would be taken out and awarded, 
and then we are ruined for ever. But we must encourage ourselves with a hope 
that there is mercy and forgiveness with God, and be earnest with him for the 
benefit of that mercy. "Enter not into judgment with thy servant;" for thou 
hast already entered into judgment with thy Son, and " laid upon him the iniquity 
of us all." "Enter not into judgment with thy servant," for thy servant enters 
into judgment with himself; and if "we will judge ourselves, we shall not be 
judged." 2. His plea is, "In thy sight shall no man living be justified" upon 
those terms ; for no man can plead innocency, nor any righteousness of his own, 
either that he has not sinned, or that he doth not deserve to die for his sins, or 
that he has any satisfaction of his own to offer; nay, if God contend with us, 
"we are not able to answer him for one of a thousand," Job ix. 3; xv. 20. 
David, before he prays for the removal of his trouble, prays for the pardon of 
his sin, and depends upon mere mercy for it. 

Thirdly. He complains of the prevalency of his enemies against him, ver. 3. 
Saul, that great enemy, hath persecuted my soul, sought my life, with a restless 
malice, and has carried the persecution so far that he hath already smitten it 
down to the ground ; though I am not yet under ground, I am struck to the 
ground, and that is next door to it. He has forced me to dwell in darkness, not 
only in dark caves, but in dark thoughts and apprehensions, in the clouds of 
melancholy, as helpless and hopeless " as those that have been long dead." 
Lord, let me find mercy with thee, for I find no mercy with men. They con- 
demn me; but, Lord, "do not thou condemn me." Am not I an object of thy 
compassion fit to be appeared for ; and is not mine enemy an object of thy 
displeasure fit to be appeared against? 

Fourthly. He bemoans the oppression of his mind occasioned by his outward 
troubles; ver. 4, "Therefore is my spirit" overpowered and "overwhelmed 
within me," and I am almost plunged in despair ; when without are fightings 
within are fears, and those fears greater tyrants and oppressors than Saul him- 
self, and not so easily outrun. It is sometimes the lot of the best men to have 
their spirits for a time almost overwhelmed, and their hearts desolate, and 
doubtless it is their infirmity. David was not only a great saint, but a great 
soldier, and yet even he was sometimes ready to faint in a day of adversity ; 
" Howl, fir-trees, if the cedars be shaken." 

Fifthly. He applies himself to the use of proper means for the relief of his 
troubled spirit. He had no force to muster up against the oppression of the 
enemy, but if he can keep possession of nothing else, he will do what he can 
to keep possession of his own soul, and to preserve his inward peace. In order 
to this, 1. He looks back, and remembers the days of old, ver. 5 : God's 
former appearances for his afflicted people, and for him in particular. This has 
been often a relief to the people of God in their straits, to think of the wonders 
which their fathers told them of, Ps. lxxvii. 5, 11. 2. He looks round, and 
takes notice of the works of God in the visible creation, and the providential 

government of the world. " I meditate on all thy works;" many see them, but 
o not see the footsteps of God's wisdom, power, and goodness in them, and 
therefore do not receive the benefit they might by them, because they do not 
meditate upon them; they do not dwell on that copious subject, but soon quit it 
as if they had exhausted it, when they have scarce touched upon it. I muse on, 
or, as some read it, I discourse of the operation of thy hands ; how great, how good 
it is ! The more we consider the power of God, the less we shall fear the face 
or force of man, Isa. li. 12, 13. 3. He looks up with earnest desires towards 
God and his favour; ver. 6, " I stretch forth my hands unto me" as one begging 
an alms, and big with expectation to receive something great, standing ready 
to lay hold on it and bid it welcome ; " My soul thirsteth after thee ;" ' it is to 
thee,' (so the word is ;) entire for thee, intent on thee; it is a thirsty land which 
being parched with excessive heat gapes for rain ; so do 1 need, so do 1 crave 



PSALM CXLIIT- 677 

the support and refreshment of Divine consolations under my afflictions, and 
nothing else will relieve me. _ This is the best course we can take when our 
spirits are overwhelmed, and justly do they sink under their load that will not 
take such a ready way as this to ease themselves. 

7 Hear me speedily, 0 Lord ■ 
My spirit faileth : 

Hide not thy face from me, 

Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. 

8 Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning ; 
For in thee do I trust : 

Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk ; 
For I lift up my soul unto thee. 

9 Deliver me, 0 Lord, from mine enemies : 
I flee unto thee to hide me. 

1 0 Teach me to do thy will ; 
For thou art my God : 

Thy spirit is good ; lead me into the land of uprightness. 
I J Quicken me, 0 Lord, for thy name's sake : 

For thy righteousness sake bring my soul out of trouble. 
1 2 And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, 

And destroy all them that afflict my soul : 

For I am thy servant. 

David here tells us what he said when he stretched forth his hands unto 
God. He begins not only as one in earnest, but as one in haste; "Hear rne 
speedily," and defer no longer, for " my spirit faileth." I am just ready to faint; 
reach the cordial quickly, quickly, or I am gone. It was not a haste of unbelief, 
but of vehement desire and holy love ; " Make haste, O God, to help me." Three 
things David here prays for : 

First. The manifestations of God's favour towards him. That God would be 
well pleased with him, and let him know that he was so; this he prefers before 
any good, Ps. iv. 6. 1. He dreads God's frowns. "Lord, hide not thy face from 
me;" Lord, be not angry with me, do not turn from me as we do from one we 
are displeased with ; Lord, let me not be left under the apprehensions of thine 
anger, or in doubt concerning thy favour; if I have thy favour, let it not be 
hid from me. Those that have the truth of grace cannot but desire the evi- 
dence of it. He pleads the wretchedness of his case if God withdrew from him. 
Lord, let me not lie under thy wrath, for then I am " like them that go down 
to the pit," down to the grave ; I am a dead man, weak, and pale, and ghastly, 
thy frowns are worse than death ; or down to hell, the bottomless pit. Even 
those who through grace are "delivered from going down to the pit," yet may 
sometimes, when the terrors of the Almighty set themselves in array against 
them, look like those that are going to the pit. Disconsolate saints have 
sometimes cried out of the wrath of God, as if they had been damned sinners, 
Job vi. 4; Ps. lxxviii. 6. 2. He intreats God's favour; ver. 8, "Cause me to 
hear thy lovingkindness in the morning." He cannot but think that God has 
a kindness for him. That he has some kind things to say to him, some good 
words, and comfortable words ; but the present hurry of his affairs, and tumult 
of his spirits drowned those pleasing whispers, and therefore he begs, Lord, do 
not only speak kindly to me, but cause me to hear it, to hear joy and gladness, 
Ps. li. 8. God speaks to us by his word, and by his providence, and in both we 
should desire and endeavour to hear his lovingkindness, Ps. cvii. 43, that we 
may set that always before us. Cause me to hear it in the morning, every 
morning ; let my waking thoughts be of God's lovingkindness, that the sweet 
relish of that may abide upon my spirits all the day long. His plea is, "for 
in thee do I trust," and in thee only ; I look not for comfort in any other. 
God's goodness useth to be wrought for those that trust in him, (Ps. xxxi. 8,) 
who by faith draw it out. 

Secondly. The operations of God's grace in him. Those he is as earnest for 
as for the tokens of God's favour to him, and so should we be. He prays, 



crs 



PSALM CXLIY. 



L. That he might be enlightened with the knowledge of God's will: and this 
is the first work of the Spirit in order to his other works ; for God deals with 
men, as men, as reasonable creatures. Here are three petitions to this pur- 
pose : 1st. " Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk." Sometimes 
;hose that are much in care to walk right are in doubt, and in the dark, which 
is the right way. Let them come boldly to the throne of grace, and beg of 
God by his word, and Spirit, and providence, to shew them the way, and 
prevent their missing it. A good man doth not ask what is the way in which 
he must walk, or in which is the most pleasant walking, but what is the right 
way, the way in which he should walk. He pleads, I lift up my soul unto 
thee" to be moulded and fashioned according to thy will. He did not only 
importunately, but impartially desire to know his duty, and those that do so 
shall be taught. 2nd. "Teach me to do thy will," not only shew me what 
thy will is, but teach me how to do it, how to turn my hand dexterously to my 
duty. It is the desire and endeavour of all God*s faithful servants to know and 
do his will, and to stand complete in it. He pleads, "Thou art my God," and 
therefore my oracle, by whom I may expect to be advised; my God, and there- 
fore my ruler, whose will 1 desire to do. If we do in sincerity take God for 
our God, we may depend upon him to teach us to do his will, as a master doth 
his servant. 3rd. " Lead me into the land of uprightness;" into the communion 
of saints, that pleasant land of the upright ; or, into a settled course of holy 
living, which will lead to heaven, that land of uprightness, where holiness will 
be in perfection, and he that is holy shall be holy still. We should desire to 
be led and kept safe to heaven, not only because it is a land of blessedness, but 
because it is a land of uprightness, it is the perfection of grace. We cannot 
find the way that will bring us to that land unless God shew us ; nor go in that 
way unless he take us by the hand and lead us, as we lead those that are weak, 
or lame, or timorous, or dim-sighted ; so necessary is the grace of God, not only 
to put us into the good way, but to keep us and carry us on in it. The plea is, 
"Thy Spirit is good," and able to make me good; good, and willing to help 
those that are at a loss. 'Let thy good Spirit lead me/ so some read it. They 
that have the Lord for their God have his Spirit for their guide, and it is both 
their character and their privilege that they are led by the Spirit. 

2. He prays that he might be enlivened to do his will ; ver. 11, " Quicken me, 
O Lord," quicken my graces that they may be active, quicken my devotions that 
they may be lively, quicken me to my duty, and quicken me in it, and this "for 
thy name's sake." The best saints often rind themselves dull, and dead, and 
slow, and therefore pray to God to quicken them. 

Thirdly. The appearance of God's providence for him. That God would in 
his own way and time, 1. Give him rest from his troubles; ver. 9, "Deliver me, 

0 Lord, from mine enemies," that they may not have their will against me, " for 

1 fly unto thee to hide me;" I trust to thee to defend me in my trouble, and 
therefore to rescue me out of it. Preservations are pledges of salvation, and 
those shall find God their hiding-place, that by faith make him so. He explains 
himself, ver. 11, " For thy righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble," 
for thy promise-sake, nay, for thy-mercy sake, (for some by righteousness under- 
stand kindness and goodness,) do not only deliver me from my outward trouble, 
but from the trouble of my soul, the trouble that threatens to overwhelm my 
spirit. Whatever trouble I am in, Lord, let not my heart be troubled, 
Jno. xiv. 1. 2. That he would reckon with those that were the instruments of 
his trouble ; ver. 12, " Of thy mercy " to me, " cut off mine enemies," that I may 
be no longer in fear of them, and " destroy all them," whoever they be, how 
numerous, how powerful soever, "that afflict my soul." and create vexation to 
that ; for " I am thy servant," and am resolved to continue so, and therefore 
may expect to be owned and protected in thy service. This prayer is a pro- 
phecy of the utter destruction of all the impenitent enemies of Jesus Christ and 
his kingdom, that will not have him to reign over them that grieve his Spirit, 
and afflict his soul by afflicting his people, in whose afflictions he is afflicted. 



PSALM CXLIV. 

The four preceding psalms seem to have been penned by David before his accession to 
the crown, when he was persecuted by Saul; this seems to have been penned after, 
when he was still in trouble, — for there is no condition in this world privileged with an 
exemption from trouble, — the neighbouring nations molesting him and giving him 
disturbance, especially the Philistines, 2 Sam. v. 17. In this psalm, I. He acknow- 
ledged with triumph and thankfulness the great goodness of God to him in advancing 
him to the government, ver. 1—4. II.. He prays to God to help him against the enemies 
that threatened him, ver. 5 — 8, and again, ver. 11. III. He rejoiceth in the assurance 
of victory over them, ver. 9, 10. IV. He prays for the prosperity of his own kingdom, 
and pleaseth himself with the hopes of it, ver. 12 — 15. In singing this psalm we may 
give God the glory of our spiritual privileges and advancements, and fetch in help from 



PSALM C X L I V. 679 

him against our spiritual enemies : may pray for the prosperity of our souls, of oui 
families, and of our land; and, in the opinion of some of the Jewish writers, may refel 
the psalm to the Messiah and his kingdom. 

A Psalm of David. 

BLESSED be the Lord my strength, 
Which teach eth my hands to war, 
A?id my fingers to fight : 

2 My goodness, and my fortress ; 
My high tower, and my deliverer ; 
My shield, and he in whom I trust ; 
Who subdueth my people under me. 

3 Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him ! 
Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him ! 

4 Man is like to vanity : 

His days are as a shadow that passeth away. 

5 Bow thy heavens, 0 Lord, and come down : 
Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. 

6 Cast forth lightning, and scatter them : 
Shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. 

7 Send thine hand from above ; 

Kid me, and deliver me out of great waters, 
From the hand of strange children ; 

8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, 

And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. 

Here, First. David acknowledged his dependence upon God, and his obliga- 
tions to him, ver. 1, 2. A prayer for farther mercy is fitly begun with a thanks- 
giving for former mercy; and when we are waiting upon God to bless us, 
we should stir up ourselves to bless him. He gives to God the glory of two 
things : 

1. What he was to him; " Blessed be the Lord my rock," ver. 1 ; "My good- 
ness, my fortress," ver. 2. _ He has in the covenant engaged himself to be so, 
and encouraged us accordingly to depend upon him. All the saints that by 
faith have made him theirs have found him not only to answer, but to outdo 
their expectations. David speaks it here as the matter of his trust, and that 
which made him easy ; and the matter of his triumph, and that which made 
him glad, and in which he gloried. See how he multiplies words to express 
the satisfaction he had in God, and his interest in him. 1st. He is my strength 
on whom I stay, and from whom I have power both for my work and for 
my warfare, — my rock to build on, to take shelter in. Even when we are 
weak we may "be strong in the Lord and in the > power of his might." 2nd. 
"My goodness;" not only good to me, but my chief good, in whose favour I 
place my felicity; and who is the author of all the goodness that is in me, and 
from whom comes every good and perfect gift. 3rd. "My fortress, and my 
high tower;" in whom I think myself as safe as ever any prince thought himself 
in a castle or stronghold. David had formerly sheltered himself in strongholds 
at Engedi, 1 Sam. xxiii. 29, which perhaps were natural fastnesses. He had 
lately made himself master of the stronghold of Zion, which was fortified by 
art, and he dwelt in the fort, 2 Sam. v. 7, 9. But he depends not on these : 
Lord, saith he, thou art " my fortress and my high tower." The Divine attri- 
butes and promises are fortifications to a believer far exceeding those either of 
nature or art. 4th. " My deliverer ; " and, as it is in the original very emphatically, 
* My deliverer to me;' not only a deliverer I have interest in, but who is always 
nigh unto me, and makes all my deliverances turn to my real benefit. 5th. 
" My shield ;" to guard me against all the malignant darts that mine enemies let 
fly at me; not only my fortress at home, but my shield abroad, in the field 
of battle. Wherever a believer goes, he carries his protection along with him; 
" Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield." 

2. What he had done for him. He was bred a shepherd, and seems not to 
have been designed by his parents or himself for any thing more. But, 1st. God 
had made him a soldier. His hands had been used to the crook, and his fingers 



6S0 PSALM CXLIV. 

to the harp ; but God taught his hands to war, and his fingers to fight ; because 
he designed, him for Israel's champion; and what God calls men to he either 
finds them or makes them fit for. Let the men of war give God the glory of 
all their military skill. The same that teacheth the meanest husbandman" his 
art teacheth the greatest general his. It is pity any whose fingers God has 
taught to fight should fight against him, or his kingdom among men. Those 
have special reason to acknowledge God with thankfulness who prove to be 
qualified for services which they themselves never thought of. 2nd. God had 
made him a sovereign prince, had taught him to wield the sceptre as well as 
the sword, to rule as well as to fight, the harder and nobler art of the two. 
He " subdueth ray people under me." The providence of God is to be acknow- 
ledged in making < people subject to their prince, and so preserving the order 
and benefit of societies. There was a special hand of God inclining the people 
of Israel to be subject to David, pursuant to the promise God had made him, 
and_ it was typical of that great act of Divine grace, the bringing of souls into 
subjection to the Lord Jesus, and making them willing in the day of his power. 

Secondly. He admires God's condescension to man, and to him in particular; 
ver. 3, 4, "Lord, what is man!" what a poor little thing is he, "that thou 
takest knowledge of him," that thou makest account of him, that he falls 
so much under thy cognizance and care, and that thou hast such a tender 
regard to any of that mean and worthless race as thou hast had to me ! Con- 
sidering the many disgraces which the human nature lies under, we have reason 
to admire the honours God has put upon mankind in general, the saints espe- 
cially, some in a particular manner, as David, and upon the Messiah, to whom 
those words are applied, Heb. ii. 6 : who was therefore "highly exalted because 
he humbled himself to be found in fashion as a man," and therefore "has 
authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man." A question to 
this purpose David asked, Ps. viii. 4; and there he illustrated the wonder by 
the consideration of the great dignity God has placed man in; ver. 5, "Thou 
hast crowned him with glory and honour." Here he illustrates it by the con- 
sideration of the meanness and mortality of man, notwithstanding the dignity 
put upon him ; ver. 4, " Man is like to vanity," so frail is he, so weak, so helpless, 
compassed about with so many infirmities, and his continuance here so very short 
and uncertain, that he is as like as may be to vanity itself; nay, he is vanity, he 
is so at his best estate. His days have little substance in them, considering how 
many of the thoughts and cares of an immortal soul are employed about a poor 
dying body. They are as a shadow, dark and flitting, transitory, and finishing 
with the sun, and when that sets, resolving itself into all shadow. They "are 
as a shadow that passeth away," and there is no loss of it. David puts himself 
into the number of those that are thus mean and despicable. 

Thirdly. He begs of God to strengthen him, and give him success against the 
enemies that invaded him, ver. 5 — 8. He doth not specify who they were that 
he was in fear of, but "scatter them, destroy them." God knew whom he 
meant, though he did not name them ; but afterwards he describes them, 
ver. 7, 8 ; they are strange children, Philistines, aliens, ill neighbours to Israel; 
heathens that we are bound to be strange to, and not to_ make any leagues 
with; and who therefore carry it strangely towards us. IS otwithstanding" the 
advantages with which God had blessed David's arms against them, yet still 
they were vexatious and treacherous, and men that one could put no confidence 
in. One cannot take their word, for "their mouth speaketh vanity;" nay, if 
they give their hand upon it ? or offer their hand to help you, there is no trusting 
them, for "their right hand is a right hand of falsehood." And against such as 
these we cannot defend ourselves, but may depend on the God of truth and 
justice, that hateth falsehood, to defend us from them. 

1. David prays that God would appear, that he would do something extra- 
ordinary for the conviction of those who preferred their dunghill deities before 
the God of Israel; ver. 5, "Bow thy heavens, O Lord," and make it evident 
that they are indeed thine, and that thou art the Lord of them, Isa. lxiv. 1. 
Let thy providence threaten mine enemies^ and look black upon them, as the 
clouds do on the earth, when they are thick and hang very low, big with a 
storm. Fight against those that fight against us, so that it may visibly appear 
thou art 'for us. " Touch the mountains," our strong and stately enemies, "and 
let them smoke." Shew thyself by the ministry of thy angels, as thou didst 
upon mount Sinai. 

2. That he would appear against his enemies. That he would fight from 
heaven against them, as sometimes he had done by lightnings, which are his 
arrows, his fiery darts, against which the hardest steel is no armour of proof, 
so penetrating is the force of lightning. That he himself would shoot these 
arrows, who we are sure never misseth his mark, but hits where he aims. 

3. That he would appear for him, yer. 7. He begs for their destruction in 
cider to his own deliverance, and the repose of his people ; " Send thy hand," tky 
power, "from above,*' for that way we look for help, "rid me and deliver me 
out of these great waters,'" that are ready to overflow me. God's time to help 
his people is when they are sinking, and ail other helps fail. 



PSALM CXLIV. 6S1 
d I will sing a new song unto thee, 0 God : 

Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I 
sing praises unto thee. 

10 It is he that giveth salvation unto kings : 

Who clelivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. 

1 1 Eicl me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children* 
Whose mouth speaketh vanity, 

And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood : 

12 That our sons may be as plants 
Grown up in their youth; 

That our daughters may be as corner stones, 
Polished after the similitude of a palace : 

13 That our garners may be full, 
Affording all manner of store : 

That our sheep may bring forth thousands 
And ten thousands in our streets : 

14 That our oxen may be strong to labour; 
That there be no breaking in, nor going out ; 
That there be no complaining in our streets. 

15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case : 

Tea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. 

The method is the same in this latter part of the psalm as in the former; he 
first gives glory to God, and then begs mercy from him. 

First. He praises God for the experiences he had had of his goodness to him, 
and the encouragements he had to expect farther mercy from him, ver. 9, 10. 
In the midst of his complaints concerning the power and treachery of his ene- 
mies, here is a holy exultation in his God ; " I will sing a new song to thee, 
O God," a song of praise for new mercies, for those compassions that are new 
every morning. Fresh favours call for fresh returns of thanks ; nay, we must 
praise God for the mercies we hope for by his promise, as well as those we have 
received by his providence, 2 Chr. xx. 20,^21. He will join music with his songs 
of praise, to express and excite his holy joy in God; he will "praise God upon 
a psaltery of ten strings," in the best manner, thinking all little enough to set 
forth the praises of God. He tells us what this new song shall be ; ver. 10, " It 
I is he that giveth salvation unto kings." This intimates, 1. That great kings 
I cannot save themselves without him. Kings have their life-guards, and have 
armies at command, and all the means of safety that can be devised. But after 
all, it is God that gives them their salvation, and secures them by those means, 
which he could do, if there were occasion, without them, Ps. xxxiii. 16. Kings 
are the protectors of their people, but it is God that is their protector. How 
much service do they owe him then with their power, who gives them all 
their salvations! 2. That good kings, who are his ministers for the good of 
their subjects, shall be protected and saved by him. He hath engaged to 
give salvation to those kings that are his subjects, and rule for him: witness 
the great things he had done for David his servant, whom he haa many a 
time delivered from the hurtful sword, to which Saul's malice, and his own 
zeal for the service of his country, had often exposed him. This may refer to 
Christ, the Son of David, and then it is a new song indeed, a New Testament 
song ; God delivered him from the hurtful sword, upheld him as his servant, 
and brought him off a conqueror over all the powers of darkness. Isa. xlii. 1 ; 
i xlix. 8. To him he gave salvation, not for himself only, but for us, raising him 
up to be a horn of salvation. 

Secondly. He prays for the continuance of God's favour. 
1. That "he might be delivered from the public enemies, ver. 11. Here he 
repeats his prayer and plea, ver. 7, 8. His persecutors were still of the same 
character, false and perfidious, and that will certainly overreach an honest 
man, and be too hard for him ; therefore, Lord, do thou deliver me from them, 
for they are a strange sort of people. 



682 PSALM CXLIV. 

2. That he might see the public peace and prosperity; Lord, let us have 
victory, that we may have quietness; which we shall never have while our 
enemies have it in their power to do us mischief. David, as a king, here speaks 
the earnest desire he had of the welfare of his people, wherein he was a type of 
Christ, who provides effectually for the good of his chosen. We have here, 

1st. The particular instance of that public prosperity which David desired 
for his people. 

First. A hopeful progeny, ver. 12. _ That our sons and our daughters may be 
in all respects such as we could wish. He means not those only of his own 
family, but those of his subjects, that are the seed of the next generation. It 
adds much to the comfort and happiness of parents in this world, to see their 
children promising and likely to do well. 1st. It is pleasant to see " our sons as 
plants grown up in their youth," as olive plants, Ps. cxxviii. 3; the planting of 
the Lord, Isa. lxi. 3. To see them as plants, not as weeds, not as thorns; to 
see them as plants growing great, not withered and blasted ; to see them of a 
healthful constitution, a quick capacity, a towardly disposition, and especially 
of a pious inclination, likely to bring forth fruit unto God in their day. To see 
them in their youth, their growing time, increasing in every thing that is good, 
growing wiser and better, till they grow T strong in spirit. 2nd. It is no less 
desirable to see "our daughters as corner-stones," or corner-pillars, "polished 
after the similitude of a palace," or temple. By daughters families are united 
and connected to their mutual strength, as the parts of a building are by the 
corner-stones; and when they are graceful and beautiful, both in body and 
mind, they are then polished after the similitude of a nice and curious struc- 
ture. When we see our daughters well established, and stayed with wisdom 
and discretion, as corner-stones are fastened in the building: when we see them 
by faith united to Christ as the chief corner-stone, adorned with the graces of 
God's Spirit, which are the polishing of that which is naturally rough, and 
become women professing godliness ; when we see them puritied and conse- 
crated to God as living temples, we think ourselves happy in them. 

Secondly. Great plenty. Numerous families increase the care, perhaps more 
than the comfort, where there is not sufficient for their maintenance; and 
therefore he prays for a growing estate with a growing family. 1st. That their 
storehouses might be well replenished with the fruits and products of the 
earth ; "that our garners may be full," like those of the good householder, who 
brings out of them things new and old. Those things that are best new, he has 
them so ; that are best when they are kept, he has them so. That we may have 
in them all manner of stores for ourselves and our friends. That living plenti- 
fully, we may live not luxuriously, — for then we abuse our plenty,— but cheer- 
fully and usefully ; that having abundance we may be thankful to God, generous 
to our friends, and charitable to the poor: otherwise what profit is it to have 
our garners full? Jas. v. 3. 2nd. That their flocks might greatly increase: 
" that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our folds." 
Much of the wealth of their country consisted in their flocks, Pr. xxvii. 26 ; and 
of ours too, else wool would not be, as it is, a staple commodity. The increase 
of our cattle is a blessing in which God is to be acknowledged. 3rd. That their 
beasts designed for service might be fit for it; "that our oxen may be strong 
to labour" in the plough : that they may be fat and fleshy, (so some.) in good 
labouring case. We were none of us made to be idle, and therefore w T e should 
pray for bodilv health, not that we may be easy, and take our pleasures, but 
that we mav be strong to labour, that we may do the work of our place 
and day, else we are worse than the beasts; for when they are strong it is 
for labour. 

Thirdly. An uninterrupted peace. 1st. That there be no war, "no breaking 
in" of invaders, "no going out" of deserters. Let not our enemies break in upon 
us; let us not have occasion to march out against them. War brings with it 
abundance of mischiefs, whether it be offensive or defensive. 2nd. "That there 
be no" oppression, or faction, no "complaining in our streets." That the people 
may have no cause to complain either of their government or of one another, 
nor may be so peevish as to complain without cause. It is desirable thus to 
dwell in quiet habitations. 

2nd. His reflection upon this description of the prosperity of the nation, 
which he so much desired ; ver. 15, " Happy is the people that is in such a case," 
but it is seldom so, and never long so, " yea, happy is the people whose God is 
the Lord." The relation of a people to God as theirs is here spoken of, either, 
First. As that which is the fountain of all these blessings, from whence they 
flow. Happv is Israel, if they faithfully adhere to the Lord as their God, for 
they mav expect to be in such a case. National piety commonly brings national 
prosperity ; for nations, as such, in their national capacity are capable of 
rewards and punishments only i-n this life. Or, Secondly. As that which is 
abundantlv preferable to all these enjoyments. The psalmist began to say, as 
most do, ""Happy is the people that is in such a case;" they are blessed that 



PSALM 'CXLV. 68* 

prosper in the world; but he immediately corrects himself; "Yea," rather; 
"Happy is the people whose God is the Lord," that have his favour, and iove, 
and grace, according to the tenor of the covenant, though they have not abun- 
dance of this world's goods. As all this and much more cannot make us 
happy unless the Lord be our God, so the want of this, the loss of this, nay, the 
reverse of this, cannot make us miserable if he be. 

PSALM CXLV. 

The five foregoing psalms were all of a piece, all full of prayers ; this, and the five that 
follow it to the end of the book, are all of a piece too, all full of praises ; and though 
this only is entitled David's psalm, yet we have no reason to think but that they were 
ail his, as well as all the foregoing prayers. And it is observable, ]. That after rive 
psalms of prayer follow six psalms of praise; for those that are much in prayer shall 
not want matter for praise ; and those that have sped in prayer must abound in praise. 
Our thanksgivings for mercy, when we have received it, should even exceed our sup- 
plications for it when we were in pursuit of it. David, in the last of his begging psalms, 
had promised to praise God, Ps. cxliv. 9, and here he performs his promise. 2. That 
the book of Psalms concludes with psalms of praise, all praise : for praise is the conclu- 
sion of the whole matter, it is that in which all the psalms centre ; and it intimates that 
God's people, towards the end of their life, should abound much in praise, and the 
rather, because at the end of their life they hope to remove to the world of everlasting 
praise, and the nearer they come to heaven the more they should accustom themselves 
to the work of heaven. This is one of those psalms which are composed alphabetically, 
as Ps. xxv. and xxxiv., &c, that it might be the easier committed to memory, and kept 
in mind. The Jewish writers justly extol this psalm as a star of the first magnitude in 
this bright constellation, and some of them have an extravagant saying concerning it, 
not much unlike some of the popish superstitions, that whosoever will sing this psalm 
constantly three times a day shall certainly be happy in the world to come. In this 
psalm, I. David engageth himself and others to praise God, ver. 1, 2, 4 — 7, 10 — 12. 
II. He fastens upon those things that are proper matter for praise : God's greatness, 
ver. 3; his goodness, ver. 8, 9; the proofs of both in the administration of his king- 
dom, ver. 13; the kingdom of providence, ver. 14 — 16; the kingdom of grace, 
ver. 17—20. And then he concludes with a resolution to continue praising God, ver. 21j 
with which resolution our hearts must be filled and fixed in singing this psalm. 

David's Psalm of praise. 

I WILL extol thee, my God, 0 king ; 
And I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 

2 Every day will I bless thee ; 

And I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised ; 
And his greatness is unsearchable. 

4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, 
And shall declare thy mighty acts. 

5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, 
And of thy wondrous works. 

6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts : 
And I will declare thy greatness. [goodness, 

7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great 
And shall sing of thy righteousness. 

8 The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion ; 
Slow to anger, and of great mercy. 

9 The Lord is good to all : 

And his tender mercies are over all his works. 

The entitling of this David's psalm of praise, may intimate, not only that he 
■was the penman of it, but that he took a particular pleasure in it, and sung it 
often ; it was his companion wherever he went. In this former part of the 
psalm God's glorious attributes are praised, as in the latter part of the psalm 
his kingdom and the administration of it. Observe, 



684 PSALM CXLV. 

First. Who shall be employed in giving glory to God. 

1. Whatever others do, the psalmist will himself be much in praising God. 
To this good work he here excites himself, engageth himself, and hath hia 
heart much enlarged in it. What he doth, that he will do, having more and 
more satisfaction in it ; it was his duty, it was his delight. Observe, 1st. How 
he expresseth the work itself ; " I will extol thee, and bless thy name," ver. 1, 
that is, I will speak well of thee, as thou hast made thyself known, and will 
therein express my own high thoughts of thee, and endeavour to raise the like 
in others. When we speak honourably of God, this is graciously interpreted, 
and accepted as an extolling of him. Again, ver. 2, " 1 will bless thee, I will 
praise thy name;" the repetition intimates the fervency of his affection to this 
work, the fixedness of his purpose to abound in it, and the frequency of his 
performances therein. Again, ver. 5, "I will speak of thine honour;" and 
ver. 6, " I will declare thy greatness ;" he would give glory to God not only in 
his solemn devotions, but in his common conversation. If the heart be full of 
God, out of the abundance of that the mouthwill speak with reverence to his 
praise upon all occasions. What subject of discourse can we find more noble, 
more copious, more pleasant, useful, and unexceptionable, than the glory or 
God? 2nd. How he expresseth his resolution to persevere in it. First. He 
will be constant to this work; "Every day will I bless thee." Praising God 
must be our daily work. No day must pass, though never so busy a day, 
though never so sorrowful a day, without praising God: we ought to reckon it 
the most needful of our daily business, and the most delightful of our daily 
comforts. God is every day blessing us, doing well for us ; there is therefore 
reason we should be every day blessing him, speaking well of him. Secondly. 
He will continue in it; I will bless thee for ever and ever, ver. 1; and again, 
ver. 2. This intimates, 1st. That he resolved to continue in this work to the 
end of his life, throughout his ever in this world. 2nd. That the psalms he 
penned should be made use of in praising God by the church to the end of time, 
2 Ckr. xxix. 30. 3rd. That he hoped to be praising God to all eternity in the 
other world ; they that make it their constant work on earth shall have it their 
everlasting bliss in heaven. 

2. He doubts not but others also would be forward to this work. 1st. They 
shall concur in it now, they shall join with me in it. When I declare thy great- 
ness men shall speak of it, ver. 6; they shall abundantly utter it, ver. 7, or pour 
it out, as the word is ; they shall praise God with a gracious fluency, better than 
the most curious oratory. David's zeal would provoke many, and it has done 
so. 2nd. They shall keep it up when I am gone, in an uninterrupted succes- 
sion ; ver. 4, " One generation shall praise thy works to another." The genera- 
tion that is going off shall tell them to that which is rising up, shall tell them 
what they have seen in their days, and what they have heard from their fathers: 
they shall fully and particularly declare thy mighty acts, Ps. lxxviii. 3. And 
the generation that is rising up shall follow the example of that which is going 
off ; so that the death of God's worshippers shall be no diminution of his wor- 
ship, for a new generation shall rise up in their room to carry on that good 
work, more or less, to the end of time, when it shall be left to that world to do 
it in in which there is no succession of generations. 

Secondly. What we must give to God the glory of. 

1. Of his greatness and his great works. We must declare that "great is 
the Lord," his presence infinite, his power irresistible, his brightness insupport- 
able, his majesty awful, his dominion boundless, and his sovereignty incon- 
testable; and therefore there is no dispute but "great is the Lord, and" if 
great, then "greatly to be praised," with all that is within us, to the utmost of 
our power, and with all the circumstances of solemnity imaginable. His great- 
ness indeed cannot be comprehended, for it is unsearchable ; who can conceive 
or express how great God is ? But then it is so much the more to be praised ; 
when we cannot by searching find the bottom, we must sit down at the brink 
and adore the depth, Rom. xi. 33. God is great, for, 1st. His majesty is glorious 
in the upper world, above the heavens, wherejhe hath set his glory ; and when 
we are declaring his greatness we must not fail to speak of the glorious honour 
of his majesty, the splendour of the glory of his majesty, ver. 5. How bright he 
shines in the upper world, so as to dazzle the eyes of angels themselves, and 
oblige them to cover their faces, as unable to bear the lustre of it ! 2nd. His 
works are wondrous in this lower world. The preservation, maintenance and 

f;overnment of all the creatures speak the Creator very great. When, there- 
ore, we declare his greatness, we must observe the unquestionable proofs of it, 
and must "declare his mighty acts," ver. 4; "speak of his- wondrous works, 
ver. 5, "the might of his terrible acts," ver. 7. We must see God acting and 
working in all the affairs of this low^er world ; various instruments are used, 
but in all events God is the supreme director; it is he that performeth all 
things. Much of his power is seen in the operations of his providence ; they are 
mighty acts, such as cannot be paralleled by the strength of any creature ; and 



PSALM CXLV. 685 

much of his justice : they are terrible acts, awful to saints, dreadful to sinners. 
These we should take all occasions to speak of, and observe the finger of God, 
his hand, his arm, in all, that we may marvel. 

2. Of his goodness. This is his glory, Ex. xxxiii. 19; it is what he glories in, 
Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7, and it is what we must give him the glory of; "They shall 
abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness," ver. 7. God's goodness is 
great goodness, the treasures of it can never be exhausted ; nay, they can never 
be lessened, for he ever will be as rich in mercy as he ever was. It is memo- 
rable goodness, it is what we ought always to lay before us, always to have in 
mind, and preserve the memorials of; for it is worthy to be had in everlasting 
remembrance. And the memory we have, the remembrance we retain of God's 
goodness, Ave should utter, we should abundantly utter, as those that are full 
of it, that are very full of it, and desire that others may be acquainted and 
affected with it. But whenever we utter God's great goodness, we must not 
forget at the same time to sing of his righteousness; for as he is gracious in 
rewarding those that serve him faithfully, so he is righteous in punishing those 
that rebel against him. Impartial and inflexible justice is as surely in God as 
inexhaustible goodness, and we must sing of both together, Rom. xi. 22. 

1st. There is a fountain of goodness in God's nature; ver. 8, "The Lord is 
gracious" to those that serve him, he is full of compassion to those that need 
him, slow to anger to those that have offended him, and of great mercy to all 
that seek him, and sue to him. He is ready to give, and ready to forgive; more 
ready than we are to ask, than we are to repent. 

2nd. There are streams of goodness in all the dispensations of his providence, 
ver. 9. As he is good, so he doth good; he is good to all, to all his creatures, 
from the highest angels to the meanest worm ; to all but devils and damned 
sinners, that have shut themselves out from his goodness. " His tender mercies 
are over all his works," that is, First. All his works, all his creatures, receive 
the fruits of his merciful care and bounty ; it is extended to them all, he hateth 
nothing that he has made. Secondly. The works of his mercy outshine all his 
other works, and declare him more than any of them. In nothing will the 
glory of God be for ever so illustrious as in the vessels of mercy ordained to 
glory. To the Divine goodness will the everlasting hallelujahs of all the saints 
be sung. 

10 All thy works shall praise thee, 0 Lord ; 
And thy saints shall bless thee. 

11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, 
And talk of thy power; 

12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, 
And the glorious majesty of his kingdom. 

13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 

And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations 

14 The Lord upholdeth all that fall, 

And raiseth up all those that be bowed down. 

1 5 The eyes of all wait upon thee ; 

And thou givest them their meat in due season. 

1 6 Thou openest thine hand, 

And satisflest the desire of every living thing. 

1 7 The Loud is righteous in all his ways, 
And holy in all his works. 

18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, 
To all that call upon him in truth. 

1 9 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him : 
He also will hear their cry, and will save them. 

20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him : 
But all the wicked will he destroy. 

£ ! My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord : 

And let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever, 



680 PSALM CXLV. 

The greatness and goodness of him who is optimus et maximus. — 'the greatest 
and best ' of beings, were celebrated in the former part of the psalm ; here, 
in these verses, we are taught to give him the glory of his kingdom, in the 
administration of which his greatness and goodness shine so clear, so very- 
bright. Observe as before, 

First. From whom the tribute of praise is expected, ver. 10. All God's 
works shall praise him ; they all minister to us matter for praise, and so praise 
him according to their capacity, even those that refuse to give him honour, 
he will get him honour upon. But his saints do bless him, not only as they 
have peculiar blessings from him which other creatures have not ; but as they 

E raise him actively, while his other works praise him only objectively. They 
less him, for they collect the rent and tribute of praise from the inferior 
creatures, and pay it into the treasury above. All God's works do praise him, 
as the beautiful building praiseth the builder, or the well-drawn picture 
praiseth the painter ; but his saints bless him as the children of prudent, ten- 
der parents rise up and call them blessed. Of all God's works his saints, the 
workmanship of his grace, the firstfruits of his creatures, have most reason to 
bless him. 

Secondly. For what this praise is to be given; " They shall speak of thy 
kingdom." The kingdom of God among men is a thing to be often thought 
of, and often spoken of. As before he had magnified God's greatness and good- 
ness in general, so here he magnifies them with application to his kingdom. 
Consider then, 

1. The greatness of his kingdom. It is great indeed, for all the kings and 
kingdoms of the earth are under his control. To shew the greatness of God's 
kingdom, he observes, 1st. The pomp of it. Would we by faith look within 
the veil, we should see, and believing we should speak, of the glory of his 
kingdom, ver. 11; the glorious majesty of it, ver. 12. For he hath prepared 
his throne in the heavens, and it is high and lifted up, and surrounded with an 
innumerable company of angels. The courts of Solomon and Ahasuerus were 
magnificent; but compared with the glorious majesty of God's kingdom they 
were but as glowworms to the sun. The consideration of this should strike 
an awe upon us in all our approaches to God. 2nd. The power of it. When 
they speak of the glory of God's kingdom, they; must talk of his power ; the 
extent of it, the efficacy of it, his power by which he can do any thing, and 
doth everything he pleaseth, ver. 11. And, as a proof of it, let them make 
known his mighty acts, ver. 12 : that the sons of men may be invited to 
yield themselves his willing subjects, and so put themselves under the pro- 
tection of such a mighty potentate. 3rd. The perpetuity of it, ver. 13. The 
thrones of earthly princes totter, and the flowers of their crowns wither; 
monarchies come to an end. But, Lord, " Thy kingdom is an everlasting king- 
dom." God will govern the world to the end of time, when the Mediator, 
who is now intrusted with the administration of his kingdom, shall deliver it 
up to God, even the Father, that he may be all in all to eternity. His "dominion 
endureth throughout all generations," for he himself is eternal, and his counsels 
unchangeable and uniform ; and Satan, who hath set up a kingdom in opposition 
to him, is conquered and in a chain. 

2. The goodness of his kingdom. His royal style and title is, " The Lord 
God, gracious and merciful ;" and his government answers his title. The good- 
ness of God appears in what he doth. 

1st. For all the creatures in general, ver. 15, 16. He "provides food for all 
flesh," and therein appears his everlasting mercy, Ps. cxxxvi. 25. All the 
creatures live upon God; and, as they had their being from him at first, so from 
him they have all the supports of their being, and on him they depend for the 
continuance of it. First. The eye of their expectation attends upon him ; "The 
iyes of all wait on thee." The inferior creatures indeed have not the know- 
ledge of God, nor are capable of it, and yet they are said to wait upon God ; 
because they seek their food according to the instinct which the God of nature 
hath put into them ; and they sow not, neither do they reap, Mat. vi. 26. And, 
because they take what the God of nature hath provided for them, in the time 
and way that he hath appointed, and are content with it. Secondly. The hand 
of his bounty is stretched out unto them. # " Thou givest them their meat in due 
season;" the meat proper for them, and in the proper time, when they need it ; 
so that none of the creatures ordinarily perish for want of food, no, not in 
the winter. " Thou openest thy hand " freely and liberally, " and satisfiest the 
desire of every living thing;" except some of the unreasonable children of 
men that will be satisfied with nothing, but are still complaining, still crying, 
" Give, give." 

2nd. For the children of men in particular, whom he governs as reasonable 
creatures. 

First. He doth none of them any wrong ; for, ver. 17, " The Lord is right- 
eous in all his ways," and not unrighteous in any of them. " He is holy," and 



PSALM CXLY1. 687 

t acts like himself, with a perfect rectitude, " in all his works." In all the acts of 
f government he is just, injurious to none ; but administering justice to all. " The 
2 ways of the Lord are eiiual," though ours are unequal. In giving laws, in 
I deciding controversies, in recompensing services and punishing offences, he is 

incontestably just, and we are bound to own it. 
J Secondly. He doth all of them good, his own people in a special manner, 
i 1st. He supports those that are sinking^, and it is his honour to help the weak; 
, ver. 14, " He upholdeth all that fall," in that though they fall they are not 
f utterly cast down. Many of the children of men are brought very low by 
| sickness, and other distresses, and seem ready to drop into the grave ; and yet 
r Providence wonderfully upholds them, raiseth them up, and saith, Return, 
1 Ps. xc. 3. If all had died that were dying, the world would have been very 
I thin. Many of the children of God that have been ready to fall into sin, to 
i fall into despair, have experienced his goodness in preventing their falls, or 
recovering them'speedily by his graces and comforts ; so that though they fell 
i they were not utterly cast down, Ps. xxxyii. 4. If those that are bowed down 
by oppression and affliction be raised up, it was God that raised them; and all 
those that are heavy laden under the burthen of sin, if they come to Christ 
by faith, he will ease therm he will raise them. 2nd. He is very ready to hear 
and answer the prayers or his people, ver. 18, 19. In this appears the grace of 
his kingdom, that his subjects have not only liberty of petitioning, but all the 
encouragement that can be to petition. (1.) The grant is very rich; that God 
will be "nigh to all that call upon him," he will be always within call of their 
prayers, and they shall always find themselves within reach of his help. If 
a neighbour that is near is better than a brother afar off," Pr. xxvii. 10, much 
more a God that is near. Nay, he will not only be nigh to them, that they may 
have the satisfaction of being heard, but he will fulfil their desires; they shall 
have what they ask, and find what they seek. It was said, ver. 16. that he 
"satisfies the desire of every living thing," much more will he "fulfil the desire 
of them that fear him ;" for he that feeds his birds will not starve his babes. He 
"hears their call, and. will save them;" that is hearing them to purpose, as he 
heard David, that is, saved him, from the horn of the unicorn, Ps. xxii. 21. 
(2.) The proviso is very reasonable ; he will hear and help us, (1st.) If we fear 
him, if we worship and serve him with a holy awe of him; for, otherwise, how 
can we expect that he should accept us ? (2nd.) If we " call upon him in truth," 
for he desires that in the inward part. We must be faithful to God, and sincere 
in our professions of dependence on him, and devotedness to him. In all devo- 
tions, inward impressions must be answerable to the outward expressions, else 
they are not performed in truth. (3rd.) He takes them under his special pro- 
tection that have a confidence and complacency in him; ver. 20, " The Lord 
preserveth all them that love him," they lie exposed in this world, but he by 
preserving them in their integrity will effectually secure them, that no real evil 
shall befall them. 

Thirdly. If any are destroyed they may thank themselves. " All the wicked 
he will destroy," but they have by their wickedness fitted themselves for 
destruction. This magnifies his goodness in the protection of the righteous, 
' that with their eyes they shall see the reward of the wicked, Ps. xci. 8. And 
God will by this means preserve his people, even by destroying the wicked that 
would do them a mischief. 

Lastly. The psalmist concludes, 1. With a resolution to give glory to God 
himself ; ver. 21, " My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord." W hen we 
have said what we can in praising God, still there is more to be said, and there- 
fore we must not only begin our thanksgivings with this purpose, as he did, 
ver. 1, but conclude them with it, as he doth here, because we shall presently 
have occasion to begin again. As the end of one mercy is the beginning of 
another, so should the end of our thanksgiving be. While I have breath to 
draw, my mouth shall still speak Gods praises. 2. With a call to others to do 
so too; "Let all flesh," all mankind, "bless his holy name for ever and ever." 
Some of mankind shall be blessing God for ever ; it is pity but they should be 
all so 

PSALM CXLVI. 

This and all the rest of the psalms that follow begin and end with hallelujah, a word 
which puts much of God's praise into a little compass ; for in it we praise him by his 
name Jah, the contraction of Jehovah. In this excellent psalm of praise, I. The 
psalmist engageth himself to praise God, ver. 1, 2. II. He engageth others to trust in 
him, which is one necessary and acceptable way of praising him; and, 1. He shews 
why we should not trust in men, ver. 3, 4 ; 2. Why we should trust in God, ver. 5 ; 
because of his power in the kingdom of nature, ver. 6 ; his dominion in the kingdom of 
providence, ver. 7 ; and his grace in the kingdom of the Messiah, ver. 8, 9, that ever- 
lasting kingdom, ver. 10, to which many of the Jewish writers refer this psalm, and to 
wiiicii therefore we should have an eye in the singing of it. 



688 



PSALM CXLVI. 



PRAISE ye the Lokd. 
Praise the Lord, 0 my soul. 

2 While I live will I praise the Lord : 

I will sing praises unto my Gocl while I have any being, 

3 Put not your trust in -princes, 

Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 

4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; 
In that very day his thoughts perish. 

David is supposed to have penned this psalm; and he was himself a prince, 
a mighty prince, and as such it might be thought, 

First. That he should be exempted from the service of praising God; that 
it was enough for him to see that his priests and people did it, but that he 
needed not do it himself in his own person. Michal thought it a disparage- 
ment to him to dance before the ark, but he was so far from being of this 
mind that he will himself be first and foremost in the work, ver. I, 2. He 
thinks his dignity is so far from excusing him from it, that it rather obliged 
him to lead in it, and that it was so far from lessening him, that it really 
magnified him; therefore he stirs up himself to it, and to make a business of 
it; "Praise the Lord, O my soul," and resolves to abide by it; I will praise 
him with my heart, I will sing praises to him with my mouth. Herein 1 will 
have an eye to him as the Lord, infinitely blessed and glorious in himself, and 
as my God in covenant with me. Then praise is most pleasant, when in 
praising God we have an eye to him as ours, whom we have an interest in 
and stand in relation to. This I will do constantly while I live, every day of 1 
my life, and to my life's end; nay, I will do it while 1 have any being, for when 
1 have no being on earth I hope to have x being in heaven, a better being, to 
be doing it better. That which is the great end of our being ought to be our 
great enjoyment and employment, while we have any being. In this must our 
time and pow r ers be spent. 

Secondly. It might be thought that he himseif, having been so great a 
blessing to his country, should be adored according to the usage of the heathen 
nations, who deified their heroes ; that they should all come and trust in his 
shadow, and make him their stay and stronghold. No, saith David, "Put 
not your trust in princes," ver. 3, not in me, not in any other; do not repose 
your confidence in them; do not raise your expectations from them. Be not 
too sure of their sincerity: some have thought they know the better how to 
reign by knowing how to dissemble ; be not too sure of their constancy and 
fidelity, it is possible they may both change their minds and break their words. 
But though we suppose them very wise and good, as David himself, yet we 
must not be too sure of their ability and continuance.^ for they are sons of 
Adam, weak and mortal. There is indeed a Son of Man in whom there is help, 
there is salvation, and who will not fail those that trust in him. But all other 
sons of men are like the man they are sprung of, who, being in honour, did 
not abide. 

1. AVe cannot be sure of their ability. Even the pow r er of kings maybe so 
straitened, cramped, and weakened, that they may not be in a capacity to do 
that for us which we expect; David himself owned, 2 Sam. iii. 39, "I am this 
day weak, though anointed king." So that in the son of man oftentimes there 
is no help, no salvation ; he is at a loss, at his wit's end, as a man astonished, 
and then, though a mighty man, he cannot save, Jer. xiv. 9. 

2. We cannot be sure of their continuance. Suppose he has it in his power 
to help us while he lives, yet he may be suddenly taken off when we expect 
most from him ; ver. 4, " His breath goeth forth ; " so it doth every moment, and 
comes back again; but that is an intimation that it will shortly go for good 
and all, and then "he returneth to his earth." It is his earth in respect of his 
original, as a man, the earth out of which he was taken, and to which, there- 
fore, he must return, according to the sentence, Gen. iii. 19. It is his, if he be 
a worldly man, in respect of choice, his earth which he hath chosen for his 
portion, and on the things of which he hath set his affections; he shall go to 
his own place. Or, rather, it is his earth because of the property he has in it : 
and, though he lias had large possessions on earth, a grave is all that will 
remain to him. " The earth God has given to the children of men," and great 
striving there is about it, and as a- mark of their authority men call their lands 
by their own names. But after a while there is no part of the earth will be 
their own, but that in which the dead body shall make its bed, and that snail 
be theirs while the earth remaineth. But when he returneth to his earth, 



PSALM CXLVL 689 

"in that very day his thoughts perish;" all the projects and designs he had 
of kindness to us vanish and are gone, and he cannot take one step farther 
in them: all his purposes are cut off and buried with him, Job xvii. 11. And 
then what comes of our expectations from him ? Princes are mortal as much 
as other men, and therefore we cannot have that assurance of help from them 
which we may have from that Potentate who hath immortality. "Cease from 
man, whose breath is in his nostrils," and will not be there long. 

5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, 
Whose hope is in the Lord his God : 

6 Which made heaven, and earth, 
The sea, and all that therein is : 
Which keepeth truth for ever : 

7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed : 
Which giveth food to the hungry. 

The Lord looseth the prisoners : 

8 The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind : 
The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down : 
The Lord loveth the righteous : 

9 The Lord preserveth the strangers ; 
He relieveth the fatherless and widow : 

But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. 
10 The Lord shall reign for ever, 

Even thy God, 0 Zion, unto all generations. 
Praise ye the Lord. 

The psalmist, having cautioned us not to trust in princes, because if we do 
we shall be miserably disappointed, here encourageth us to put our confidence 
in God, because if we do so, we shall be happily secured. " Happy is he that 
hath the God of Jacob for his help," that has an interest in his attributes and 
promises, and has them engaged for him, and "whose hope is in the Lord his 
God." Those shall have God for their help, 1. That take him for their God, 
and serve and worship him accordingly. 2. That have their hope in him, and 
live a life of dependence upon him; that have good thoughts of him, and 
encourage themselves in him when all other supports fail. Every believer may 
look upon him as the God of Jacob, of the church in general, and therefore 
may expect relief from him in reference to public distresses, and as his God 
in particular, and therefore may depend upon him in all personal wants and 
straits. We must hope, 1st. In the providence of God for all the good things 
we need which relate to the life that now is. 2nd. In the grace of Christ for 
all the good things which relate to the life that is to come. To this especially 
the learned Dr. Hammond refers this and the following verses, looking upon 
the latter part of this psalm to have a most visible remarkable aspect upon tlje 
eternal Son of God in his incarnation. He quotes one of the rabbins, who 
saith of ver. 10, that it belongs to the days of the Messiah ; and that it doth so 
he thinks will appear by comparing ver. 7, 8, with the characters Christ gives 
of the Messias, Mat. xi. 5, 6, The blind receive their sight, the lame walk 
and the closing words there, " Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended 
in me," he thinks may very well be supposed to refer to ver. 5, "Happy is the 
man that hopes in the Lord his God," and who is not offended in him. Let us 
take a view of the mighty encouragements here given us to hope in the Lord 
our God. 

First. He is the maker of the world, and therefore has all power in him- 
self, and the command of the powers of all the creatures, which, being derived 
from him, depend upon him ; ver. 6, " He made heaven and earth, the sea, and 
all that in them is," and therefore his arm is not shortened that it cannot save. 
It is very applicable to Christ, by whom God made the world, and without 
whom was not any thing made that was made. It is a great support to faith, 
that the Redeemer of the world is the same that was the Creator of it, and 
therefore has a good- will to it, a perfect knowledge of its case, said power to 
help it. 

Secondly. He is a God of inviolable fidelity. We may venture to take Gcd'a 

2 X 



690 



PSALM CXLVL 



word, for he "keepeth truth for ever," and therefore no word of his shall fall 
to the ground; it is true from the beginning, and therefore true to the end. 
Our Lord Jesus is the amen, the faithful witness, as well as the beginning, the 
author and principle of the creation of God, Rev. iii. 14. The keeping of God's 
truth for ever is committed to him, for ail the promises are in him yea and 
amen. 

Thirdly. He is the patron of injured innocency ; " He pleadeth the cause of 
the oppressed," and (as we read it) he " executeth judgment" for them. He 
often dooh it in his providence, righting those that suffer wrong, and clearing 
up their integrity; he will do it in the judgment of the great day. The 
Messiah came to rescue the children of men out of the hands of Satan, the 
great oppressor, and all judgment being committed to him, the executing of 
judgment upon persecutors is so amongst the rest, Jude 15. 

Fourthly. He is a bountiful benefactor to the necessitous; " He giveth food 
to the hungry." So God doth, in an ordinary way, for the answering of the 
cravings of nature; so he has done sometimes in an extraordinary way, as 
when ravens fed Elijah; so Christ did more than once, when he fed thousands 
miraculously with that which was intended but for one meal or two for his 
own family. This encourageth us to hope in him as the nourisher of our souls 
with the bread of life. 

Fifthly. He is the author of liberty to those that were bound ; "The Lord 
looseth the prisoners." He brought Israel out of the house of bondage in 
Egypt, and afterwards in Babylon. The miracles Christ wrought in making 
the dumb to speak and the deaf to hear, with that one word, Ephpkatka, — i Be 
opened;' his cleansing of lepers, and so discharging them from their confine- 
ment, and his raising the dead out of their graves, may all be included in this 
one of loosing the prisoners ; and we may take encouragement in those to hope 
in him for that spiritual liberty which he came to proclaim, Isa. lxi. 1, 2. 

Sixthly. He giveth sight to those that have been long deprived of it; "The 
Lord can open the eyes of the blind ;" and has often given to his afflicted people 
to see that comfort which before they were not aware of, Gen. xxi. 19, and the 
prophet's servant, 2 Kin. vi. 17. But this has special reference to Christ, " for 
since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one 
that was born blind," till Christ did it, Jno. ix. 32, and thereby encouraged us 
to hope in him for spiritual illumination. 

Seventhly. He sets that straight that was crooked, and makes those easy 
that were pained and ready to sink ; he "raiseth them that are bowed down," 
by comforting and supporting them under their burthens, and in due time 
removing their burthens. This was literally performed by Christ when he 
made a poor woman straight, that had been bowed together, and could in no 
wise lift up herself, Lu. xiii. 12 ; and he still doth it by his grace, giving rest to 
them that were weary and heavy laden, and raising up with his comforts those 
that were humbled and cast down by convictions. 

Eighthly. He has a constant kindness for all good people; " The Lord loveth 
the righteous," and they may with the more confidence depend upon his power 
w T hen they are sure of his good-will. Our Lord Jesus showed his love to the 
righteous by fulfilling all righteousness. 

Ninthly. He has a tender concern for those that stand in special need of his 
care ; " The Lord preserveth the strangers." It ought not to pass without 
remark, that the name Jehovah is repeated here five times in five lines, to 
intimate that it is an almighty power, that of Jehovah, that is engaged and 
exerted for the relief of the oppressed, and that it as much the glory of God 
to succour them that are in misery as it is to ride on the heavens by his name 
Jah, Ps. Ixviii. 4. 1. Strangers are exposed, and are commonly destitute of 
friends, but the Lord preserveth them, that they be not run down and ruined. 
Many a poor stranger has found the benefit of the Divine protection, and been 
kept alive by it. 2. Widows and fatherless children that have lost the head 
of the family who took care of the affairs of it, often fall into the hands of 
those that make prey of them, that will not do them right ; nay, that will do 
them wrong, but the Lord relieveth them and raiseth up friends for them : see 
Ex. xxii. 22, 23. Our Lord Jesus came into the world to help the helpless, to 
receive Gentiles, strangers, into his kingdom, and with him poor sinners that 
are as fatherless may find mercy, Bos. xiv. 3. 

Tenthly. He will appear for the destruction of all those that oppose his 
kingdom and oppress the faithful subjects of it; " The way of the wicked he 
turneth upside down;" and therefore let us hope in him, and not be afraid of 
the fury of the oppressor, as though he were ready to destroy. It is the 
glory of the Messiah that he will subvert all the counsels of hell and earth 
that militate against his church, so that having him for us we need not fear 
anything that can be done against us. 

Eleventhly. His kingdom shall continue through all the revolutions of time 
to the utmost ages of eternity, ver. 10. Let this encourage us to trust in God 



PSALM CXLVII. 



601 



at all times, that "the Lord shall reign for ever," in spite of all the malignity 
of darkness, "even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations." Christ is set king 
on the holy hill of Zion, and his kingdom shall continue in an endless glory. 
It cannot be destroyed by an invader, it shall not be left to a successor, either 
to a succeeding monarch, or a succeeding monarchy, but it shall stand for ever. 
It is matter of unspeakable comfort, that the Lord reigns as Zion's God, as 
Zion's king, that the Messiah is head over all things to the church, and will 
be so while the world stands. 

PSALM CXLVII. 

This is another psalm of praise. Some think it was penned after the return of the Jews 
from their captivity; but it is so much of a piece with Ps. cxlv., that I rather think it 
was penned by David; and what is said, ver. 2, 13, may well enough be applied to the 
first building and fortifying of Jerusalem in his time, and the gathering in of those that 
had been outcasts in Saul's time. The Septuagint divide it into two ; and we may 
divide it into the first and second part, but both of the same import. I. We are called 
upon to praise God, ver. 1, 7, 12. II. We are furnished with matter for praise, for God 
is to be glorified, 1. As the God of nature, and so he is very great, ver. 4, 5, 8, 9, 15 — 18. 
2. As the God of grace, comforting his people, ver. 3, 6, 10, 11; 3. As the God of 
Israel, Jerusalem, and Zion, settling their civil state, ver. 2, 13, 14; and especially 
settling religion among them, ver. 19, 20. It is easy in singing this psalm to apply it 
to ourselves, both as to personal and national mercies, were it but as easy to do it with 
suitable affections. 

PEAISE ye the Lord : 
For it is good to sing praises unto our God ; 
For it is pleasant ; and praise is comely. 

2 The Lord doth build up Jerusalem : 

He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. 

3 He healeth the broken in heart, 
And bindeth up their wounds. 

4 He telleth the number of the stars ; 
He calleth them all by their names. 

5 Great is our Lord, and of great power : 
His understanding is infinite. 

6 The Lord lifteth up the meek : 

He caste th the wicked down to the ground. 

7 Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving ; 
Sing praise upon the harp unto our God : 

8 Who covereth the heaven with clouds, 
Who prepareth rain for the earth, 

Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains, 

9 He giveth to the beast his food, 
And to the young ravens which cry. 

10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse : 
He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. 

11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, 
In those that hope in his mercy. 

Here, First. The duty of praise is recommended to us. It is not without 
reason that we are thus called to it again and again; "Praise ye the Lord," 
ver. 1 ; and again ver. 7, " Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving, sing praise upon 
the harp to our God." Let all your praises be directed to him 2 and centre in 
him, for it is good to do it ; it is our duty, and therefore good in itself ; it is 
our interest, and therefore good for us ; it is acceptable to our Creator, and it 



692 



PSALM CXLVIL 



answers the end of our creation. The law for it is holy, just, and good, the 
practice of it will turn to a good account. It is good, for, 1. It is pleasant. 
Holy joy and delightis required as the principle of it, and that is pleasant to 
us as men; giving glory to God is the design and business of it, and that is 
pleasant to us as saints that are devoted to his honour. Praising God is work 
that is its own wages ; it is heaven upon earth ; it is what we should be in a9 
in our element. 2. It is comely. It is that which becomes us ;>s reasonable 
creatures, much more as people in covenant with God. In givirag honour to 
God, we really do ourselves a great deal of honour. 

Secondly. God is recommended to us as the proper object of our most exalted 
and enlarged praises, upon several accounts. 

1. The care he takes of his chosen people, ver. 2. Is Jerusalem to be raised 
out of small beginnings? Is it to be recovered out of its ruins? Ir both 
cases, "the Lord builds up Jerusalem." The gospel church ; the Jerusalem that 
is from above, is of his building ; he framed the model of it in his own counsels ; 
he founded it by the preaching of his Gospel : he adds to it daily such as shall 
be saved, and so increaseth it. He will build it up unto perfection, build it 
up as high as heaven. Are any of his people outcasts? Have they made 
themselves so by their own folly? He gathers them by giving them repent- 
ance, and bringing them again into the communion of saints. Have they been 
forced out by war, famine, or persecution? He opens a door for their return ; 
many that were missing, and thought to be lost, are brought back, and they 
that were scattered in the cloudy and dark day are gathered together again. 

2. The comforts he has laid up for true penitents, ver. 3. They are broken 
in heart, and wounded, humbled, and troubled for sin, inwardly pained at the 
remembrance of it, as a man is that is sorely wounded. Their very hearts are 
not only pricked, but rent under the sense of dishonour they have done to 
God and the injury they have done to themselves by sin. Those God heals 
with the consolations of his Spirit; he speaks peace to them, assures them 
that their sins are pardoned, and that he is reconciled to them, and so makes 
them easy, pours the balm of Gilead into the bleeding wounds, and then binds 
them upland makes them to rejoice. They that have had experience of this, 
need not be called upon to praise the Lord, for when he brought them out of 
the horrible pit, and set their feet upon a rock, he put a new song into their 
mouths, Ps. xl. 2, 3. And for this let others praise him also. 

3. The sovereign dominion he has over the lights of heaven, ver. 4, 5. The 
stars are innumerable, many of them being scarce discernible with the naked 
eye, and yet he counts them, and knows the exact number of them, for they are 
all the work of his hands, and the instruments of his providence : their bulk and 
power is very great, but " he calleth them all by their names, which speaks 
his dominion over them, and the command he has them at, to make what use 
of them he pleaseth. They are his servants, his soldiers; he musters them, he 
marshals them, they come and go at his bidding, and all their motions are 
under his direction. He mentions this as one instance of many to shew that 
'•great is our Lord, and of great power," he can do what he pleaseth, and of 
his understanding there is no computation, so that he can contrive every thing 
for the best. Man's knowledge is soon drained, and you have his utmost length, 
hitherto his wisdom can reach, and no farther; but God's knowledge is a 
depth that can never be fathomed. 

4. The pleasure he takes in humbling the proud, and exalting them of low 
degree; ver. 6, " The Lord lifteth up the meek," that abase themselves before 
him, and whom men trample on ; but the wicked, that carry it insolently 
towards God, and scornfully towards all mankind, that lift up themselves in 
pride and folly, he casteth them down to the ground, sometimes by very 
humbling providences in this world, however, in the day when their faces 
shall be filled with everlasting shame. God proves himself to be God by 
looking on the proud and abasing them, Job xl. 12. 

5. The provision he makes for the inferior creatures. Though he is so great 
as to command the stars, he is so good as not to forget even the fowls, 
ver. 8, 9. Observe in what method he feeds man and beast. 1st. " He covereth 
the heaven with clouds," which darken the air, and intercept the beams of Ihe 
sun, and yet in them he " prepareth that rain for the earth" which is neces- 
sary to its fruitfulness. Clouds look melancholy, and yet without them we 
could have no rain, and consequently no fruit. Thus afflictions for the present 
look black, and dark, and unpleasant, and we are in heaviness because of them, 
as sometimes when the sky is overcast it makes us dull. But they are neces- 
sary, for from these clouds of affliction come those showers that make the 
harvest to ''yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness," Heb. xii. 11, which 
should help to reconcile us to them. Observe the necessary dependence which 
the earth has upon the heavens, which direct us on earth to depend on God 
in heaven. All the rain with which the earth is watered is of God's preparing. 
2nd. By the rain which distils on the earth he "makes grass to grow upon the 
mountains " even the high mountains, which man neither takes care of nor 
reaps the benefit of. The mountains that are not watered by the springs and 



PSALM CXLVII. 693 

rivers, as the valleys are, yet are watered so as that they are not barren. 
3rd. This grass he gives to the beast for his food, the beasts of the mountains 
that run wild, which man makes no provision for. And even the young ravens 
that, being forsaken by their old ones, cry, that cry he hears, and finds out ways 
to feed them, so that they are kept from perishing in the nest. 

6. The complacency he takes in his people, ver. 10, 11. In times when great 
things are adoing, and there are great expectations of the success of them, it 
concerns us to know (since the issue proceedeth from the Lord) who they are, 
and what that is which God will delight to honour and crown with victory. 
It is not the strength of armies, but the strength of grace, that God is pleased 
to own. 1st. Not the strength of armies. Not in the cavalry, " for he delighteth 
not in the strength of the horse," the war-horse, noted for his courage, 
Job xxxix. 19, &c. ; nor in the infantry, for "he taketh no pleasure in the legs 
of a man;" he doth not mean the swiftness of them for flight, to quit the field, 
but the steadiness of them, for charging, to stand the ground. If one king 
making war with another king, goes to God to pray for success, it will not 
avail him to plead, Lord, I have a gallant army, the horse and foot in good 
order, it is pity they should suffer any disgrace, for that is no good argument 
with God, Ps. xx. 7. Jehoshaphat's was much better, "Lord, we have no 
might," 2 Chr. xx. 12. But, 2nd. God is pleased to ov/n the strength of grace. 
A serious and suitable regard to God is that which "is in the sight of God of 
great price" in such a case. " The Lord" accepts of and "takes pleasure in 
those that fear him, and that hope in his mercy." Observe, First. A holy fear 
of God and hope in God, not only may consist, but must concur. In the same 
heart, at the same time, there must be both a reverence of his majesty, and 
a complacency in his goodness ; both a believing dread of his wrath, and a 
believing expectation of his favour. Not that we must hang in suspense 
between hope and fear, but must act under the gracious influences of hope 
and fear. Our fear must save our hope from swelling into presumption, and 
our hope must save our fear from sinking into despair ; thus must we take our 
work before us. Secondly. We must hope in God's mercy, his general mercy, 
even then when we cannot find a particular promise to stay ourselves upon. 
An humble confidence in the goodness of God's nature is very pleasing to him, 
as that which turns to the glory of that attribute of his which he most glories 
in. Even a man of honour loves to be trusted. 

12 Praise the Lord, 0 Jerusalem ; 
Praise thy God, 0 Zion. 

1 3 For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates ; 
He hath blessed thy children within thee. 

14 He maketh peace in thy borders, 

And filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. 




GATE AT JERUSALEM. 



694 PSALM CXLVII. 

15 He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: 
His word runneth very swiftly. 

16 He giveth snow like wool: 

He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. 

1 7 He casteth forth his ice like morsels : 
Who can stand before his cold ? 

18 He sendeth out his word, and melteth them : 
He causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow. 

1 9 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, 

His statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 

20 He hath not dealt so with any nation : 

And as for his judgments, they have not known them. 
Praise ye the Lord. 

Jerusalem and Zion, the holy city, the holy hill, are here called upon to praise 
God, ver. 12 ; for where should praise be offered up to God, but there where 
his altar is? Where may we expect that glory should be given to him but in the 
beauty of holiness? Let the inhabitants of Jerusalem praise the Lord in their 
own houses ; let the priests and Levites that attend in Zion, the city of their 
solemnities, in a special manner praise the Lord. They have more causae to do 
it than others, and they lie under greater obligations to do it than others; for 
it is their business, — it is their profession. "Praise thy God, O Zion;'' he is 
thine, and therefore thou art bound to praise him. His being thine include* 
all happiness, so that thou canst never want matter for praise. Jerusalem and 
Zion must praise God, 

First. For the prosperity and flourishing estate of their civil interests 9 
ver. 13, 14. 1. For their common safety. They had gates, and kept their gates 
barred in times of danger ; but that would not have been an effectual security 
to them if God had not strengthened the bars of their gates, and fortified their 
fortifications. The most probable means we can devise for our own preserva- 
tion, will not answer the end, unless God give his blessing with them; we must 
therefore in the careful and diligent use of those means, depend upon him for 
that blessing, and attribute the undisturbed repose of our land more to the 
wall of fire than to the wall of water round about us, Zee. ii. 5. 2. For the 
increase of their people. This strengthens the bars of the gates as much as 
any thing ; " He hath blessed thy children within thee," with that first and great 
blessing, " Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the land." It is a comfort 
to parents to see their children blessed of the Lord, Jsa. Ixi. 9; and a comfort 
to the generation that is going off to see the rising generation numerous and 
hopeful; for which blessing God must be blessed. 3. For the public tran- 
quillity, that they were delivered from the terrors and desolations of war ; " He 
maketh peace in thy borders," by putting an end to the wars that were, and 
preventing the wars that were threatened and feared. He makes peace within 
thy borders, that is, in all parts of the country, by composing differences among 
neighbours, that there may be no intestine broils and animosities, and upon thy 
borders, that they may^ not be attacked by invasions from abroad. If there be 
trouble any where, it is in the borders, the marches of a country; the frontier 
towns lie most exposed, so that if there be peace in the borders there is a 
universal peace, a mercy we can never be enough thankful for. 4. For great 
plenty, the common effect of peace; "He filleth thee with the finest of the 
wheat," — wheat, the most valuable grain, the fat, the finest of that ; and a ful- 
ness thereof, what would they more? Canaan abounded with the best wheat, 
Ztew.xxxii. 14, and exported it to the countries abroad, as appears jEze.xx\ii. 17. 
The land of Israel was not enriched with precious stones, or spices, but with 
the finest of the wheat, with bread that strengthens man's heart, and that 
made it the glory of all lands ; and for that God was praised in Zion. 

Secondly. For the wonderful instances of his power in the weather, particu- 
larly the winter weather. He that protects Zion and Jerusalem is that God 
of power from whom all the powers of nature are derived, and on whom they 
depend, and who produceth all the changes of the seasons, which, if they were 
not common, would astonish us. 

1. In general, whatever alterations there are in this lower world (and it is 
that world that is subject to continual changes) they are produced by the will 
and power and providence of God; ver. 15, "He sendeth forth his command- 



PSALM CXLVIT. 695 

mem; upon earth," as one that has an incontestable authority to give orders, 
and innumerable attendants ready t$ carry his orders, and put them in execu- 
tion. As the world was at first m,*e, so it is still upheld and governed by a 
word of almighty power ; God speaks, and it is done, for all are his servants. 
That word takes effect not only surely but speedily, " his word runneth very 
swiftly," for nothing can oppose or retard it. As the lightning which passetn 
through the air in an instant, such is the word of God's providence, and such 
the word of his grace, when it is sent forth with commission, Lu, xvii. 24. 
Angels that carry his word, and fulfil it, fly swiftly, Dan. ix. 21. 

2. In particular, frosts and thaws are Doth of them wonderful changes, and in 
both we must acknowledge the word of his power. 

1st. Frosts are from God: with him are the treasures of the snow and the 
hail," Job xxxviii. 22, 23, and out of these treasures he draws as he pleaseth. 
First. " He giveth snow like wool." It is compared to wool for its whiteness, 
Isa. i. 18, and its softness ; it falls silently, and makes no more noise than the 
fall of a lock of wool ; it covers the earth, and keeps it warm like a fleece of 
wool, and so promotes its fruitfulness. See how God can work by contraries, 
and bring meat out of the eater, can warm the earth with cold snow. Secondly. 
61 He scattereth the hoar frost," which is dew congealed, as the snow and hail 
are rain congealed. This looks like ashes scattered upon the grass, and is some- 
times prejudicial to the products of the earth, and blasts them as if it were hot 
ashes, Ps. lxxviii. 47. Thirdly. " He casteth forth his ice like morsels," which 
may be understood either of large hailstones, which are as ice in the air, or of 
the ice which covers the face of the waters, and when it is broken, though 
naturally it was as drops of drink, is now as morsels of meat, or crusts of 
bread. And, Fourthly. When we see the frost, and snow, and ice we feel it 
in the air; "Who can stand before his cold?" The beasts cannot; they retira 
into dens, Job xxxvii. 8 ; they are easily conquered then, 2 Sam. xxiii. 20. Men 
cannot, but are forced to take shelter of fires or furs, or both ; and all little 
enough where and when the cold is in extremity. We see not the causes when 
we feel the effects; and therefore we must call it his cold ; it is of his sending, 
and therefore we must bear it patiently, and be thankful for warm houses, and 
clothes, and beds, to relieve us against the rigour of the season ; and must give 
him the glory of his wisdom and sovereignty, his power and faithfulness, 
which appear in the winter weather, which shall not cease any more than 
summer, Gen. viii. 22. And let us also infer from it, if we cannot "stand before 
the cold of his frosts, how can we stand before the heat of his wrath ? 

2nd. Thaws are from God. When he pleaseth, ver. 18, " He sendeth out his 
word and melteth them." The frost, the snow, the ice, they are all dissolved 
presently, in order to which " He causeth the wind, the south wind> to blow," 
and the waters which were frozen flow again as they did before. W e are soon 
sensible of the change, but we see not the causes of it, but must resolve it into 
the will of the First Cause. And in it we must take notice not only of the 
power of God, that he can so suddenly, so insensibly, make such a great and 
universal alteration in the temper of the air, and the face of the earth. What 
cannot he do that doth this every winter, perhaps often every winter? But 
also of the goodness of God : hard weather doth not always continue ; it would 
be sad if it should. He doth not contend for ever, but reneweth the face 
of the earth. As he remembered Noah, and released him, Gen. viii. 1, so he 
remembers the earth, and his covenant with the earth, Cant. ii. 11, 12. This 
thawing word may represent the Gospel of Christ, and this thawing wind the 
Spirit of Christ,— for the Spirit is compared to the wind, Jno. iii. 8; both are 
sent for the melting of frozen souls. Converting grace, like the thaw, softens 
the heart that was hard, — moistens it, and melts it into tears of repentance. 
It warms good affections, and makes them to flow, which before were chilled, 
and stopped up. The change which the thaw makes is universal, and yet 
gradual; it is very evident, and yet how it is done is unaccountable : such is the 
change wrought in the conversion of a soul when God's word and Spirit are 
sent to melt it, and restore it to itself. 

Thirdly. For his distinguishing favour to Israel, in giving them his word and 
ordinances, a much more valuable blessing than their peace and plenty, ver. 14, 
as much as the soul is more excellent than the body. Jacob and Israel had 
God's statutes and judgments among them; they were under his peculiar 
government, — the municipal laws of their nation were of his framing and 
enacting ; their constitution a theocracy ; they had the benefit of Divine reve- 
lation. — the great things of God's law were written to them; they had a 
priesthood of Divine institution for all things pertaining to God, and prophets 
for all extraordinary occasions. No people but they went upon sure grounds 
in their religion. $ow this was, 1. A preventing mercy. They did not find 
out God's statutes and judgments of themselves, but Cod shewed his word 
unto Jacob, and by that word he made known to them his statutes and judg- 
ments. It is a great mercy to any people to have the word of God among them, 
for faith comes by hearing and reading that word, that faith without which 



696 



PSALM CXLVIIL 



it is impossible to please God. 2. A distinguishing mercy, and upon that 
account the more obliging. " He hath not dealt so with every nation," not with 
any nation, and "as for his judgments, they have not known them," nor are 
like to know them till the Messias comes, and takes down the partition wall 
between Jew and Gentile, that the Gospel may be preached to every creature. 
Other nations had plenty of outward good things ; some nations were very 
rich, others had pompous powerful princes, and polite literature, but none 
were blessed with God's statutes and judgments as Israel was. Let Israel 
therefore praise the Lord in the observation of these statutes: "Lord, how is 
it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not to the world? Even so, Father, 
because it seemed good in thine eyes." 

PSALM CXLVIIL 

This psalm is a most solemn and earnest call to all the creatures, according to their 
capacity, to praise their Creator, and to shew forth his eternal power and godhead, the 
invisible things of which are manifested in the things that are seen; and thereby the 
psalmist designs to express his great affection to the duty of praise. He is highly 
satisfied that God is praised, is very desirous that he may be more praised, and there- 
fore doth all he can to engage all about him in this pleasant work, yea, and all that 
shall come after him, whose hearts must be very dead and cold, if they be not raised 
and enlarged in praising God by the lofty flights of divine poetry which we find in this 
psalm. 1. He calls upon the higher house, the creatures that are placed in the upper 
world, to praise the Lord, both those that are intellectual beings, and are capable of 
doing it actively, ver. 1, 2; and those that are not, and are therefore capable of doing it 
only objectively, ver. 3 — 6. II. He calls upon the lower house, the creatures of this 
lower world, both those that can only minister matter of praise, ver. 7 — 10. and those 
that being endued with reason are capable of offering up this sacrifice, ver. 11 — IS, 
especially his own people, who have more cause to do it, and are more concerned to do 
it, than any other, ver. 14. 

PRAISE ye the Lord. 
Praise ye the Lord from the heavens : 
Praise him in the heights. 

2 Praise ye him, all his angels : 
Praise ye him, all his hosts. 

3 Praise ye him, sun and moon : 
Praise him, all ye stars of light. 

4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, 

And ye waters that be above the heavens. 

5 Let them praise the name of the Lord : 
For he commanded, and they -were created. 

6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever : 
He hath made a decree which shall not pass. 

We, in this dark and depressed world, know but little of the world of light 
and exaltation, and, conversing within narrow confines, can scarce admit any 
tolerable conceptions of the vast regions above. But this we know, 

First. That there is above us a world of blessed angels, by whom God is 
praised, an innumerable company of them. Thousand thousands minister unto 
him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him. And it is his glory 
that he hath such attendants, but much more his glory that he neither needeth 
them, nor is, nor can be, any way benefited by them. To that bright and happy 
world the psalmist hath an eye here, ver. 1, 2. In general, to the heavens, to 
the heights ; the heavens are the heights, and therefore we must lift up our 
souls above the world unto God in the heavens ; and on things above we must 
set our affections. It is his desire that God may be praised from the heavens, 
that from thence a praising frame may be transmitted to this world in which we 
live, that from the inhabitants of that world we may learn this blessed work. 
It is his delight to think that God is praised in the heights; that while we are 
so cold, and low, and flat in praising God, there are those above that are doing 
it in a better manner, and that while we are so often interrupted in this work, 
they rest not day nor night from it. In particular, he had an eye to God's 



PSALM CXLVIII. 697 

angels, to his hosts, and calls upon them to praise God. That God's angels are 
his hosts is plain enough; as soon as they were made they were listed, armed, 
and disciplined ; he employs them in righting his battles, and they keep ranks, 
and know their place, and observe the word of command as his hosts. But what 
is the meaning of the psalmist's calling upon them, and exciting them to praise 
God, is not so easy to account for. 1 will not say they do not heed it, because 
we find that to the principalities and powers is known by the church the mani- 
fold wisdom of God, Epti. iii. 10; but lwill say, they do not need it, for they 
are continually praising God, and there is no deficiency at all in their perform- 
ances ; and therefore when in singing this psalm we call upon the angels to 

E raise God, as we did, Ps. ciii. 20, we mean, that we desire God may be praised 
y the ablest hands, and in the best manner ; that we are sure it is tit he should 
be so ; that we are pleased to think he is so ; and that we have a spiritual com- 
munion with those that dwell in his house above, and are still praising him; and 
that we are come by faith, and hope, and holy love, to the innumerable company 
of angels, Heb. xii. 22. 

Secondly. That there is above us not only an assembly of blessed spirits, but 
sl system of vast bodies too, and those bright ones, in which God is praised; that 
is, which may give us occasion (as far as we know any thing of them) to give 
to God the glory not only of their being, but of their beneficence to mankind. 
Observe, 

1. What these creatures are that thus shew us the w r ay in praising God, and 
whenever we look up and consider the heavens, furnish us with matter for his 
praises. 1st. There is the sun, moon, and stars, which continually either day 
or night, present themselves to our view, as looking-glasses in which we may 
see a faint shadow (for so I must call it, not a resemblance) of the glory of him 
that is the Father of lights, ver. 3. The greater lights, the sun and moon, are 
not too great, too bright to praise him ; and the praises of the lesser lights, the 
stars, shall not be slighted. Idolaters made the sun, moon, and stars their 
gods, and praised them, worshipping and serving the creature, because it is 
seen, more than the Creator, because he is not seen ; but we who worship the 
true God, only make them our fellow-worshippers, and call upon them to praise 
him with us, nay, as Levites, to attend us, who, as priests, offer this spiritual 
sacrifice. 2nd. There is the heaven of heavens above the sun and stars, the 
seat of the blessed; from the vastness and brightness of these unknown orbs, 
abundance of glory redounds to God, for "the heaven of heavens are the 
Lord's," Ps. cxv. 16, and yet they cannot contain him, 1 Kin. viii. 27. The 
learned Dr. Hammond understands here by the heaven of heavens, the upper 
regions of the air, or, all the regions of it ; as Ps. lxviii. 33, we read of the 
heaven of heavens, whence " God sends forth his voice, and that a mighty voice," 
meaning the thunder. 3rd. There are the waters that be above the heavens; 
that is, the clouds that hang above, in the air, where they are reserved against 
the day of battle and war, Job xxxviii. 23. We have reason to praise God, not 
only that these waters do not drown the earth, but that they do water it, and 
make it fruitful. The Chaldee paraphrase reads it, 'Praise him ye heavens 
of heavens, and ye waters that depend on the word of Him which is above the 
heavens;' tor the key of the clouds is one of the keys which God hath in his 
hand, wherewith "he opens and none can shut, he shuts and none can open." 

2. Upon what account we are to give God the glory of them, " Let them 
praise the name of the Lord;" that is, let us praise the name of the Lord for 
them, and observe what constant and fresh matter for praise may be fetched 
from them, 1st. Because he made them, gave them their powers, and assigned 
them their places. He commanded them (as big as they are) out of nothing, 
and they were created at a word's speaking. God created, and therefore may 
command; for he commanded, and so created; his authority must always be 
acknowledged and acquiesced in, because he once spake with such authority. 
2nd. Because he still upholds and preserves them in their beings and posts, their 
power and motions ; ver. 6, "He hath established them for ever and ever ;" that 
is, to the end of time, a short ever, but it is their ever ; they shall last as long 
as there is occasion for them. " He hath made a decree," the law of creation, 
" which shall not pass ; " it was enacted by the wisdom of God, and therefore 
need not be altered, by his sovereignty and inviolable fidelity, and therefore 
cannot be altered. All the creatures that praised God at first tor their creation 
must praise him still for their continuance. And we have reason to praise him, 
that they are kept within the bounds of a decree ; for to that it is owing that 
the waters above the heavens have not a second time drowned the earth. 

7 Praise the Lord from the earth, 
Ye dragons, and all deeps : 

8 Fire, and hail ; snow, and vapours ; 
Stormy wind fulfilling his word : 



698 



PSALM CXLVIII. 



9 Mountains, and all hills ; 
Fruitful trees, and all cedars : 

10 Beasts, and all cattle; 
Creeping things, and flying fowl : 

1 1 Kings of the earth, and all people ; 
Princes, and all judges of the earth : 

12 Both young men, and maidens ; 
Old men, and children : 

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord : 
For his name alone is excellent ; 

His glory is above the earth and heaven. 

14 He also exalteth the horn of his people, 
The praise of all his saints ; 

Even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. 

Praise ye the Lord. 

Considering that this earth, and the atmosphere that surrounds it, are the 
very sediment of the universe, it concerns us to inquire after those considera- 
tions that may be of use to reconcile us to our piace in it ; and I know none 
more likely than this, (next to the visit which the Son of God once made to it,) 
that even in this world, as dark and as bad as it is, God is praised ; " Praise 
ye the Lord from the earth," ver. 7. As the rays of the sun, which are darted 
directly from heaven, reflect back (though more weakly) from the earth; so 
should the praises of God, with which this cold and infected world should be 
warmed and perfumed. 

First. Even those creatures that are not dignified with the powers of reason 
yet are summoned into this concert, because God may be glorified in them, 
ver. 7 — 10. Let the dragons, or whales, that sport themselves in the mighty 
waters, Ps. civ. 26, dance before the Lord to his glory, who largely proves his 
own omnipotence by his dominion over the leviathan, or whale ; Job xli. L All 
deeps, and their inhabitants, praise God ; the sea, and the animals there ; the 
bowels of the earth, and the animals there. Out of the depths God may be 
praised as well as prayed unto. If we look up into the atmosphere, we meet 
with a great variety of meteors, which, being in kind of new productions, (and 
some of them unaccountable,) do in a special manner magnify the power of the 
great Creator. There are fiery meteors,— lightning is fire, and there are other 
Blazes sometimes kindled which may be so called ; there are watery mdteors ; — 
hail and snow, and the vapours of which they are gendered ; there are airy 
meteors, — stormy^ winds ; we know not whence they come nor whither they go, 
whence their mighty force comes, nor how it is spent: but this we know, 
that be they never so strong, so stormy, they fulfil Gods word, and do that 
and no more than he appoints them ; and oy this Christ shewed himself to have 
a Divine power, that he commanded even the winds and the seas, and they 
obeyed him. Those that will not fulfil God's word, but rise up in rebellion 
against it ; shew themselves to be more violent and headstrong than even the 
stormy winds, for they fulfil it. Take a view of the surface of the earth, ver. 9, 
and there are presented to our view the exalted grounds, mountains and all hills, 
Prom the barren tops of some of which, and the fruitful tops of others, we may 
fetch matter for praise. The exalted plants, some that are exalted by their 
usefulness, as the fruitful trees of various kinds, for the fruits of which God 
is to be praised ; others by their stateliness, as all cedars, those trees of the 
Lond, Ps. civ. 16. Cedars, the high trees, are not the fruitful trees; yet they 
liad their use even in God's temple. Pass we next to the animal kingdom, and 
there we find God glorified, even by the beasts that run wild, and all cattle that 
*re tame and in the service of man, ver. 11. Nay, even the creeping things are 
not sunk so low, nor do the flying fowl soar so nigh, as not to be called upon 
to praise the Lord, Much of the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator, 
appears in the several capacities and instincts of the creatures, in the provision 
made for them, and the use made of them. When we see all so very strange, 
and all so very good, surely we cannot but acknowledge God with wonder ana 
thankfulness. 

Secondly. Much more those creatures that are dignified with the powers 
of j&ason ought to employ them in praising God. " Kings of the earth, and all 



PSALM CXLIX. 699 

people," ver. 11,12. 1. God is to be glorified in and for these, as in and for the 
inferior creatures; for their hearts are in the hand of the Lord, and he makes 
what use he pleaseth of them. G-od is to be praised in the order and constitu- 
tion of kingdoms, the pars imperans, — 'the part that commands,' and the pars 
subdita } — 'the part that is subject.' "Kings of the earth, and all people. It 
is by him that kings reign, and people are subject to them : the princes and 
judges of the earth have their wisdom and their commission from him, and we 
to whom they are blessings ought to bless God for them. God is to be praised 
also in the constitution of families, for he is the founder of them; and for all 
the comfort of relations, the comfort that parents and children, brothers and 
sisters, have in each other, God is to be praised. 2. God is to be glorified by 
these. Let all manner of persons praise God. 1st. Those of each rank, high 
and low. The praises of kings, and princes, and judges, are demanded ; those 
on whom God has put honour must honour him with it, and the power they are 
intrusted with, and the figure they make in the world, puts them in a capacity 
of bringing more glory to God, and doing him more service than others. Yet 
the praises of the people are expected also, and God will graciously accept 
of them. Christ despised not the hosannahs of the multitude. 2nd. Those of 
each sex, young men and maidens, who use to be merry together, let them turn 
it into this channel, let the mirtn be sacred, that it may be pure. 3rd. Those 
of each age. Old men must still bring forth this fruit in old age, and not think 
that either the gravity or the infirmity of their age will excuse them from it ; 
and children too must begin betimes to praise God, even out of the mouth of 
babes and sucklings this good work is perfected. A good reason is given, 
ver. 13 ; why all these should praise the name of the Lord,— because his " name 
alone is excellent," and worthy to be praised ; it is a name above every name ; 
no name, no nature but his has in it all excellency. His glory is above both the 
earth and the heaven, and let all the inhabitants both of earth and heaven praise 
him, and yet acknowledge his name to be exalted, far above all blessing and 
praise. 

Thirdly. Most of all, his own people, that are dignified with peculiar pri- 
vileges, must in a peculiar manner give glory to him, ver. 14. Observe, 1. The 
dignity God has put upon his people, even the children of Israel, typical of the 
honour reserved for all true believers, who are God's spiritual Israel. He 
exalteth their horn, their brightness, their plenty, their power. The people 
of Israel were in many respects honoured above any other nation, "for to them 
pertained the adoption, the glory, and the covenants," Rom. ix. 4. It was their 
own honour that they were a people near unto God, his*Segullah, his ' peculiar 
treasure.' They were admitted into his courts, when a stranger that came nigh 
must be put to death. They had him nigh to them in all that which they called 
upon him for. This blessing is now come upon the Gentiles through Christ, 
for they that were afar off, by his blood are made nigh, Eph. ii. 13. It is the 
greatest honour that can be put upon a man to be brought near to God, the 
nearer the better ; and it will be best of all when nearest of all in the kingdom 
of glory. 2. The duty God expects from them in consideration of this. Let 
those whom God honours honour him, "Praise ye the Lord;" let him be the 
praise of all his saints, the object of their praise, for he is a praise to them. "He 
is thy praise^and he is thy God," Dev.. viii. 21. Some, by the horn of his people, 
understand David as a type of Christ, whom God has exalted to be a prince 
and a Saviour, who is indeed the praise of all his saints, and will be so for ever ; 
for it is through him that they are a people near to God. 

PSALM CXLIX. 

The foregoing psalm was a hymn of praise to the Creator, this to the Redeemer ; it is a 
psalm of triumph in the God of Israel, and over the enemies of Israel. Probably it was 
penned upon occasion of some victory which Israel was blessed and honoured with. 
Some conjecture that it was penned when David had taken the stronghold of Zion, and 
settled his government there. But it looks farther, to the kingdom of the Messiah, who, 
in the chariot of the everlasting Gospel, goes forth conquering and to conquer. To him, 
and his graces and glories, we must have an eye in singing this psalm, which speaks, 
I. Abundance of joy to all the people of God, ver. 1 — 5. II. Abundance of terror to the 
proudest of their enemies, ver. 6 — 9. 

PKAISE ye the Lord. 
Sing unto the Lord a new song, 
And his praise in the congregation of saints. 

2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him : 

Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. 

3 Let them praise his name in the dance : 



700 



PSALM CXLIX. 



Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. 

4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people : 
He will beautify the meek with salvation. 

5 Let the saints be joyful in glory : 
Let them sing aloud upon their beds. 

We have here, 

First. The calls given God's Israel to praise. All his works were in the fore- 
going psalm excited to praise him", but here his saints in a particular manner 
are reouired to bless him. Observe then, 

1. Who are called upon to praise God. Israel in general, the body of the 
church, ver. 2. The children of Zion particularly, the inhabitants of that holy 
hill, who are nearer to God than other Israelites ; those that have the word and 
ordinances of God near them, that are not put to travel far to them, surely 
more is expected to be done by them than by others in praising God. Ail true 
Christians may call themselves the children of Zion, for in faith and hope we 
are come unto mount Zion, Heb. xii. 22. The saints must praise God, saints in 
profession, saints in power, for this is the intention of their sanctiri cation : 
they are therefore devoted to the glory of God, and renewed by the grace of 
God, that they may be unto him for a name and a praise. 

2. What must be the principle of this praise ; and that is holy joy in God. 
Let Israel rejoice, and the children of Zion be joyful, and the saints be joyful 
in glory. Our praises of God should flow from a heart filled with delight and 
triumph in God's attributes, and our relation to him. Much of the power of 
godliness in the heart consists in making God our chief joy, and solacing our- 
selves in him : and our faith in Christ is described by our rejoicing in him. And 
we then give honour to God when we take pleasure in him. We must be joyful 
in glory, that is, in him as our glory, and in the interest we have in him. And 
let us look upon it as our glory to be of those that rejoice in God. 

3. What must be the expressions of this praise. We must by all proper ways 
shew forth the praises of God. Sing to the Lord. We must entertain ourselves 
and proclaim his name by singing praises to him, ver. 3, singing aloud, ver. 5 ; 
for we should sing psalms with all our heart, as those that are not only not 
ashamed of it, but are enlarged in it. We must sing a new song, newly com- 
posed upon every special occasion ; sing with new affections, which make the 
song new, though the words have been used before, and keeping them from 
growing threadbare. Let God be praised in the dance with timbrel and harp, 
according to the usage of the Old Testament church very early, Ex. xv. 20, 
where we find God praised with timbrels and dances. They who from hence 
urge the use of music in religious worship, must by the same rule introduce 
dancing, for they went together, as in David's dancing before the ark, and 
Jud. xxi. 21. But whereas many scriptures in the New Testament keep up 
singing as a gospel ordinance, none provide for the keeping up of music and 
dancing. The gospel canon for psalmody is " to sing with the spirit and with 
the understanding." 

4. What opportunities must be taken for praising God. None must be let 
slip, but particularly, 1st. We must praise God in public, in the solemn assem- 
bly ; ver. 1, "in the congregation of saints ;" the more the better, it is the liker 
to heaven. Thus God's name must be owned before the world ; thus the service 
must have a solemnity put upon it, and we must mutually excite one another to it. 
The principal end and design of our coming together in religious assemblies is, 
that we may join together m praising God. Other parts of the service must be 
in order to this. 2nd. We must praise him in private; "Let the saints" be so 
transported with their joy in God, as to "sing aloud upon their beds," when 
they awake in the night full of the praises of God, as David, Ps. cxix. 62. 
When God's Israel is brought to a quiet settlement, let them enjoy that with 
thankfulness to God ; much more may true believers that are entered into God's 
rest, and find repose m Jesus Christ, sing aloud for joy of that. Upon their sick- 
beds, their death-beds, let them sing the praises of their God. 

Secondly. The cause given God's Israel for praise. Consider, 
1. God's doings for them. They have reason to rejoice in God ? to devote 
themselves to his honour, and employ themselves in his service ; for it is he that 
made them. He gave us our being as men, and we have reason to praise him 
for that, for it is a noble and excellent being. He gave Israel its being as a 
people, as a church ; made him what he is, so much dhferent from other nations ; 
let that people therefore praise him, for he formed them for himself, on purpose 
that they might shew forth his praise, Isa. xliii. 21. 'Let Israel rejoice in his 
Maker,' so it is in the original ; for God said, " Let us make man ; " and in this 
some think is the mystery of the Trinity. 



PSALM CXLIX. 701 

2. God's dominion over them. This* follows upon the former. If he made 
them, he is their king ; he that gave being, no doubt may give law ; and this 
ought to be the matter of our joy and praise, that we are under the conduct and 
protection of such a wise and powerful king. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of 
Zion, for behold thy King comes," the king Messiah, whom God has set upon 
his holy hill of Zion. Let all the children of Zion be joyful in him, and go forth 
to meet him with their hosannaSj Zee. ix. 9. 

3. God's delight in them. He is a king that rules by love, and therefore to be 
praised, for " the Lord taketh pleasure in his people," in their services, in their 
prosperity, in communion with them, and in the communications of his favour 
to them. He that is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of himself, and to whose 
felicity no accession can be made, yet graciously condescends to take pleasure 
in his people, Ps. cxlvii. 11. 

4. God's designs concerning them. Besides the present complacency he hath 
in. them, he hath prepared for their future glory; " He will beautify the meek," 
the humble, and lowly, and contrite in heart, that tremble at his word, and 
submit to it, that are patient under their afflictions, and shew ail meekness 
towards all men. These men vilify and asperse, but God will justify them, and 
wipe oif their reproach ; nay, he will beautify them, they shall appear not only 
clear, but comely before all the world, with the comeliness that he puts upon 
them. He will beautify them with salvation, with temporal salvations ; when 
God works remarkable deliverances for his people, they that had lien among 
the pots become as the wings of a dove covered with silver, Ps. lxviii. 13; but 
especially with eternal salvation. The righteous shall be beautified in that day 
when they shine forth as the sun. In the hopes of this, let them now in the 
darkest day sing a new song. 

6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, 
And a twoedged sword in their hand ; 

7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, 
And punishments upon the people ; 

8 To bind their kings with chains, 
And their nobles with fetters of iron ; 

9 To execute upon them the judgment written ; 
This honour have all his saints. 

Praise ye the Lord. 

The Israel of God is here represented triumphing over their enemies, which 
is both the matter of their praise, (let them give to God the glory of those 
triumphs,) and the recompence of their praise. They that are truly thankful 
to God for their tranquillity, shall be blessed with victory. Or, it may be taken 
as a farther expression of their praise ; ver. 6, " Let the high praises of God be 
in their mouth," and then, in a holy zeal for his honour, let them take a 
two-edged sword in their hand " to fight his battles against the enemies of his 
kingdom. Now this may be applied, 

First. To the many victories which God blessed his people Israel with over 
the nations of Canaan, and other nations that were devoted to destruction. 
These began in Moses and Joshua, who, when they taught Israel the high 
praises of the Lord, did withal put a two-ed^ed sword in their hand. David 
did so too ; for, as he was the sweet singer of Israel, so he was the captain ot 
their hosts, and taught the children of Judah the use of the bow, 2 Sam. l. 18, 
taught their hands to war, as God had taught his. Thus he and they went on 
victoriously, fighting the Lord's battles, and avenging Israel's quarrels on those 
that had oppressed them. Then they executed vengeance upon the heathen,the 
Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and others, 2 Sam. vm. 1, &c, and punish- 
ments upon the people, for all the wrong they had done to God's people, ver. 7 ; 
their kings and nobles were taken prisoners, ver. 8 ; and on some of them the 
judgment written was executed, as by Joshua on the kings of Canaan, by 
Gideon on the princes of Midian, by Samuel on Agag. The honour of this 
redounded to all the Israel of God, and to him who put it upon them they 
return it entirely in their hallelujahs. Jehoshaphat's army had at the same 
time "the high praises of God in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their 
hands," for they went forth to war singing the praises of t God, and then their 
sword did execution, 2 Chr. xx. 23. Some apply it to the time of the Maccabees, 
when the Jews sometimes gained great advantages against their oppressors. 
And if it seem strange that the meek should, notwithstanding that character, 
be thus severe, and upon kings and nobles too, here is one word that justifies 
them in it, it is "the judgment written." They do not do it from any personal 



702 rsALM CL. 

malice and revenge, or any bloody politics that they govern themselves by, but 
by commission from God, according to his direction, and in obedience to his 
command ; and Saul lost his kingdom for disobeying a command of this nature. 
Thus the kings of the earth that shall be employed in the destruction of the 
New Testament Babylon will but execute the judgment written, Rev. xvii. 16, 17. 
But since now no such special commissions can be produced, this will by no 
means justify the violences either of subjects against their princes, or princes 
upon their subjects, or both upon their neighbours, under pretence of religion: 
for Christ never intended that his Gospel should be propagated by fire and 
sword, or his righteousness wrought by the wrath of man. When the high 
praises of God are in our mouth, with them we should have an olive-branch of 
peace in our hands. 

Secondly. To Christ's victories by the power of his Gospel and grace over 
spiritual enemies, in which all believers are more than conquerors. The word 
of God is the two -edged sword, Heb. iv. 12 ; the sword of the Spirit, Eph. vi. 17 ; 
which is not enough to have in our armoury, we must have it in our hand, as 
our Master had, when he said, " It is written." # Now, 1. With this two-edged 
sword the first preachers of the Gospel obtained a glorious victory over the 

Eowers of darkness. Vengeance was executed upon the gods of the heathen, 
y the conviction and conversion of those^ that had been long their worship- 
pers, and by the consternation and confusion of those that would not repent, 
Rev. vi. 15 ; the strongholds of Satan were cast down, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5 ; great men 
were made to tremble at the word, as Felix. Satan, the god of this world, was 
cast out, according to the judgment given against him. This is the honour of 
all Christians, that their holy religion has been so victorious. 2. With this two- 
edged sword believers fight against their own corruptions, and through the 
grace of God subdue and mortify them, the sin that had dominion over them 
is crucified ; self, that once sat King, is bound with chains, and brought into 
subjection to the yoke of Christ; the tempter is foiled and bruised under their 
feet; "This honour have all the saints." 3. The complete accomplishment of 
this will be in the judgment of the great day, when "the Lord shall come with 
ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all," Jude 15. Vengeance 
shall then be executed upon the heathen, Ps. ix. 17 ; and punishments, ever- 
lasting punishments, upon the people ; kings and nobles that cast away the 
bands and cords of Christ's government, {Ps. ii. 3,) shall not be able to case 
away the chains and fetters of his wrath and justice. Then shall be executed 
the judgment written, for the secrets of men shall be judged according to the 
Gospel. This honour shall all the saints have, that, as assessors with Christ, 
they shall judge the world, 1 Cor. vi. 2. And in the prospect of that, let them 

S raise the Lord, and continue Christ's faithful servants and soldiers to their 
fe's end. 



PSALM CL. 

The first and last of the psalms have both the same number of verses, are both short, and 
very memorable ; but the scope of them is very different. The first psalm is an elabo- 
rate instruction in our duty, to prepare us for the comforts of our devotion ; this is all 
rapture and transport, and perhaps was penned on purpose to be the conclusion of those 
sacred songs, to shew what is the design of them all, and that is, to assist us in praising 
God. The psalmist had been himself full of the praises of God, and here he would fain 
fill all the world with them. Again and again he calls, Praise the Lord, praise him, 
praise him, no less than thirteen times in these six short verses. He shews, I. For 
what, and upon what account God is to be praised, ver. 1, 2. II. How, and with what 
expressions of joy God is to be praised, ver. 3 — 5. III. Who must praise the Lord ; it is 
every one's business, ver. 6. In singing this psalm we should endeavour to get our 
hearts much affected with the perfections of God, and the praises with which he is and 
shall be for ever attended throughout all ages, world without end. 

PEAISE ye the Loud. 
Praise God in his sanctuary : 
Praise him in the firmament of his power. 

2 Praise him for his mighty acts : 

Praise him according to his excellent greatness. 

3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet ; 
Praise him with the psaltery and harp. 



PSALM CL. 703 

4 Praise him with die timbrel and dance : 

Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 

5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals : 

Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. 

6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. 
Praise ye the Lord. 

"We are here, with the greatest earnestness imaginable, excited to praise God. 
If, as some suppose, it was primarily intended for the Levites to stir them up to 
do their office in the house of the Lord, as singers and players on instruments, 
yet we must take it as speaking to us, who are made to our God spiritual 
priests. And the repeating and inculcating of the call thus, intimates that it 
is a great and necessary duty, a duty which we should be much employed and 
much enlarged in ; but w T hich we are naturally backward to, and cold in, and 
therefore need to be brought to it, and held to it by precept upon precept, and 
line upon line. Observe here, 

First. Whence this tribute of praise doth arise, and out of what part of his 
dominion it doth especially issue. It comes, 1. From his sanctuary. ^ Praise 
him there. Let his priests, let his people that attend there, attend him with 
their praises. Where should he be praised, but there where he doth in a special 
manner both manifest his glory, and communicate his grace ? t Praise God upon 
the account of his sanctuary, and the privileges which we enjoy by having that 
among us, JEze. xxxvii. 26. ' Praise God in his holy ones,' so some read it. We 
must take notice of the image of God, as it appears on those that are sanctified, 
and love them for the sake of that image ; and when we praise them, we must 

E raise God in them. 2. From "the firmament of his power." Praise him 
ecause of his power and glory which appears in the firmament, its vastness, 
its brightness, and its splendid furniture ; and because of the powerful influ- 
ences it has upon this earth. Let them that have their dwelling " in the firma- 
ment of his power," even the holy angels, lead in this good work. Some by the 
sanctuary, as well as by the firmament of his power, understand the highest 
heavens, the residence of his glory; that is indeed his sanctuary, his holy 
temple, and there he is praised continually in a far better manner than we can 
praise him. And it is a comfort to us, when we find we do it so poorly, that it is 
so well done there. 

Secondly. Upon what account this tribute of praise is due. Upon many 
accounts, particularly, 1. The works of his power; ver. 2, "Praise him for 
his mighty acts," for 'his mightinesses,' so the word is ; for all the instances 
of his might, the power of his providence, the power of his grace ; what he 
has done in the creation, government, and redemption of the world ; for the 
children of men in general, for his own church and children in particular. 
2. The glory and majesty of his being; "Praise him according to his excellent 
greatness ; " ' according to the multitude of his magnificence,' so Dr. Hammond 
reads it. Not that our praises can bear any proportion to God's greatness, for 
it is infinite; but because he is greater than we can express or conceive, w r e 
must raise our conceptions and expressions to the highest degree we can attain 
to. Be not afraid of saying too much in the praises of God, as we often do in 
praising even great and good men. Deus non patitur hyperbolum, — * We cannot 
speak hyperbolically of God.' All the danger is of saying too little, and 
therefore when we have done our utmost, we must own that thougn we 
have praised him in consideration of, yet not in proportion to, his excellent 
greatness. 

Thirdly. In what manner this tribute must be paid. Praise him with all 
the kinds of musical instruments that were then used in the temple service, 
ver. 3 — 5. It is well we are not concerned to inquire what sort of instru- 
ments each of these were. It is enough that they were well known then ; and 
our concern is, to know, 1. That hereby is intimated how full the psalmist's 
heart was of the praises of God, and how desirous he was that this good work 
might go on. 2. That in serving God we should spare no cost or pains. 3. That 
the best music in God's ears is, devout and pious affections ; non musiea chor- 
dula, sed cor, — 'not a melodious string, but a melodious heart.' Praise God 
with a strong faith, praise him with holy love and delight ; praise him with an 
entire confidence in Christ ; praise him with a believing triumph over the 
powers of darkness ; praise him with an earnest desire towards him, and a full 
satisfaction in him ; praise him by a universal respect to all his commands ; 
praise him by a cheerful submission to all his disposals ; praise him by rejoicing 
in his love, and solacing yourselves in his great goodness: praise him by pro- 
moting the interests of the kingdom of his grace; praise him by a lively hope 
and expectation of the kingdom of his glory. 4. That various instruments 



704 



PSALM CL. 



being used in praising God, it should yet be done with an exact and perfect 
harmony j they must not hinder, but help one another. The New Testament 
concert, instead of this, is with one mind and one mouth to glorify God, 
Rom. xv. 6. 

Fourthly. Who must pay this tribute; ver. 6, "Let every thing that has 
breath praise the Lord." He began with a call to those that had a place in his 
sanctuary, and were employed in the temple service, but he concludes with a 
call to all the children of men, in prospect of the time when the Gentiles should 
be taken into the church, and in every place, as acceptably as at Jerusalem, this 
incense should be offered, Mai. i. 11. Some think in ''every thing that has 
breath" here, we must include the inferior creatures, as Gen. vii. 22, all in 
whose nostrils was the breath of life. They praise God according to their 
capacity. The singing of birds is a sort of praising God. The brutes do in 
effect say to man, We would praise God if we could, do you do it for us. John 
in vision heard a song of praise from " every creature which is in heaven, and 
on the earth, and under the earth," Rev. v. 13. Others think the children of 
men only are meant : for into them God has in a more peculiar manner breathed 
the breath of life, and they are become living souls, Gen. ii. 7. Now the Gospel 
is ordered to be preached to every creature, to every human creature; it is 
required that every human creature praise the Lord. What have we our 
breath, our spirit for, but to spend it in praising God; and how can we spend 
it better? 1. Prayers are called our breathings, Lam. Hi. 56. Let every one 
that breathes towards God in prayer, finding the benefit of that, breathe forth 
his praises too. Having breath, let the praises of God perfume our breath ; let 
us be in this work as in our element; let it be to us as the air we breathe in, 
which we could not live without. Having our breath in our nostrils, let us 
consider that it is still going forth, and will shortly go and not return. Since, 
therefore, we must shortly breathe our last, while we have breath let us praise 
the Lord* and then we shall breathe our last with comfort, and when death 
runs us out of breath, we shall remove to a better state, to breathe God's 
praises in a freer, better air. 

The first three of the five books of psalms (according to the Hebrew division) 
concluded with "Amen, and Amen ;" the fourth with "Amen, Hallelujah;" 
but the last, and in it the whole book concludes only with " Hallelujah," 
because the six last psalms are wholly taken up in praising God, and there is 
not a word of complaint or petition in them. The nearer good Christians come 
to their end, the # fuller they should be of the praises of God. Some think this 
last psalm is designed to represent to us the work of glorified saints in heaven, 
who are there continually praising God. And the musical instruments here 
said to be used, are no more to be understood literally, than the gold, and pearls, 
and precious stones, which are said to adorn the New Jerusalem, Rev.xxi. 18, 19. 
But as those intimate that the glories of heaven are the most excellent glories, 
so these intimate that the praises the saints offer there are the most excellent 
praises. Prayers will there be swallowed up in everlasting praises ; there will 
be no intermission in praising God, and yet no weariness; hallelujahs for ever 
repeated, and yet still new songs. Let us often take a pleasure in thinking 
what glorified saints are doing in heaven, w r hat those are doing that we have 
been acquainted with on earth, but are gone before us thither ; and let it not 
only make us long to be among them, but quicken us to do this part of the will 
of God on earth as they do it that are in heaven. And therefore let us spend as 
much of our time as may be in this good work, because in it we hope to spend 
a joyful eternity. Hallelujah is the word there. Rev. xix. 1, 3. Let us echo to 
it now as those that hope to join in it shortly. " Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord." 




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( 21 ) 



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( 22 ) 



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A Series of Complete Stories or Essays, mostly reprinted from Vols, in 
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ASCHAM (Roger). Scholeniaster. 

By Professor Mayor. 

CARPENTER (Dr. W. B.). Physi- 
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EMERSON. England and English 

Characteristics. Lectures on the Race, 
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Abbotsford & Newstead Abbey. 

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Wolfert's Roost, and other Tales. 

LAMB (Charles). Essays of Elia. 

With a Portrait. 

Last Essays of Elia. 

Eliana. With Biographical Sketch. 

MARRYAT (Captain). Firate and 

the Three Cutters. With a Memoir ot 
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( 23 ) 

Bohn's Select Library of Standard Works. 

»♦♦♦♦♦ 

Price is. in paper covers, and is. 6d. in cloth. 

1. Bacon's Essays. With Introduction and Notes. 

2. Lessing's Laokoon. Beasley's Translation, revised, with Intro- 

duction, Notes, &c, by Edward Bell, M.A. With Frontispiece. 

3. Dante's Inferno. Translated, with Notes, by R.ev. H. F. Cary. 

4. Goethe's Faust. Part I. Translated, with Introduction, by 

Anna Swanwick. 

5. Goethe's Boyhood. Being Part I. of the Autobiography. 

Translated by J. Oxenford. 

6. Schiller's Mary Stuart and The Maid of Orleans. Trans- 

lated by J. Mellish and Anna Swanwick. 

7. The Queen's English. By the late Dean Alford. 

8. Life and Labours of the late Thomas Brassey. By Sir 

A. Helps, K.C.B. 

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Gentleman. Translated by C. H. Walt, M.A. With brief Memoir. 

11. Goethe's Reineke Fox, in English Hexameters. By A. Rogers. 

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18. Oliver Cromwell. By Dr. Reinhold Pauli. 

19. The Perfect Life. By Dr. Channing. Edited by his nephew, 

Rev. W. H. Channing. 

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by Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Bart. 

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26. Sheridan's Plays. 

27. Dante's Purgatorio. Translated by Cary. 

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29. Cicero's Friendship and Old Age. 

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